The great pumpkin challenge.

tylersbabe

mrbadexample wrote: »

Yay! A fan! :j

The pumpkins are now ready for planting out. I have to choose an area of lawn to sacrifice and dig up. I bought a couple of bags of manure today, and went out to assess the task before me. It's going to be really hard work digging up the lawn, and the ground was like concrete today. I left it in the hope that it'll be a bit easier after some rain, and it's kindly chucked it down all afternoon.

Having said that, I'm away this weekend so it'll have to wait until next week. :rolleyes:

So it was just me then *big sigh*

Filey

[quote:j

The pumpkins are now ready for planting out. I have to choose an area of lawn to sacrifice and dig up. I bought a couple of bags of manure today, and went out to assess the task before me. It's going to be really hard work digging up the lawn, and the ground was like concrete today. I left it in the hope that it'll be a bit easier after some rain, and it's kindly chucked it down all afternoon.
[/quote]



Hi there.

Why do you need to dig up the lawn? You don't mean all of it surely, just a little patch to accommodate the pumpkin plant. Most of the space taken up by the pumpkin is leaves, leaves, and more leaves. As long as the plant roots get to the nutrients and water surely it doesn't matter about the rest of it. And of course you will need to keep your prospective prize off the ground anyway.

Good luck.

SEE

Sorry to interrupt, but do the same rules apply to Butternut squash? I sowed seed in March undercover, planted out first week of May, but they only have 6 leaves, and are tiny I'm growing them in large pots with good compost.

mrbadexample

Well, I've been putting off planting them out because digging up the lawn would be hard work. Little did I know....

So far I've dug up about 4' square:



And I've found this lot....so far:



I'm not best pleased. The lawn hs been laid over (some not) broken slabs. These sit over a layer of bricks. I've not even cleared the bit I've dug yet.



I'm bleedin' furious, and me back's jiggered. On the plus side, my mate's aren't faring too well after the dog attack and torrential rain. :rotfl:

Someone mentioned something about flower pollination. The plants are still in the greenhouse, but have flowers. What do I do?

cheekyweegit

Can I just say be careful that your not digging up one of those watersoak drainage thingys some folks have down South.

I hope this makes sense as I can't remember the proper name for them though sorry.

On the plus side, if it's not stick them on freecyle and someone will more than likely take the dross off your hands to fill in a hole and save you the bother of dumping the bricks / slabs.

Oh and I'm glad to see, the pumpkins are doing fine and if you were a bit closer I'd offer to massage your back to make it better. You know your gonna win this so don't give up. It's kill me never mind you!

SKIPPY54

Is that a rockery you are putting in there Mrbadexample?:D

Its not the best place for growing pumpkins you know.:rotfl: :rotfl:
Keep going you are doing a great Job:T

Be sure not to use any contaminated manure under them after all your hard work.

mrbadexample

SKIPPY54 wrote: »

Is that a rockery you are putting in there Mrbadexample?:D

Its not the best place for growing pumpkins you know.:rotfl: :rotfl:
Keep going you are doing a great Job:T

Be sure not to use any contaminated manure under them after all your hard work.

No, it ain't a bleedin' rockery! I'll get there - I've got a bale of compost and two bags of manure from B&Q. What's contaminated manure? It had better not be the stuff I've got........ :mad:

Sarahjovi

Someone mentioned something about flower pollination. The plants are still in the greenhouse, but have flowers. What do I do?

Hopefully the Bees and insects will have been in and visited the flowers for you, if you really want to be sure you could gentley dab a small paintbrush (artist size)inside the flowers to cross pollinate them!

Heres a weblink to help you... http://www.pumpkinnook.com/howto/pollen.htm

Sarah:D

KAAT_LADY

mrbadexample wrote: »

No, it ain't a bleedin' rockery! I'll get there - I've got a bale of compost and two bags of manure from B&Q. What's contaminated manure? It had better not be the stuff I've got........ :mad:

This is the thread about contaminated manure
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1016869

ther is also a petition to sign at

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1016869


by the way nice rockery

Lotus-eater

Just a lickle bit of advice, use a fork instead of a spade...... and seriously get those pumpkins out asap, my winter squash already has 10ft shoots in all directions, you are losing valuable growing time.