Making Sweet Pumkin Love

If you ask the girls at work at the moment they will probably tell you I have a slight obsession with pumpkins. I’ve been growing a couple of vines for a few months now and they have taken over my garden and my life.  

These space invading magnificent plants are surprisingly interesting and have more to offer than most realise. Did you know you can eat the leaves?? I found this out and gave it a crack. I fried them up with butter, onion, garlic, salt and pepper and my world was changed!! They are actually full of body loving awesomeness and keep you full too. #winwin. You can also eat the flowers and the seeds of the pumkin.  

Speaking of flowers, did you know that pumpkins have male and female flowers and they rely on insects to transfer the male pollen to the female flower to actually create a pumpkin?? Pretty cool! A male flower has just a stem with a flower and the female has a little baby pumkin at the base of her flower.

I found all this out when I noticed none of my pumpkins were growing any bigger than a golf ball size. I googled the problem and quickly found out that my pumpkins needed a third party in on the action to make the magic happen. Since the bugs weren’t pulling their weight I took it upon myself and engaged in my first ever 3 way. 

Now you can’t just assume pumpkins are like men and are up for it anytime of the day. The morning is when they are ready and the flowers open up to be polenated. I cut off one of the male flowers and peeled the petals off to expose the stamen (is it weird that I just giggled over the word stamen? LOL) I then took the stamen and gently rubbed it on the female flowers stigma, yikes I did it!. 4 days later we have a growing pumpkin!!! 

Im pretty stoked that it worked first go and I’m excited to see if the other pumpkins take too. Let’s just say I’m a popular lady around the patch 😉