Harvest time!

Couldn't wait any longer and decided to harvest the one and only Turks Turban, Timur. He weighs in at just over a Kilo. Don't know if thats big, small or just about right. Will let you know how it tastes!

Autumn is coming!

Here is a picture of the patch as of yesterday.

You can see some ornage showing through, but mainly its green.

the plants are showing signs of age and the fruit is changing colour.

A hint of orange just showing through.

I reckon about a week and at least 3 should be ready.

The film above shows a female pumpkin flower being hand pollunated.

Its a jungle in Pumpkin City!

What growth in just 2 weeks!


The last two weeks I have been pollinating several flowers per day, usually about three.


The growth on some of the plants has been tremendous!

Some have fruit and these can be seen below.

The biggest dissapointment has been the Atlantic Giants. A couple of fruits have set, but were either eaten or dropped off, some of the pants have been dug up and time is running out for them.

Nearly all of the "Seeds of Pumpy" plants have fruit, some bigger than others and some are still flowering. Bear in mind these are seds that were produced from the seed of a pumpkin purchased from a supermarket nearly a decade ago. Most have several fruits on them and they are BIG plants!

This one has two fruits growing.

Compare this photo with some earlier ones to see just how big these plants are getting.

Patch update!

Its Pumpkin City out there!

Some of te plants are doing really well, som e not so but its still 12 weeks until the end of October.

The Pumpkin that was on Frankie, fell off, but another was pollinated and can be seen under the plastic in this photograph.

Some photos of teh other fruits that have already set will follow.

Did it take? part 2

No photo update today, but the little pumpkin on Frankie is 49.11mm diameter, I simply don't know if it will fall off or if it will continue to grow. Watch this space for updates!

Seed of Pumpy

My Avatar is of the original Pumpy and growing him is what got me into all this.

His seeds were saved and have been planted around the patch, a lot were dug up by those Fox gits, but they didn't get all of them, Here are some photos of Pumpy's Sons:

This is actually several plants, I had the seeds germinating in a butter dish and they got a bit smelly towards the end so what was left was planted and here is the result.

Did it take?

Yesterday, I pulled off the male flower and tried to fertilize the one female flower on Frankie.

If it worked we shall have to wait and see.

The baby pumpkin behind the flower on Atlantics seems to be somewhat bigger on this strain (which is what you'd expect really!) but is also yellower...

More photos and news

The day after the photo of Jenni was taken, it was dug up by the Foxes, I was not happy, so planted some more Atlantic Giants. It could be too late but they seem to be doing OK. Frankie is doing well and this morning showed its first female flowers. If you look at the back you can also just see a male flower.

Jenni was replanted and seems to be growing but I wouldn't be surprised if it dies.

The photo on the right shows the patch, some of the new Atlantic Giants are already planted out and seem to be doing OK. The other smaller Plants are Son of Pumpy and again seem to be growing. Atlantics have yet to be named but this week I have had news of the death of a very dear friend of mine so one will be named "Eddie"after him. Other deaths recently mean that some of the others will be named "Ricky" and "Frobush" after Jonothon Smith whose posts on WoS usually made me smile!

On the left is Invincible which has been thriving in its new home.










And on the right is Timur. This plant has already had a male flower out, no sign of females yet. But there is still time. I really should pick up that fried chicken box.








And here is another Son of Pumpy.
The fence thing was built for the sole reason of letting plants grow up it. This one seemed to have missed the message and is growing the wrong way! The Loofah next to it isn't doing so well, but here is no time left for this so it will have to wait until next year.

Update from the Patch

Summer has shown its face and it has been quite warm for the last few days on and off.

The pumpkin plants have showed signs of life.

Alas some have been lost to fox's and other critters which is really annoying, but I have two plants that are doing well, Frankie and Jenni. George got dug up but just checked it and there is a flower showing, which should be out soon.

Jenni showed her first flower today:

Two new recruits to the patch are Timur and HMS:

This is Timur, a Turks Turban pumpkin.

It is named after a Turkish bloke I know.

And this one is called HMS as it is an Invincible type pumpkin.

Well can you think of a better name?

Both came from Hanwell carnival the other week.

Note that the chicken wire which is used to stop critters digging them up, seems to be working so far.

Also there are some "Seeds of Pumpy" plants which are doing good too, more photos as things progress.

Photos from the patch

This photo shows a photo of the patch after some weeding has been done, the two polythene mini polytunnels cover Frankie at the back and Pumpkina in the Middle. The mound in the bottom right of the photo is where Indy will be going.

Jenni isn't shown in this photo and George is still growing in the house. Hopefully these will soon cover the whole of this area. But it's been a very long wait for warmer weather this year.

Meanwhile back inside my house

Inside the house, there are more seeds germinating, these are the seeds from Pumpy who grew last year. I don't expect much from these but they will be planted anyway.

Also being germinated are two more giant pumpkins, these are called Indy and George and will be planted very soon.

The other plants in this shot are Loofahs and/or seed of Pumpy.

Photos of the pumpkins so far

This Frankie the Pumpkin. He's doing quite well.

And this is Jenni the Pumpkin

This is Pumpkina today, as you can see, it hasn't grown much due to the elongated winter weather we are having.

But today is sunny and warmish so its time to do some more weeding.

The video above is a very short and simple time lapse of a giant pumpkin rearing its shoots for the first time. I had to go out and drill some holes in a wall, so set the camera up and left it running. Needless to say, I didn't drill through a wall and put the drill down on a carpet, only a true cowboy would do that.

Pumpkina has showed her first leaves!

Pumpkina has finally broken the surface and is showing!
Some more are being germinated inside and will be joining this one later.

Weeding is nearly done

Pumpkina is in the soil (well manure really)

Underneath this pile of horse manure is a pumpkin seedling who shall be known as "Pumpkina". It is protected from a vicious gang that patrol these parts, Tufty, Nutty and their friends, who use the street name of "Fluffy tailed rats" will not be getting anywhere near this little one!

A bit of water, a covering with a polythene cloche and an inspection daily should produce a healthy pumpkin plant. It is possibly a little early for them but the patch was getting cleared of weeds and if this one fails there is still time to do one more.

Pumpkina is germinated!

2 Giant Pumpkin and 2 loofah seeds were put on moist kitchen paper in a butter container and placed in warmth, less than a week later, one of the pumpkins has sprouted!
Its still a bit early really but it has been such a long and cold winter I couldn't wait much longer.

No sign of life from the otehr 3 at the moment, but the first one has been planted.

Part 2

The weeds have come back, they'll be dug up again and for the final time (hopefully) before planting, the area will be cleared. It needs a tidy up, but its getting there. Rain is forecast for the next few days, but it shouldn't take long to dig up the final remaining weeds at this time of year.

You can see my helper in this photo (a rare sight) . This bed contains carrots and parsnips and some other things, the polythene is to stop Carrot Fly getting in there. Apparently as flies go this one is a bit rubbish, but it lays its eggs in soil and the worm eats carrots.

End of March update

Spring is coming, the clocks go forward tonight.

The Tulips are coming along but haven't outgrown the cover just yet:

The Daffodils which I thought I'd dug up are out now. Word in the gardening circles is that they are smaller and generally later than in previous years due to the cold and longer winter.

Mid March update - its dry and not warm

The dog has now gone home, his owners returned from holiday. We shall miss him because he was a nice dog. He was sick in my shed when I was working in there. Then he started licking it up! People say that dogs are just one of the family, I always reply "Maybe, but how many members of your family drink out of the toilet bowl?" Anyway, back to gardening and growing pumpkins. The fourth bed was filled up today, going to need some more compost for it. So far nothing is growing apart from the weeds which are coming back now so will have to dig the last of those pesky things out soon.
Some leeks are groing in pots inside the house, these will be transplanted somewhere later on.
Its not warm in London yet, but there hasn't been much rain so things seem dry, needed to twist the water butt round so practically emptied it and watered everything I could find. It'll rain soon.

1st March Spring is here! (for a bit anyway)

Well the sun made an appearance today after what seems like months, so managed to get out into the patch.

There are now 4 raised beds and a big pile of horse manure in a hole right in the middle, (where the stick is) this will be the site of one plant, the first pumpkin will be called Pumpkina - the name was suggested by one of the followers as he didn't want a pumpkin named after him for some reason! Personally I think Steve is a good name for a pumpkin.

Coming through the horse manure are loads of green shoots which tell me that Spring is here:

The cloches will remain for a couple of weeks as my other neighbours are looking after a small dog that likes to run around. He's been very well behaved and although I am not a great dog lover, he is quite sweet:

What is great about him is that he likes to chase squirrels and squirrels like to eat my Tulips.

Its getting there

Well the snow lasted on and off for nearly a month, it may be back, it may not. In the meantime I managed to do some more weeding today. Another pink sack full of weeds. Probably only an afternoons work left to get the rest of the weeds up then it'll be time to concentrate on getting the ground level and free of other debris.