An Unexpected Pumpkin Patch

Life is full of surprises and  over the weekend I had an unexpected find; a pumpkin patch. This find brought me a new enthusiasm for the season. I love pumpkins; real or fake- I don’t judge.  But, there is a special joy from a garden grown pumpkin patch.

While “mulching” around our front porch I noticed a leafy looking vine; the familiar, sought after pumpkin vine. I thought I knew what it was, but it was my front yard.  How did a pumpkin patch grow in my front yard, behind a rock under a cluster of Aspen trees?

 

 

Over the past eight years I have planted pumpkin seeds in my back yard in hopes of a pumpkin patch. And, every fall it was disappointment and a trip to local farmer’s market to get mom her pumpkins!

My neighbors heard about our annual failure and surprised us one year with five pumpkins in our designated pumpkin patch.   We shared a good laugh and a decade long friendship.

And then a few days ago I was adding a few bags of mulch near the front porch and I spotted …the infamous signs of a pumpkin vine.  I was so excited because I have had so many gardening fails.  As it turns out this was not a planned patch.

 

 

I have tried for eight years to grow pumpkins. We suspect the fall pumpkins from last year, perched on a landscape rock created my pumpkin petite pumpkin patch. It’s just so funny that I tried to control and create a patch of pumpkins and it was a rotting pumpkin, left outside way past it’s time, that brought this unexpected pumpkin vine in my front yard.  I don’t think I could re-create this if I tried; but I am going to try this year. I am just waiting for this season’s crop of pumpkins to show up at my nearest garden center, farmer’s market or Kroger… in  a pinch!  I am so happy!  It’s the little surprises in life that create so much joy! What small find made your week?