October 28, 2015 by Born To Organize

Mad About Pumpkins

We’re mad about pumpkins. We grow them, dress them up and carve them for Halloween. Without further ado, some of my favorite pumpkins from the past decade.

Alys Milner 32 mins · Edited · Our first backyard pumpkin September, 2005

Ad hoc pumpkin patch September, 2005

This pumpkin grew from squirrel feed. Dark orange inside with a pale skin.

Amy Farrah Fowler

What all the well dressed pumpkins are wearing this fall.

My 2014 Doppelganger

Spooky pumpkins

The roaring twenties pumpkin

Ahoy Matey Pumpkin

Creepy Crawly Pumpkin

Elvis is alive and well

Signature Pumpkin

Snail Hotel: Mollusks Welcome

haunted pumpkin

Under the sea pumpkin

Ratatouille pumpkin

Last year’s late-season crop

B is for Boomdee

Virginia Tech Pumpkin

It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown My lone, volunteer pumpkin this year, 2015

Ready for holidays pumpkin

Delicious pumpkin

Our largest pumpkins ever (46 – 64 pounds)

Photo Bombing Pumpkins When M was 12

Dracula pumpkin

Oh yes, quite delicious thank you.

Crowned Kitty Pumpkin

The Scholarly Pumpkin

Yes, it’s me again.

Bewitched Pumpkin

The Sailor Pumpkin, Mike’s True Passion

I’m a Mac Pumpkin

Snail Hotel: Checking in

A Stack ‘O Pumpkins (M’s treasures)

Resident Carver Extraordinaire Michael Francini.

Collection of Pumpkins

An enterprising snail created a private entrance

Mike’s Carving Wonder

Lindy investigates

Flower Vase Pumpkin

We grew this crowd one year

Rock, Paper, Scissors Pumpkin

Smooch!

Mike’s collection of carvings

Deadly Diva

Pretty Kitty

Our “Haunted Yard” one year

Hanging out with Laura at Bob’s Farm

When pumpkins were still bigger than he was

I grew this gorgeous green pumpkin from seed. One of my favorites. They’re native to Australia.

Welcome Pumpkin This is a Candy Cane Pumpkin, also grown from seed

Lifting Pumpkins is great exercise

You win some, you lose a lot. The joy of gardening

A joyous crop, pre-drought and pre-squash bug infestation.

Admired by many, carved by Michael.

Glowing Pumpkins

My Year of Trash costume hat pumpkin

Velvet pumpkins

When a whole pumpkin just won’t do.

Mike builds a bonfire

The woeful tale of Frank and Shelley

Gardening Nirvana Pumpkin

October 9, 2014 by Born To Organize

Mystery Plant Shows its True Colors

The ‘mystery plant that ate the vegetable box‘ continues to grow. Our temperatures remain warm, night and day, so the plant is spreading happily over the edges of the box, and pumping out fruit like nobodies business. I can’t get over it.

It’s a Pumpkin After All

I thought it was a late season pumpkin, but could not fathom why it was growing in a box without water. I’m still perplexed. Someone suggested that it might be a round zucchini instead. The fruit grew quickly to the size of a small cantaloupe or a very large apple, but remained dark green and hard. Whenever I looked under the prickly leaves I saw new growth. Whatever it is, I love the plant’s tenacity.

Dark, Green and Healthy

Today I took another look and saw orange. Squeeeee!!!

I think I’ll have a couple of small pumpkins out back after all. No signs of squash bugs either. This month keeps getting better and better.

Shades of Orange

No-Candy Countdown:

Throughout October, I’m keeping track of the candy I **don’t** eat. Who thought that not eating something could be this fun? Today I rewarded myself with smiling face stamps on my countdown calendar. It’s the little things, isn’t it?

Candy-Free Halloween Countdown

Under-the-sea Costume Update:

No time today. Hopefully this weekend.

Pumpkins on Parade:

The lovely Cathy, who blogs at Words and Herbs suggested the following:

Love the pumpkin outfit again today! Those sunglasses reminded me of Elvis… wonder if that might be a possible one? 😉

This pumpkin’s for you, Cathy. I’ve added a video clip of one of my personal Elvis favorites, In The Ghetto to go with it.

Pumpkin Elvis

Please keep sharing your ideas for pumpkin dress up. I’ll be catching up on comments and your posts over the next few days, but I’ll be back here at Gardening Nirvana on Monday. Time permitting, I’ll be further along on my costume by next week. I hope to see you then.

October 6, 2014 by Born To Organize

Our ‘No Fall’ Fall

My Calendar says October but the thermometer says July. We’d normally be enjoying cooler temps by now and the house would be decorated for Halloween. It’s our no-fall, fall.

I thought about decorating every day last week. But when I stepped outside and felt a ‘wall’ of heat, I high-tailed it back inside. Is hot-and-dry the new norm?

Our seasonal average is 76 degrees F or 24C. Instead it’s been in the 90’s F or 34 C for days. What’s especially strange is that the angle of the sun and the behavior of the trees indicates early autumn. I find myself clinging to the ‘old’ normal: moderate temps and perhaps a bit of rain. What do you suppose the scientists will have to say about these changes one hundred years from now? Is the weather turned upside down where you live, too?

No-Candy Countdown:

Throughout October, I’m keeping track of the candy I **don’t** eat. I’m enjoying all the things I love about October while continuing to lose the extra pounds. It’s day six and all is well. I’m also reconsidering my Halloween night giveaway. Mini bags of pretzels are another option. I met someone who gives away books for Halloween, but with close to 200 children, ranging in age from 1 to 16, I don’t think I could pull that off. I love that she does, though. I’ll let you know what I come up with.

Under-the-sea Costume Updates:

Though it was blazing hot all weekend, we braved the heat in short spurts to paint. We huddled in the side year in the shade and added layers of blue to the rubberized chest for Mike’s Guardian of the Sea costume.

This is the package photo:

Starter Costume: Perseus

And our color additions:

Transitioning to Sea Guardian

I found a gorgeous button on clearance for $1.87 that I’ll incorporate into the costume:

Awesome button from a clearance rack

My sea gardener costume is still a pile of fabric. Hopefully I can get to it today.

Pumpkins on Parade

Special thanks to Boomdee for the second suggestion this month: a baker. Boomdee says:

I’d like to see a pumpkin dressed as a baker because when I see pumpkins, I see pie……mmmmmm pumpkin pie 😀 Yum

Catatouille

You can read more about pumpkin-dress up month at, NEWS FLASH! Halloween Takes Over Gardening Blog.

If you have any suggestions for ‘pumpkin costume of the day’ please let me know. I’ll see what I can do.

October 1, 2014 by Born To Organize

NEWS FLASH! Halloween Takes Over Gardening Blog

One of Mike’s carvings: pumpkin campfire

We interrupt this regularly scheduled gardening blog to bring you…Halloween!

You may have noticed a few changes, right off the bat.

Everyone’s welcome, whether you’re dropping by in the present or visiting from your ghostly past… or back from the future. This pumpkin-loving gardener is setting the stage for a spooky month.

First up, what exactly is Halloween? In a recent international Skype session with several of my favorite bloggers we talked a bit about the tradition. The Wikipedia article linked here is both fascinating and extensive with nearly 200 citations. If you have the time, it’s a great read.

Who has time you say?

Point taken.

So, here are a few notes from the site Halloween at the Party Spot

Trick or treating comes from the Middle-Age practice of the poor dressing up in costumes and going around door to door during Hallowmas begging for food or money in exchange for prayers. The food given was often a Soul Cake, which was a small round cake which represented a soul being freed from Purgatory when the cake was eaten.

Halloween is also known by other names:
All Hallows Eve, Samhain, All Hallowtide, The Feast of the Dead, The Day of the Dead

Halloween is recognized as the 3rd biggest party day after New Year’s and Super Bowl Sunday.

Halloween is Oct. 31 – the last day of the Celtic calendar. It actually was a pagan holiday honoring the dead.

Trick-or-treating evolved from the ancient Celtic tradition of putting out treats and food to placate spirits who roamed the streets at Samhain, a sacred festival that marked the end of the Celtic calendar year.

Halloween is correctly spelt as Hallowe’en.

Halloween is one of the oldest celebrations in the world, dating back over 2000 years to the time of the Celts who lived in Britain.

More than 93 percent of children go trick-or-treating each year. (source: NCA)

Read more at Halloween at the Party Spot.

No-Candy Countdown:

Over the next 31 days, I’m keeping track of the candy I **don’t** eat. I’m going to enjoy all the things I love about October while continuing to lose the extra pounds. I’m feeling virtuous today, mostly because it’s day one. That said, I didn’t have a day-before-binge either so I think I’m on to something.

Under-the-sea Costume Updates:

This year I’m creating a costume from my imagination: an under-the-sea gardener. I’ll share my progress throughout the month. The first party is October 25th.

Thrift Store Finds

I love dressing-up. It was great fun as a child, and the passion continued to adulthood. In my youth I enjoyed sketching dresses and sewing clothes for my dolls. In college I studied costume design and fabrication. I worked as a costume cutter, assistant cutter and stitcher at various theatre companies in my early twenties. Those years are among my most treasured memories.

I drifted out of theatre a few years after graduating college. I lacked the stamina for the transient nature of the work, the mediocre pay, etc. Growing up in poverty lead me to realize that I crave stability. I never lost my love of the art though.

Getting Silly with Our Pumpkins:

If you’re a regular reader, you know all the fuss that went into my pumpkins this summer. If not, you can read about the squash bug debacle here and here. In the end, three survived, each about the size of a cantaloupe. Aren’t they sweet?

This Year’s Pumpkin Crop

I’ve been known to dress up my pumpkins too, so watch for future silliness. Here are some highlights from past years:

Pumpkins Ready for a Party

If you have any suggestions for ‘pumpkin costume of the day’ please let me know. I’ll see what I can do.

August 30, 2013 by Born To Organize

Frank’s Makeover: Too Little, Too Late

Shelley’s Makeover

Pauline, at The Contented Crafter suggested earlier this week that “Frank [the pumpkin] may feel a little left out” after seeing Shelley’s fashion makeover. She opined “Could you not knit him a scarf or maybe come up with a hat for your cooler nights?”

I knew Frank wasn’t long for this world, being a split pumpkin full of staples and all, so I did the next best thing: I put him on a pedestal (always good for improving ones sense of stature) and floated a festive Hydrangea for stylish panache.

Frank spews seeds

Then poor Frank ‘tossed his cookies’ while cousin Shelley looked on in horror.

∏ – ∏ – ∏

Today it was every critter for themselves: houseflies, pincer bugs, squash bugs, you name it. Opportunists came and went, including something with very sharp teeth. I’m glad I missed that transaction. Soon I will don some gloves and rescue a few seeds so that Frank’s legacy lives on.