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Pumpkins for Everyone! Part 1 - Getting Started.

© Georgene A. Bramlage

Pumpkin seeds grow into pumpkin plants, and pumpkin plants make more pumpkins! We love the kinds to eat, the kinds to carve and the kinds to use for decoration.
Now is the time to plant pumpkin seeds. Each seed needs about 100 days to make pumpkins to carve for Halloween, or to cook into bread and pies.

What do you need to grow pumpkins?

• Pumpkin seeds - either from a package or from a gardener who has saved seeds from another year. You may choose little ones that weigh only a few ounces like Baby Boo or Munchkin, or big ones that can weigh over 100 pounds like Big Max.
  
• A sunny place to plant the seeds - a garden spot where plants will have lots of room to wander, or a container that you make or buy from the store. Growing plants need about six hours of sunshine a day.
  
• Good rich soil - pumpkin plants need lots of nutrients, the same way our bodies need vitamins. One way to tell if the soil is good for pumpkins is if it smells good! Another way is to dig down a few inches and collect the soil. Ask a trusted adult to help you get to a local garden center. The garden center people might need to do some simple chemical tests on the soil, but they will tell you if your soil needs compost or fertilizer. And finally...
  
• Patience - to make sure your pumpkin seeds and plants receive enough water. They like to be moist, but not soggy. Then watch and wait for little green pumpkins to become big orange ones.
  

Choosing which pumpkins to grow is fun! If you don't know a gardener who saves pumpkin seeds, look for them on racks of seeds for sale at the garden center. Or look at those for sale on web sites like Renee's Garden or Johnny's of Maine.

Things to remember:

• Make sure the growing season for your garden will have enough days for the plants to make pumpkins.
  
• Make sure you have enough space for the kind of pumpkin you choose - big ones take a lot of space, the small ones can be grown in a container.
  

Grow small pumpkins if you don't have enough sunny garden space but do have a sunny porch or deck. Look for container ideas at the garden center or on the Internet. The Gardener's Supply of Burlington, VT web site shows many kinds of containers for gardening. My favorite pot for growing small pumpkins is the large self-watering planters. Pumpkin plants like a lot of water so this is perfect. I don't need to check on the water every day and can even go away for a weekend without worrying.

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