Pumpkin Patch Surprise

You might remember that last year we were pretty proud of our pumpkins, all grown from six small plants my dad gave us at the beginning of July.

We had big plans for this year, too, planting a full packet of seeds in a little tray and then transplanting them outside on May 15, just as our internet research recommended.

Unfortunately, all the fragile little plants died the next day. We tried watering them, adding Miracle Grow--all the usual things--but nothing could revive them.

A few days later, though, I found a ziplock bag of pumpkin seeds on our kitchen counter, which I hadn't remembered receiving or collecting. After a little thought, I assumed they must have been seeds we'd saved from our pumpkins last fall--ones that I'd apparently forgotten about in the intervening months.

I sent Ben out to plant them all in our little vegetable plot, and wondered if they could possibly grow, starting outside.

Over the next few weeks, we were amazed at how our pumpkin plants were flourishing. Ben had planted 21, and they all seemed to be growing, threatening to take over our backyard.

I counseled Jason to cut the lawn very carefully around them--to even sacrifice the lawn if necessary to keep these plants healthy. I imagined what our little pumpkin patch might produce--maybe four times the bumper crop we'd had last year, since we'd planted so many more seeds! The plants were flowering beautifully, and every time I looked at them I felt the joy of anticipation.

Then yesterday I thought I'd look a little closer at the plants to see if any of the flowers had little round pumpkins underneath them.

When I got to the pumpkin patch, I noticed there was one growing, but it was kind of a strange shape: more elongated than I'd expected.

I walked around the back of the garden and saw there were a few more, but they were even bigger, and more elongated than the first.

And then a thought occurred to me: these weren't pumpkins ... these were zucchinis!

But no, this couldn't be. We'd planted pumpkin seeds, hadn't we?

We cut one open, and our worst suspicions were confirmed. 

But they did almost look like they could be pumpkins, didn't they?

Finally, we've come to terms with our fate.

I should add that two years ago we planted ONE zucchini, and we STILL have some left in the freezer, despite countless loaves of zucchini bread and dozens of zucchini muffins (not to mention all the other recipes we tried).

If one zucchini plant produced all that, how many will 21 produce? 

We can only imagine.

Luckily Alaina found that her little hamster, Max, isn't opposed to eating the vegetable, so we might have some extra help this time.

Hopefully we will find some more takers as the summer progresses.

And on a brighter note: we also have strawberries ... double strawberries :)

We really are quite the gardeners....