Pumpkins, squash and sunflowers .....

[vegpatchmum]

.... that's what I've picked today

With the temperatures plummeting at night, indicating that Jack Frost is just around the corner, and the fact that my littlest munchkin was worried that her pumpkin might prove too tempting for the squirrel that has taken to visiting our veg patch first thing in the morning , I decided that now would be as good a time as any to harvest both of our pumpkins.

Littlest Munchkin has the largest this year being the size of an average football I'd say, whilst Middle Munchkin has a grapefruit sized one. Both are bright orange with rock hard skins and so were cured enough to come indoors.

Both are small by our normal standards but, to be frank, with the reluctance of the plants to flower this year, we're just relieved to have pumpkins to carve for Halloween - himself reckons even the smallest one is carveable

So here we have the pumpkins:

P9110003a.jpg (13.97 KiB) Viewed 2837 times

For the same reasons I also decided to pick 5 of the Winter Festival Squashes that are nicely cured but there are still 3 on one of the plants that could do with another week to finish off:

P9110001a.jpg (14.92 KiB) Viewed 2837 times

VPM
x

[vegpatchmum]

I also picked what I thought were 3 secondary flowers which had grown as side shoots along the stem of Middle Munchkins' tallest sunflower (it reached 9 foot). The main flower was huge and had started to droop, causing the stem to bend even with the super long cane supports

Worried that the heavy flower head together with the strong winds we were having may cause the stem to snap, I thought it best to cut the secondary flowers and put them in a vase.

Once I got them in though I realised that one of the flower heads was looking a bit odd. Closer inspection revealed this:

P9110006a.jpg (19.03 KiB) Viewed 2836 times

P9110009a.jpg (19.04 KiB) Viewed 2836 times

One flower back but ........

P9110010a.jpg (17.63 KiB) Viewed 2836 times

...... 2 distinct flower faces

Middle Munchkin is delighted to say the least (well except for finding an earwig which appears to have made itself at home amongst the leaves )

VPM
x

[oldherbaceous]

Dear VPM, it is nice to see all your family get so much enjoyment out of gardening, long may it last.

[Primrose]

Probably the thing to do with your smaller winter squashes is to put them on a tray, place them outside during the day to enjoy whatever sun there is, and bring them in at night.
Yesterday we cut open a very small Crown Prince winter squash picked ast autumn. It was obviously picked before it was ripe and storing it in the garage for the best part of a year had done nothing to increase the fruit sugars or mature it. It was predictably tasteless and has ended up on the compost heap.