Vegetable of the Month: Pumpkins of course!

I officially nominate the pumpkin for vegetable of the month! Do I hear a second?

I realize that the selection of a pumpkin may be predictable but it's such a seasonally appropriate vegetable for October. After all could you have even think of fall harvests and Halloween without pumpkins? Whether they are turned into pies or Jack-o-lanterns these orange globes of October have become representatives of the fall season. Of course they aren't just in orange, some are even white!

They also come in a variety of sizes from small decorative ones to giant world record hopefuls! We've grown some more modest one's here in our garden but we're proud of all of our veggies. Perhaps next year we'll try for the big one.

One neat thing to do with pumpkins is to carve them. But I'm sure you already knew that! We haven't picked up our carving pumpkin yet but take a look at this one we saw on our visit to the Nashville Zoo.

For now these three orbs of orangeness that were grown in our own garden will grace our front steps as decoration for the fall. Very soon we'll go out looking for our Great Pumpkin!


After all what would Halloween be without it?

(Image from Wikipedia. Illustrated of course by the great Charles M. Shulz!)

The Garden Blogger Fall Color Project Update

Our second submission for the Garden Blogger Fall Color Project comes to us from Anna who put together a really neat slide show of her trip. Anna's trip to the Shanendoah Valley in Virgina is full of great Autumn photos from the old grist mill along Silver Lake to the mountains of Virginia. She also shows us a visit to a craft fair in Dayton and several beautiful shots of the waters around the lake. Definitely take a visit to Anna's Fall Color Post!

And don't forget to check out Dawn's Post for some fall colors from Maine!

All bloggers are invited to participate in the project, just click on the picture link below to get the details!

Signs of Spring

Yesterday in a walk around the yard we discovered some signs of the spring to come. Daffodils are sprouting up all over, the verbena is greening up and some sedum sprouts are peaking from their winter slumber. Maybe it's early, but the temperatures have felt like spring. Historically our worst winter weather tends to happen in February and March but maybe we'll get through uneventfully. I just hope that the early warm weather doesn't cause a false spring then a late freeze like last year. I don't know if the plants that are recovering from that event will survive a second round.

To the left you can see one of our daffodil's saying "Is it Spring yet?"

Below is one of our 'Homestead Purple' verbenas starting to green-up.


















See them sedums sproutin'!













More daffodils!