Pumpkins, Sunflowers and Zinnias for fall
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Planted by: Jennifer Tidwell
Date: Sunday July 6, 2008
Planted in: Annuals,Ornamentals,Seasonal Gardening
If you haven’t already planted pumpkins for Halloween use, get to planting! July 4 weekend is the ideal time to get pumpkins in the ground for just-in-time harvesting. I managed to get 2 hills planted, along with a few rows of zinnias (Benary’s Giants) and Sunflowers (Pro-cut Orange).
I like the Pro-cut because they have a short time between seed and harvest and they are pollenless. You can have flowers ready to cut in less than two months. I have other sunflowers that were planted earlier in the season that I will let go to seed for the birds this fall. Finches LOVE to sit on sunflower seed heads and pick out treats.
Zinnias are a no-brainer! As long as you keep them watered, planting them now should yield some beautiful flowers for fall. That goes for anything planted this time of year. Daily watering will keep them from being fried in the intense heat and sun.
From today to Halloween there are 117 days, and I planted the “Jack O’Lantern” variety that has a harvest time of 110 days. That’s just about perfect! That will give me enough time to harvest and carve pumpkins before all the little ghouls start showing up at the house.
Since the pumpkins in my compost pile did so well, I decided to throw a fresh batch of compost on the pumpkin mounds. Some of it hasn’t broken down yet, but the pumpkins don’t seem to mind it. I had to finally turn the pile, so I lost the vine that was growing so vigorously from the bottom of the pile. Apparently the pumpkin seeds left over from Halloween ’07 enjoyed the chicken manure in the compost pile.
Whatever “chunks” are left will be plowed into the soil for next year’s perennial crop. This site is earmarked for a perennial/cutting garden that I will start this fall with direct sowing. After that, I hope to find some plugs at a reasonable price. Otherwise I’ll be buying perennials at 1/2 price this fall if I can find them.
Possibly Related Posts:
- A Spot of Sun in the Disaster
- Box O’ Salad
- Deciding what to grow
- The Good News Is…
- Winding down and gearing up for Fall
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