Pumpkins

Apparently last Thursday when I went out to check the garden and capture pictures for you all, I neglected to peek down inside the middle of the pumpkin plants! I went out a couple days later and discovered there were some nice, BIG pumpkins out there! The one shown on the left was the longest I found, at around 12 inches long. The one pictured in the middle was the biggest overall (approximately 10 inches from stem to blossom end), and the other one shows a few of my pie pumpkins. Unfortunately I also noticed that the terrible gray squash beetles have showed their ugly faces and have been devouring my plants. I spent an evening out there dusting the plants with Diatomaceous Earth until I ran out of that, crushed a few beetle egg clusters, and weeded half of the pumpkin patch (something I hadn't done since they were very tiny plants). Now I need to go out with some soapy water and try to get those squash beetles. I hear when they arrive, it's a hard battle to fight against them. The bad news is that it has been raining here, which makes it hard for me to get out to find them, but the rain has been much needed and will help the fruit that has started growing, continue further into maturity.