My first born pumpkin. I am very proud of her. She is such a sunny orange colour, and did very well to grow at all. It has been so dry, and the pumpkin leaves have suffered badly from mildew. I gave the plants a top dressing of comfrey leaves, and have been treating them to home made comfrey liquid feed, so maybe that helped. I stewed lots of leaves in water in a recycling bin the council gave us to put food scraps in. We don't have any food scraps in our house - we eat it all like labradors. It is ideal as a liquid compost bin though. It has a lid which locks when you put the handle down.
I knew the brew was ready by the smell. It took about three weeks. I could describe it, but I don't want to offend anyone. I felt like an old witch as I stirred it with a rotten stake and choked on the fumes. All plants with developing fruit love it though. It encourages fruit to set from flowers, and to grow healthily. I diluted it 10 parts water to 1 part comfrey juice.
Penelope is one of the smaller pumpkins on her patch, but I knew she was ready because the leaves of her plant drooped overnight. She has nothing to be ashamed of though; she is just the right size to make a fine pumpkin soup. The trouble is I don't think I have it in me to cut her into bits.
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