A Little Pumpkin in the Pumpkin Patch

 I cut down the size of the garden this year by only planting basics. I'm trying hard to keep up with the weeds as well as the watering. Thanks to the rain that keeps on falling, watering has not been too much of a chore. In fact, the garden has become a labor of love.

In years past, there was a separate garden for the pumpkins. The problem with that was the hose didn't reach it very well so I had to do the best I could. This year it was decided to only have the one smaller garden and within that garden, include the pumpkins.
Having that one smaller garden has been ideal. The pumpkin patch is getting the water it needs. The pumpkin plants are healthy. Their vines are stretching out of the garden and tiptoeing into the yard. And yesterday while out pulling weeds, I discovered a pumpkin. A beautiful pumpkin covered up with leaves like a child wrapped up in a favorite blanket.
As I kept on pulling weeds, I thought of pumpkin patches from years gone by. The reason for having a pumpkin patch was to grow pumpkins for two certain grandchildren, creating a tradition for every October. The problem with that was that little garden sometimes did not produce the number of pumpkins we needed.
I will let you in on a little secret.
Those years when that little garden did not produce the number of pumpkins needed, I would go to a nearby Amish stand and buy pumpkins. I would bring them home and "plant" them in the pumpkin patch and when it was time for the 'Picking of the Pumpkins Tradition' once again, those Amish pumpkins and those pumpkins truly on the vines were "picked" and enjoyed and loved and eventually carved as Halloween was approaching.
Someday those two grandchildren will learn about their grandmother going to an Amish farm for more pumpkins. Not because I was being sneaky. But because it was Halloween and Halloween, to me, has always been as exciting as Christmas.
A Pumpkin Patch is really like a Christmas stocking. You never know what you might find if you have been a good little witch or ghost or whatever you choose to be in late October when the wind is howling, and you are out trick or treating.

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  1. Harriet JohnJuly 24, 2024 at 11:53 PM

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