Pumpkin pie in the fall means planting pumpkins in June.

Mine went in a few weeks ago. Most years I have a problem with critters eating the leaves, so this year I have them in a more enclosed area. While it has a fence around it, animals still make their way in, so I’ll expect some losses.

We’ve been working on the soil in this garden for a few years now, adding truckloads of compost from our town transfer station, layers of cardboard, wood chip mulch, and aged manure from our neighbors’ cows. Along with the pumpkins it’s supporting onions, chives, thyme, butternuts, beans, and various flowers. When we started, this garden was more weeds than not, but these days they’re few and far between. One that does appear is purslane, which you can see a bit of at the base of the pumpkin. It’s edible, so I like to consider it a crop I don’t have to plant rather than a weed.