I was checking out Google one day. Like most folks have done at some time, I typed in my address. The picture I found was a shot from space of my 2009 pumpkin patch. Yes, those little orange dots in the lower right are pumpkins as seen from an orbiting satellite.
With seven and a half weeks until Halloween, I harvested my first batch of pumpkins this afternoon. The stems on these beauties were dry, so I thought I should store them in a cool dry place. There are another 8 or 9 pumpkin that still have green stems or were not quite all orange yet, so I left them to ripen further.
Uncle Ernie did plant a pumpkin patch this year. Last year's pumpkins didn't get ripe until well after Thanksgiving, some pumpkins were still green on New Year's Day; so I planted this year's seeds at Easter.
to the left) the pumpkin vines were beginning to creep about the garden; and the tomato plants were standing tall.
Here on September 1st, the pumpkins are not quite ripe yet; but the leaves have almost all dried up. The pumpkin vines are beginning to show some signs of drying up too. Maybe, in a couple of weeks the pumpkins will be ready for Halloween. This year, about a month early.
re-plant that pumpkin plant, after either raccoons, cats, or both, had dug the young plant out of the ground. Only one pumpkin has matured; but another small pumpkins is beginning to grow - hidden under the tomato plants. I thing these should be all green; but this one has a orange bottom. I wonder if a little cross-pollination took place or have I waited too long to harvest it?
Last night was another quiet Halloween, with no trick-or-treaters. I had my pumpkin soup and a sweet potato pie for company. I still have the pumpkin line-up from last night on my kitchen table, on this rainy Saturday; so, it seems like a good way to 
celebrate Dia de Los Muertos, Day of the Dead.
WELCOME OCTOBER!! Those letters always look so good to me when I turn the calender page over. I've already eaten a bag of candy corn and now the guilts start. I need to lay off the candy!
but the one larger pumpkin is ready for Halloween, I will be amazed. I also noticed that some are nice traditional pumpkin ovals and a few are the longer, taller oval shaped ones.
About the only change in the pumpkin patch, during the last two weeks, has been the growing vines. I continue to check the plants each morning for any female blossoms that may have opened up. They typically are only open for one day. If there are no bees flying about to pollinate the blossoms, 
within a week or so, the small unfertilized pumpkin, at the base of a blossom, just turns yellow and falls off the vine. The photo to the right is a developing female blossom which will be opening for pollination within a few days. If I catch it on the right day, it could be a Thanksgiving decoration. I have been using a cotton swab to gather pollen from male flowers and then I brush the pollen onto the center of any open female blossoms. Maybe, I would be more successful if I put on a yellow shirt, and made a buzzing sound to the tune of a Barry White song?
Only one lone sunflower is standing; but the pumpkin plants are continuing to spread out. I am wondering about the leaves on some of the plants, they are more yellow than green. It is the middle plants that have the yellow leaves. Maybe, I should have thinned out those plants.
and still are, many blossoms; but only 3 small pumpkins are beginning to swell from the base of a few blossoms. Most of the blossoms just seem to dry up and fall off. I wonder how pumpkin pollination works. Are some of the blossoms male and some female; so that once the male blossoms are used up… they wither and blow away?
This picture is from August 17th. Since then, one of the sunflowers has fallen over. Those flower heads are getting heavy with seeds. You can see the white seeds on the ground that have been falling from the flowers. I haven't noticed any birds eating them. The seeds may be too immature yet.
The pumpkin patch seems to be doing ok. I never did thin out the plants; so, I hope they all continue to grow. Those sunflowers have developed flowers and the plants are at least 7 feet tall now.
This morning it is overcast and a bit cool here in Oakland. Last week's hot weather helped the sunflowers. The plants are six feet high, or a little more. You can see the pumpkin plants more clearly too. I should probably thin out the plants; but it is just too traumatic to tear out those smaller plants to make room for the larger ones to grow. I guess it is something that need to be done though.
About a week and a half ago I noticed that it was almost 120 days until Halloween. It takes just that long to grow pumpkins; so, I bought a packet of seeds. I planted the seeds in a small patch of bare ground behind my apartment building. So far, the sunflowers I planted a couple of months ago are growing fine. I hope the pumpkins will do as well. The pumpkin seeds actually sprouted very quickly, in about a week. Let's hope the crows, neighbors and gardener leave everything alone until Halloween.
