Sep 08 2009
Grow your own pumpkins for Halloween.
Every year when fall begins to creep in, overlapping the warm summer mornings with crisper ones, I know it’s time to start thinking about what to do for Halloween.
We have always bought pumpkins for the kids to make Jack O Lanterns, but this year we are hoping it will be a little different. This year, my oldest daughter decided to grow her own pumpkins.
It really doesn’t take much space, so even if you have a small yard area you can still grow your own pumpkins. We put hers in a raised wooden box filled with miracle grow. After they were initially planted we just watered them every now and then, less if it rained, and now we have 3 baby pumpkins growing on the pumpkin plant.
My daughter initially planted the pumpkins a couple months ago, I am not sure of the specific date but I’m thinking it was July. The pumpkin plant will get pretty big and produce more flowers than actual pumpkins.
I thought the idea of growing your own pumpkins is perfect for children for a couple reasons. They learn how to take care of a plant, they can feel rewarded when they get to use the pumpkin for Halloween time, and it is also a few dollars off the Halloween budget for the parents.
Sometimes the pumpkins won’t get very big, if this happens you can either use them for decorations or paint on them.
Maybe next year we will grow a couple more plants than we did this year, just to see if we can grow a couple really big ones! I’ll be sure to post an update near Halloween to show how big the pumpkins we have this year have gotten.
