Yep..........

Yep.... they are pumpkins! It's a pumpkin patch, Charlie Brown, no doubt about it now! Makes me think of Harry Potter, too; you know: the pitchers of pumpkin juice on the dining tables.


When it came up this year, there were two seedlings up against each other. I pulled the weaker one, so this one really took off and grew, even though it is cheek-to-jowl with the Anise Hyssop,...
(Seen below to the right of blossoms -- you may need to click on photo and enlarge to be able to see the blue flowers on the Hyssop. Butterflies love it.)

and white half-runner string beans are growing all over it,

(Notice in the right upper quadrant, Black-eyed Susans down the path in the distance.)

(The first harvest in a large bowl.)

and my seed radishes are trying to bloom up through it.

(Good thing I still have a bumper crop of seeds left from last year.)

On her blog Suzanne McMinn gives a recipe for stuffing and frying the big beautiful yellow blossoms, as well as, those of squash. By not doing so, I suppose I am letting food go to waste, but we do not eat much fried food anymore. I may try it just once to experience how they taste. I could use the female flowers, too, as I do not want any more pumpkins. However, in spite of all my snipping and pruning, one got past me. (I wonder if young pumpkins are edible?)

If more pumpkins are wanted, use the male flowers, for only a few are needed to pollinate the females. If no more pumpkins are wanted, use the female flowers, as well. Suzanne tells how to prepare them for cooking.

Can you believe so much is growing in the small space of one Japanese tomato ring?! It sits atop where a tree used to be. Over the years the tree's remains have rotted and other plants almost jump into it, because they love it so. And with so much rain it is not unusual to see toadstools growing along the root runs. Too bad they are not edible, too, but I wouldn't touch them, much less, eat them!

Not growing tomatoes this year. After three years, it was time to give that area of soil a rest from tomatoes, and their cousins, and potential diseases. Seems to have been well timed.

Earlier this week, in our local newspaper there is an article about the potato-famine fungus showing up in the Eastern United States including Kentucky. It is the same one that caused the Irish potato famine of the late 1840's. In this area it is showing up on tomatoes. Oh, NO! Not tomatoes!! Sorry, but, "Yes". At risk are plants of that family (Night Shade family): potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc., even weeds such as bittersweet nightshade.

This year weather conditions have been conducive to the growth of Phytophthora infestans. Phytophthora is Latin for "plant destroyer", and this plant destroyer likes cool, wet weather, exactly what our autumn, winter, spring and summer have been.

Photos posted by Cornell University to help gardeners recognize the disease are found here. Bittersweet nightshade is the last photo low on the page. I do not have that nightshade, but I do have horse nettle and a few others that are susceptible to becoming hosts. Good luck with yours!