Growing pumpkins

Pumpkin flowers.

Recently I decided to try and grow pumpkins, and saved two seeds from a pumpkin bought at the local market. The seeds were put in pots and germinated well. Actually most of the seeds - which were tossed on the ground beside our outside kitchen - germinated, and we now have several pumpkin plants growing wild.

The two plants in the raised bed.

The two seedlings I made, was put in each end of a raised bed together with 10 small chili plants and the soil was covered with compost and leaf litter to keep the weeds away and retain some moist in the soil.

It turns out that the chilis was not the best choice for this bed. Even though they have managed to grow out over the top of the dense cover of pumpkin leaves, the pumpkins are to big and fastgrowing for the chilis. For several weeks every morning I have had to release the chilis from being strangulated by the pumpkin tendrils. I think papayas will be a better companion for the pumpkins.

The first little pumpkin.

The pumpkins are doing very well and are growing fast. With the help from some bamboo sticks the wines have been guided to grow around in the bed a few times - and after that outside the bed - still using some sticks to try and keep the plants in a controlled area. Not doing that I would have wines growing in 10 different directions. The flowers are plentifull and the first small pumpkins are starting to pop up. Now it's just watering, feeding and waiting before we can hopefully harvest lots of big pumpkins.

Cleaning buds and wines.

And while we wait, we have started to harvest buds and the fresh wine tips, from the plants that grew from the seeds tossed outside the kitchen. After cutting away the hairy and hardest parts of the stems, it is fried together with chili, garlic and fishsauce for a very tasty sidedish.