A watched pot never boils.
Don’t count your chickens before they hatch.
A watched pumpkin slowly produces fruit, but while your busy hatching plans for Jack o’ lanterns, nature intervenes.
What started as a scar is now a split in the side of this pumpkin. Oh well.
Clichés and tortured prose aside, when things go wrong my disappointment is palpable. Pumpkin vines grow from seed to fruit in just 90 days. If I could cast the seeds over my shoulder and forget about them till harvest, would it temper my sense of loss when things don’t work out? Perhaps.
I’m not that kind of gardener.
When I lay seeds on the warm earth, I tuck them in with soil and hope. Emerging seedlings make my heart pump a little faster. Flowers and fruit arrive on the scene and I can’t wait to drag family and friends into the garden to see the latest earthy surprise.
Talking about tomato yields with fellow bloggers gives me a wonderful sense of community. Glancing up from the kitchen sink to see a neighbor slow down to admire the sunflowers makes me smile.
Sharing my disappointments, however, makes me sad. I learn from my garden failures and continue to plant every year, but still it’s such a let down. If only I would take things a less personally.
Emotional gardener or gardening sap? I’ll leave that to my readers to decide.
The weight of the pumpkin snapped the vine from the trellis and sent it tumbling to the ground. It’s such a beautiful shape, but since it broke away prematurely, it won’t develop a hard, protective shell.
Related articles
- Pumpkin Vine Sprawl (gardeningnirvana.wordpress.com)
- ‘Big Max’ Pumpkin Vine: Busy Bees, Budding Fruit (gardeningnirvana.wordpress.com)
- The Joyful Gardener Turns 12 (gardeningnirvana.wordpress.com)
Gardening Nirvana 
Well written Alys. Lovely wording. I’m going with emotional gardener, since I can see your investment in your garden is immense and with a full heart. It’s a shame, can they be salvaged for anything at all or are they too green still?
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Thank you, Kelly. I appreciate your kind praise.
A few things are possible: one, that the pumpkin will attempt to close the wound (the cracked one still growing on the vine). As for the one that fell, I don’t know. I’ll give it one more week outdoors and if I don’t see any more changes, better or worse, I’ll bring it in and store it in a cool place till October (or till it rots) whichever comes first. Stay tuned.
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Such a shame – who wouldn’t be emotional at seeing the pumpkins like this?
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Thank you silverbells for your supportive words. Today I simple chose not to look. Tomorrow is a new day. On the bright side, my sunflowers are forming buds so I may have a deck full of yellow beauties within the week.
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I hope your sunflowers turn out well!
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Thank you! I hope so too. 🙂
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In the words of the Big Lebowski, that’s a bummer, man! Pumpkins are so full of personality, how could one NOT get attached?
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Thank you for commiserating!
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