Garden Update:

It has been a while since I have talked about the fun stuff growing in my garden! Currently, I am enamored with my pumpkin plant! Last year we purchased a pie pumpkin (smaller than the standard Jack-O-Lantern type) for carving, and before we got a chance to slice and dice it, a squirrel ate it! Well, I guess it wasn't all bad since a seed was buried by the aforementioned squirrel, and we receive a wonderful pumpkin "surprise plant!"

Now there are a few things that I had to learn about pumpkin plants (I actually learned this last season with my squash plants... squash and pumpkins are in the same family!). Pumpkin plants have male and female flowers, and only the female flowers can produce fruit... makes sense!

The above flower is a female pumpkin flower, and the below flower is a male flower... they NEED each other to produce pumpkins- with the help of bees and/or butterflies!

Most plants will have FAR more male flowers than female flowers, which can get kind of discouraging when you really want to see and taste the fruits (literally) of your labor!!! Hang in there, and hopefully your plants will produce!

When the female flower is ready to be pollinated, this is what she looks like! That bump is a baby pumpkin!

Sadly, this flower didn't get pollinated, and it will not survive!

This is the largest pumpkin in my patch (...wink)! I took this picture last Sunday.

Five days later, this is the same pumpkin! Exciting huh?

How is YOUR garden coming? Will YOU be taking a few plants for a "test drive" next season?