Early last month I planted some pumpkin seeds. This year has been my very first year of doing any sort of gardening at all, now that I have a yard and the space to do it, so I have pretty much just been winging it. I’m a hands-on learner, so I figure that by next year I’ll have some idea of what I am doing. After three small sprouts came up, I ended up moving them from one side of the yard, where they were planted in the small garden I had set up and in close proximity to other plants, to the other side of the yard, where there was nothing. I had completely overlooked the fact that pumpkin vines take over very large areas of land. After I moved them, I got a little paranoid that they were going to die, so I checked on them several times a day and I also may or may not have sat in the yard talking to them. Thankfully, they did not die, and in very little time, they started to grow. A lot. In fact, in just one month, they went from this:

To this:

Yes, that is a large yellow flower on the vine where a pumpkin will soon begin to grow.

You may be wondering why someone wants to turn half of their yard into a pumpkin patch, so I’ll explain. Between my incredible love of fall and Halloween, we spend a small fortune on pumpkins every year, only to have them rot and be thrown away. The packet of pumpkin seeds I used cost 28 cents; that is a whole lot of money saved. Also, I have never had a pumpkin pie made with real pumpkin before; it has always been the canned stuff. This year, I want to try to make my own homemade pumpkin pie with pumpkins I grew myself. I’m very excited.