Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Farmer Pineapple

I didn't say pineapple farmer. Although I guess I am. I have three non-producing pineapple plants. I only harvested that one lemon sized pineapple when I was pineapple farming at work. Obviously the direct result of dedicated state employment. Here is the beauty I harvested on 8/25/08*:



So now that I'm single and have all this time on my hands (read severe sarcasm here), I've decided to grow a crop of pumpkins. Actually, I had a hell of a time finding pumpkins to bake last year so I decided to grow my own. Besides, why spend your time growing useful crops when you can have a whole bunch of one thing, right? So this desire to grow some pumpkins has grown into a mild obsession. And I'm not the only one (not that it makes my obsession any less odd). The Pineapple Parents have started calling for daily pumpkin updates and demanding pictures. Maybe this is some sort of substitute for the grandchildren it looks like I will never give them? In light of this shared obsession, I've decided that the internet as a whole will also be very interested in my pumpkins' progress as well.

I planted the seeds on 7/14/09. "They" say that it takes about 100 days from planting until harvest. That puts me at about October 22nd. Here is a picture of dirt in an egg carton:




Then the wait was on. For days my dirt sat in front of the window with out any change for days! And then one by one the seeds started to sprout. Here is what the pumpkins looked like on 7/26/09:




And here is a bird's eye view of my pumpkin sprouts:




As of 7/28/09, my pumpkin sprouts are really taking off:




Here is a close up of the first seed to sprout:




Later this week, I am going to transplant my little plants into bigger containers so they can grown BIG and STRONG before I kill them in in the Texas heat. Until things cool off, I'm keeping my fingers crossed (and hopefully my thumbs green) and hoping for pumpkins to make a proper pumpkin pie for turkey day this year.

*as always, you can click the pictures for much more bigger!

4 comments:

LesleyRamsey said...

I plan to check in here everyday. I'm equally obsessed with the idea of gardening... so I'm glad one of us is actually doing it!

And. maybe you've inspired me to start blogging (again? for real? something...)

mad said...

Even though that was a cute pineapple, hopefully your pumpkins will grow a little larger so at least you'll be able to carve them. Heh.

pineapple said...

only grrrl: I just transplanted the pumpkins into bigger pots where they will live until it is time to go in the ground! I'll post the new pictures maybe later today???

mad: the pumpkins should be bigger than that cute little pineapple, but they are baking pumpkins. maybe next year I will grow both kinds so I can have a jack-o-lantern bonanza for Halloween and pumpkins to bake for turkey day.

Unknown said...

Ours is now overgrown. Too bad my daughter could not seem to take the time to do ANYTHING with the veggies we harvested. She let them sit on the counter until they went bad. Grrr.