The Pumpkins Come Down from The Hanging Garden

Winter luxury pumpkins (rear) and Jack be Littles (front)

I finally got around to pulling the last of the pumpkins down from the hanging trellis where we grew them this year. While I was pleased with the number of pumpkins and how easily the grew upward instead of outward, I won’t be doing it again next year.

Pumpkins, unlike gourds (which are what I usually grow in the hanging garden), dies back very quickly after flowering. So, instead of getting lots of green, leafy coverage for this sunny and hot portion of the garden, I ended up with dead leaves following the green growth up the supports and over the top. As a result, there wasn’t much shade so the things I can normally grow there in summer — lettuce, cilantro, celery, etc. — did very poorly.

Winter Luxury and Jack be Little pumpkins on the trellis in late September

Additionally, pumpkins are really heavy compared to gourds. Normally I can have 30-40 gourds growing overhead and the trellis will support them just fine.

However, with just a dozen pumpkins (Winter Luxury, a smaller pie variety), the weight (probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 lbs) was enough to crack or outright break some of the overhead supports. I don’t want to have to rebuild the trellis structure every year. Live and learn.

That said, the Winter Luxury pumpkins are really flavorful and great for cooking with. (Terri has been doing all kinds of baking with them: here and here.)