Saga of a Hindered But Hopeful Gardener – Post 7 – Six Week Update
August 19th, 2010Did a grandmother or aunt ever say to you, “My goodness! It looks like you grew overnight!”
People say that to my children often. They are all tall for their ages, but I’ve never noticed any true overnight growth.
At WEEK ONE when we planted seeds in our new garden, our pumpkin hills looked like this.
At WEEK THREE when we had little sprouts popping up, our pumpkin hills looked like this.
And now, at WEEK SIX, our pumpkin hills look like this…
Clearly some things really do grow overnight!
We have been having so much fun watching our garden grow, discovering all kinds of critters in and around it, and looking for changes in new buds, stems, shoots, leaves, shapes, colors, and height, each morning.
We even found our first flower last week, but it wilted before I got a picture of it.
And now for my questions and concerns…
What is this on some of the pumpkin leaves?! I’m kind of freaking out about it!
Is this fungus? Do I need to do something about it? Will it spread? What’s causing it?
See…
It’s not on all the leaves, just on some of them. If it was on all of them I would just think it was how the leaves look, but because it’s only on a few, I’m nervous.
Any advice anyone can offer on what this is, and what I need to do about it?
Here is one of the watermelon hills. It’s the only one not buried by the pumpkins. Oops.
Are watermelon plants supposed to grow this much’ slower than pumpkin plants, or is something wrong with it?
YES okay! I’m paranoid. I AM a hindered gardener. I have a lot of hope for this little garden, but some times I just FREAK OUT and think it’s all going to die!!!
Pardon me.
I was saying…
Remember when I said I was going to eliminate a couple of the hills as soon as I could see which ones were really taking off? I think I’m at that point. The only problem is that ALL of them have taken off.
I’m just going to have to get out there and start whacking some of them away. It’s gonna be painful to destroy any of them, but for the good of the pumpkins, and to ensure I have some that reach full maturity and provide a good crop for making pies… I’m just going to have to do it.
I can’t even find my sugar peas. Seriously. I have no pictures to show you because they are completely hidden underneath the pumpkin leaves, and quite possibly not growing any more, since I doubt they are getting any sun.
I need to get some gloves on and really get under the pumpkin plants to see what is going on with the peas. I never knew how prickly and painful pumpkin plants are. Yikes! They really can’t be handled much without some good gloves.
Here is our tallest sunflower. The top leaves all look really healthy, but the bottom leaves look like they’ve had some visitors, and some browning?
Again… should I be concerned?
It’s been so much fun for the kids, and for myself, growing this garden. I can’t believe how gorgeous it is after only six weeks. I’ve never planted anything as rewarding as pumpkin plants before. I just can’t believe how quickly they’ve shot up.
I peeked over the fence and noticed one that was even trying to wiggle it’s little leaves and tendrils off the property. And then I noticed the drainage ditch…
This drainage ditch and I go waaaaaaay back. We have a history.
But that’s another story. An amazing, beautiful, romantic, incredible story.
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I'm a Southern California Mother of three and Wife to a Software Engineer. I've got my hands full like a typical MOM, but the BLESSINGS are worth the CHAOS! I love to LAUGH, I'm committed to being HONEST, I'm trying to IMPROVE, and I hate doing LAUNDRY!!!!!!!!!!
You too?! Well then... Kick off your shoes and make yourself at home!
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My zucchini plant leaves have the same thing…do every year with no apparent harm.
My sunflower plants often turn brown at the very bottom.
Yes pumpkins always grow faster than almost everything else.
I HATE thinning and can never ever bring myself to do it…I with you luck on this one!
Now I’m off to find out about that drainage ditch! Kim
The garden is looking really great! Congrats! I second all the answers Kim gave you.
That has been my experience as well.
looking fabulous! if you’re worried about the pumpkin leaves, i think you’ve just figured out which plants to thin!
i’m with you and kim, though – i have a terrible time making myself thin plants out.
Hooray for your pumpkins! They’re so fun to grow—can’t wait to see pictures with all the orangey-yellow!
I agree with you that thinning is mentally painful—but you’re right that it is best for the health (and productivity) of the plants that remain.
Great job!
It looks beautiful!
My sunflowers had all kinds of brown wilty leaves and even rot, but they still got 8-12 feet tall and bloomed beautifully.
My good hubby-buddy, the gardener, says you should snap one or two of the leaves off an’ take it to a greenhouse; they should have some idea of whether it’s a pro’lem or not. Good luck. I’ll be watchin’ t’ see how things turn out for you.
~ Yaya
And you said you couldn’t get anything to grow! It’s looking great!
Looks like you are very good at growing pumpkins. Can’t quite tell what that is on the leaves. Maybe powdery mildew? Maybe a leaf miner, can’t see if they are see through or if there is stuff ON the leaves. Either way, your other friends seem to tell you that all will survive, so carry on. Definitely some bug climbing and eating the sunflower lower leaves, but again, you don’t really care about them. Clip them off and then the plant will look swell and you won’t have to worry about it anymore! How is the concrete block gardens and the wildflowers? Did you save seeds from the wildflowers? It is easy, good for children to see, amd rewarding. Congrats on your success!