Aren’t these the sweetest?
Starter Pumpkins
My friend Stephanie’s young daughter ‘M’ crafted these for seed starters . She used the base of a water bottle, then decorated each one with colorful duct tape.
Duct Tape Planting Pots
She delivered them with her dad over the weekend and I planted them today. In one of those serendipitous moments, I realized I had an open space in the center of my EarthBoxes® just waiting to be filled. So I tucked my newest pumpkin starter into the opening of the Jack ‘o-lantern box. It already looks right at home.
EarthBox Pumpkins making space for the new addition
I planted the second plant in the curb garden. It gets full sun all day, and will have a long stretch of gravel to spread out as it grows.
With some trepidation, I planted the third starter in the back. Squash bugs beware! I’ll be keeping a close on that one.
Thank you ‘M’ for your kindness and generosity. It will be such fun watching them grow.
Meanwhile, here is the progress of our deck-top pumpkins, week three. My how they’ve grown.
Healthy Pumpkin Plants Line the Deck
Fabulous tips for growing pumpkins from The Older Farmer’s Almanac.
Gardening Nirvana 
It’s going to be a grand Halloween this year!! That is a very cute idea from your wee friend – aren’t kids the sweetest things!!
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They sure are, Pauline.
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What a great way to grow pumpkins, hmmm, so interesting. Love your duck tape starter gifts. SO SWEET> Awesome use of duct tape. I confess that i buy every design and colour I see. The stuff fascinates me! LOL! Pumpkins look super healthy by the way.
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I love these EarthBoxes. I’m growing lettuce and sweet peas in one with great success. The pumpkin seeds look great as well. The plastic mulch stays in place and keeps the soil warm and moist.
I agree: the sweetest. I will give extra special attention to those plants, too.
Good luck with your, Diane.
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PS What do you do with your duct tape?
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Right now i make collage paper with it. Just for fun! Not sure what direction that will go in later- just playing. It is relaxing. 🙂
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Hurray for playing and relaxing!
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I’ve seen that duck tape at the checkouts and wondered what it would be good for and there you go 😀 Your little friend is both clever and sweet. I was looking at your pumpkin filled earth boxes thinking how tidy is all is. Everything has your organized touch, you can see with a glance how much effort goes into your gorgeous garden. BTW, they are amazingly big after only 3 weeks. Remember those white ones from our fab trip to the pumpkin patch? Those were really cool. I think they’d be great with my home decor at Halloween. We only see the regular orange variety up here, I had no idea there were so many varieties. xo K…off to work today 😀
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Thank you, Boomdee. I keep forgetting to mention that I love your new avatar. Clever and cute!
Duct tape isn’t just for heating ducts anymore. It’s gone main stream.
I planted the pumpkins just before the heat wave, so it really helped them launch. The plastic mulch cover really holds in the heat too, which helps. I’m thinking of trellising them this year, but I need to get on the ball soon. Stay tuned.
All of Stephanie’s girls are super creative and so is she. You’ll have to meet on your next visit to San Jose.
The white pumpkins only started showing up here a few years ago. We too see predominantly orange carving pumpkins. I grew a variety a few years ago called Cotton Candy. It was a bluish white and quite pretty.
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The plants look wonderful. The use of black plastic baffled me a bit. I have never seen that done but it must keep them moist and free of weeds and pests. Looking forward to new designs for those pumpkins. 🙂 The duct tape planters are sweet. My grand nieces love to make thing with it too.
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The black plastic fits over the box like a shower cap. It’s elasticized on all sides. It keeps the soil incredible warm and also locks in moisture while keeping out weeds. It’s quite amazing to watch.
I didn’t know you had grand nieces! Sweet. Do they live close by?
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The grand nieces live an hour south though it may as well be 20. I can’t drive that far alone yet. They rarely come here. Mom has unreliable transportation. We see them at Christmas or on a special occasion when one of my children can drive us down. I’m going to be looking for the plant boxes again once I get moved. I’m optimistic here. 🙂
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