I brought it home and set it up with a set of tires that were given to me to start building my garden. I didn't think he'd do too well, so I also put strawberries in the planter...
June went by and the plant looked so weak still and pathetic, I was frustrated. I kept watering and reading and trying to learn all about these little plants as much as I could. Then, something happened, almost over night! In July, he looked like a real plant. I couldn't believe it.
By August, it had spread out so much, and had so many vines, that I directed it into the yard. The yard that I was trying to weed and pave and create more spaces for the kids to hang out (still working on it, just on hold a bit while the pumpkin king does it's thing!) and then, I got a pumpkin. A tiny little, but bigger than the buds I had seen, golf ball sized pumpkin. I was so excited. I watched it and I watered and I read more.
A bad case of powder mold took over a lot of my bigger leaves, which started to worry me. And then a really REALLY hot day hit. I went out to water and my whole plant was wilted and the tiny pumpkin had fallen off. Poor pollination. I was devastated. And then I saw it, hiding under what is usually a huge set of plump leaves, a pumpkin the size of a small melon! All this time it was there growing quietly waiting to surprise me. I watered the plant and it plumped back up.
This wonderful little plant fruit! I did it, I grew my very first pumpkin, and all I had to do was not know it was there (lol).
I've got 3 more babies that are past the size of tiny buds, which I hand pollinated to ensure proper pollination... FINGERS CROSSED!
UPDATE: Sept 23