All summer I ignored the pumpkin patch. It is no surprise that it looks like this:
Some years my benevolent neglect yields a wheelbarrow full of pumpkins. Not this time.
That is a pitifully small harvest. But it’s enough to decorate the driveway.
Perhaps if I’d cared for the pumpkin patch better I would have had a more bountiful crop. But then, I might have pulled up this weed:
Instead of growing pumpkins, I’m farming bumblebees.
The pumpkin patch is back in the meadow, so it’s easy to ignore the tangle of vegetation. However, I have flowers and herbs right next to the house that I do water and keep tidy. It took me only minutes to harvest those pumpkins, so I thought I’d take the time to deadhead the zinnias. I didn’t. I think I’ll rename my property Bumblebee Farm.
You attract bumblebees,
AND happy readers.
Thank you for sharing what grows, buzzes,
clucks, and frolics at your farm.
:)
I am so thrilled to have finally grown my own pumpkins. I am on a small city lot and I just tried right in a planter of roses and I have four nice size cinderella pumpkins. I have tried for 10 plus years. I think it was all the chicken compost. Love your mums and fall display.
My squash and pumpkins are grown on chicken compost. The pumpkins might have been sparse, but I have a bumper crop of butternut.
Beautiful pictures Terry. I love your optimism that even though you didn’t get a good crop of pumpkins you did get a beautiful weed that is attracting bumble bees.
Amazing pictures.
Sometimes weeds are very beautiful! Good pictures of the bumblebees!
– I just finished reading “Adventures in Ecology” by Edith Clements; one of the photos’ caption says it is a sphinx moth pollinating a flower- but you can totally see a pin sticking out of the moth! Well, I guess cameras weren’t fast enough to catch bugs in action back in those days!
Today we can’t trust that photos are true because of photoshop. Back then I guess they had their own ways…
Bumblebee Farm sounds like a worthwhile endeavor! I think we’re only getting two pumpkins from our small patch but that’s two more than last year.
Terry…Are those regular bumblebees? They look really furry to me?
Maybe our northeastern bumblebees are furrier than SoCal bumbles?
Love your pictures, I really enjoy reading your blog, it’s upliflifting :-) x
HeHe..They may need the “fur” more than ours do?