small spaces + pumpkins

Did I miss the memo and jump straight to August? Unfortunately no. North Carolina has decided to welcome summer with full heat this year (JOYS). Our temperatures have reached above 95 most days in the past couple of weeks which have unfortunately made outdoor adventures a little more scarce in our household.

With a little less on the books these days, P and I have been able to get some good garden time in during the mornings the last week or so and it has been quite refreshing. Most significantly we are working on our PUMPKIN crop! (Yes, I know it isn't October yet! But one can dream...) Now in our second year of trying to grow pumpkins in containers, I am hopeful we are a bit wiser this time around... we started our pumpkins inside a little under a month ago and these babies are yearning to get out!

To preface, we live in a town house. This has as many benefits as deficits, especially when it comes to gardening. However, it makes you get creative when growing large, vine oriented crop. 

My mother in law recently started working on projects with pallets and has really proven to have a knack for it. She was kind enough to build a trough to house pumpkins on our back patio. It should offer them more growth potential than our shallow under bed storage container from last year. Again, live and learn. With any luck we may add some mid-season radishes, carrots and lettuce in as well!

Our pumpkins have not made it outside quite yet, but we have had fun getting the space ready for them!

We went for a walk to gather some materials (pine cones) to add to the bottom and allow for better drainage. In the land of the pines these are luckily not hard to come by! (Gardening win!) Three bags of dirt later we determined a fourth is required, so with any luck we'll be all done and planted tomorrow morning! Once these little sprouts are up and growing I'll definitely be updating pictures regularly. (check me on Instagram!)

If you're interested in trying it isn't too late to start your seeds! It's pretty simple too.

1) PICK YOUR PLANT If you're short on space, aka live on small land or no land, I recommend choosing a smaller variety pumpkin to grow. Heirloom pie pumpkin seeds are available at Home Depot (among other fine retailers I am sure), as well as large variety pumpkin seeds.
2) SEED STARTING As far as starting your seeds you have two options. Option one, you can plant your seeds directly into a container or the ground. Option two is to start them indoors and transplant the seeds when they're larger. You can do this easily by putting some dirt in a small container (cup, tupperware, small terra cotta pot, etc - I chose cups when not doing my mass seed starting), add the seed and keep the soil moist but not wet.
3) GROW BABY GROW Keep them watered and throw some mulch on the top of the soil to help retain moisture once they are large enough. Those big leaves of mature pumpkin plants get droopy when dehydrated, especially in the warm NC sun! Don't forget to nourish them as well. (Compost really is a girls best friend!)

Pumpkins are pretty resilient. They have done famously at preschool two years in a row in October (it's just to late to plant them outside by then..) You should have no trouble getting them going!

Depending on how things go I will post my year 2 dos and donts for container pumpkins later this year. Happy Growing!