Looking ahead to the Fall... installing a Pumpkin Patch.

Every year, around September, the pumpkins start hitting the supermarkets.  Every year, I want to buy about 50 of them to use around the house as decoration, or to carve with the kiddos.

I usually buy one or two, and then regret not having grown any myself.  This also happens every spring when the bluebonnets start popping up here in Texas.  You have to start those in the Fall, just like you have to start pumpkins in advance in the Spring.  I'm just, in general, not good at starting projects so far ahead of time.

Except for this year.   I was bound and determined to have my own little pumpkin patch this year.

I have read countless articles on how to grow pumpkins.  I have watched way too many youtube videos on how to grow pumpkins.  Finally, realizing I was reaching my deadline to get started if I wanted pumpkins by October, I knew I'd better get busy getting the bed ready.

I watched the yard for several days, watching the sun and the shade, trying to figure out a good, out of the way, place to build our planting bed.  Pumpkins need full sun, and our big tree in the back blocks out most of it from about 3 pm on.  Plus we have the t-ball field to work around.

Yes, that is my boys' GREAT Grandmother at bat.   LOL.

I finally decided on this area of the side yard.

It is tucked out of the way, receives at least 8 hours of sun daily, and with no large trees near by, I knew I wouldn't have to worry about digging into roots.

Now, this is probably not the best way to build a garden bed, but it works for us because it was inexpensive, and easy.  If it falls apart in a few years, we'll call it experience and rebuild in another fashion.

Supplies-  8 cedar fence pickets, 6 feet in length.    2 treated deck balusters, 42 inches in length.

Each picket was $1.98, each deck baluster was $0.98.  Cost for supplies - approximately $18.

The bed itself is approximately 18 feet long (actually a little shorter), by about 4 1/2 feet wide.  Ideally you would want a wider bed, but my husband wants to put a gate in on this side of the house, and we would need to reserve space for a path.  We may end up putting another thin planting bed along the house wall after our path is constructed.

I cut 15 inches from 2 of the cedar fence pickets to use for the border at the small widths of the bed, leaving the other 6 pickets to line the length, 3 per side.   I cut the dog ears from the pickets so they would fit flush together.

The 42 inch deck balusters, I cut into four pieces each, and then cut a wedge off of each end, making them into stakes.  This provided me with 8 stakes to use at the junction of each fence picket.  I used galvanized screws to hold the construction together.

The goal was not to make a complete raised bed, because then I would have to completely back fill with soil, which can get expensive.  Plus, our soil is actually in pretty good condition as is, it just need a bit of amending, not a complete overhaul.

Because of this, I sank the border down a bit.  We'll see how this works out in the long run.  I may have a rotting border in just a few months, but I'm hoping to get at least a few years out of it.

I finished the construction of the bed yesterday morning, and we amended the soil yesterday evening.  We'll let it rest for a day or so, and then start our planting.  I am so excited, and I'll share our progress as our plants fill in.

:)   Courtney