Pumpkins!

This year I decided to grow pumpkins, I popped in 2 Musquee de Provence and 2 Jarrahdale seeds. I had no idea how invasive they are, they have literally taken over half of the garden, but saying that they have been fairly productive. The Jarrahdales have produced 4 large pumpkins in total with a couple more on the way and the Musquee de Provence sadly only produced one, but it is the biggest pumpkin I have ever seen, so I can't complain too much, we will be eating pumpkin soup all Winter.

When planting pumpkins I followed the general rule of planting good quality seeds in a heaped mound of well composted soil, I planted 2 seeds for every mound and once they were a decent size I would remove the weakest plant and leave the strongest to grow. A lot of gardeners "play bee" by taking a soft brush and hand pollinating flowers, I didn't have too many problems with pollination as we had an abundance of bees. The only problem I encountered was fruit yellowing and then dropping off the vine, this also seemed to happen with my zucchini's. I only watered them a few times a week and and a little extra on the days that were extremely hot, I have found pumpkins to be quite drought tolerant. Next year I will try Butternuts (they are considered a squash, but in Australia they are often referred to as pumpkins) and maybe something more exotic like Turks Turban. Happy Gardening!