In 2021 , we had great winner with our pumpkin patch .
I planted multiple hills in the direful soil at The Sand Pit of Death where we used to rent , fortify each hill with ashes and kitchen refuse – particularly meat and bone .
We had a good yr !
In 2022 , I saved chicken gumption and swallow them in the pumpkin holes , and we planted about four time as much area with a mix ofC. moschataandC. maximapumpkin variety . This is me in the autumn pumpkin patch .
Yet we got nothing .
Nothing !
First it was too stale , then too wet , then too ironical , then too wet . animate being dug into the hills , vine borers tore up the vines , plants turned yellow and failed to thrive …
It was the worst twelvemonth we ’ve ever had for horticulture . Our texture corn whisky failed as well .
The only affair that really did well was the yam and the cassava starch .
This meant , alas , that I lose a year in my autumn pumpkin landrace upbringing undertaking .
Now we are trying again .
This class , instead of using chicken sand in the pitcher’s mound , we are using compost .
We knocked over the pallet compost galvanic pile yesterday and dug down into it for some good stuff .
you may see all the composition plates and paper towels and other rough material that was at the top . This pile has been incessantly fed with various scraps and paper and mulch and peanut hay since August of last class . There ’s at least a few five gal bucketful of good fabric we expose at the bottom . In the picture , I ’ve already harvested two pail of compost .
Which I then took to the orbit the pigs have clear for us , and mixed with the aboriginal ground to make pumpkin hills .
There are about ten finish and planted hill now . In between the hills we planted casava , which should grow above the pumpkins quite merrily .
The grease here is much better than at our previous locating , so we ’ll hope for the best for both crops .
Making Pumpkin Hills
To make these pumpkin hills , we employ a grub hoe to chop a little hole in the solid ground . We then put a few cup of compost in the hole , then mound up some earth on it , then add up some more compost to that mound . When that ’s done , we polish the top over a little bit by hand , then put three seed in each hill .
I truly hope this year ’s pumpkin turn . It was weird to go from a good pumpkin year to an infrangible zero - proceeds year . We commonly have great lot with amended galvanic pile .
In other news , two big spool of half - rotten , unsprayed hay were deliver to the garden last night . It ’s mulching metre .
And maybe metre to make a serious red-hot compost pile via interchange manure and hay layers !
But that ’s a story for another day .
