A Plethora of Pumpkins

If you've read my profile you know I like gardening. The weather in El Paso has been a little strange this year and perhaps Indian summer will arrive early. Since we moved into this house less than a year ago, we have had quite a struggle to plant a garden in our backyard. Since we live so close to the foothills of the Franklin Mountains, we have a bumper crop of ROCKS. Not just little rocks, mind you, but boulders. Being as I am not as young as I used to think I was, it has become a real PAIN to plant anything in the yard. Painful because it hurts and also because everything tends to die. But, by some odd twist of fate or what have you, we now have a beautiful little children's garden on one side of the house near our kitchen. This garden was put in for my grandson, Jordan, and it has a little bench for him to sit at when he's a little older and some funky little toadstools and a little path which at present is completely overgrown by PUMPKINS. The pumpkins are changing color and I'm a little worried about them since we've had quite a bit of rain. I read somewhere that I should place boards under the actual fruit to keep them from rotting. I am also trying to figure out how to turn them with accidentally breaking them off the vine.

We are planning to upgrade our heating and cooling system very soon and it's possible some of the equipment may have to be placed in the children's garden so I am going to have to gently rearrange the vines and pumpkins so that they are not in the way of the installers.

Jordan will be celebrating his very first Halloween this year and he will have his very own jack-o-lantern. . . home-grown and lovingly tended by his Grandma Terri. In the meanwhile, I hope everyone else out there will enjoy viewing my lovely little garden.