Can you think of any good and logical reason why I should not plant miscellaneous pumpkins and fancy squash in my front yard?
The foliage is pretty, the flowers are dramatic, and squash are cool. Plus, they’re like the ultimate groundcover. Just a couple of plants will take care of most of that pesky area between the front porch and the Zinnia Forest that the front slope of the yard will be.
This is one of the silly, artsy photos I took of my pumpkins last year while they were blooming. This is through the bedroom screen window. The camera’s auto-focus refused to unlock off that windowscreen, so I went with what it preferred to let me do.
I still have some seeds for these, which are little pie pumpkins. I think I’ll plant more of these, as they did really well, plus some fancy ornamental gourds (not too near the pumpkins, so I don’t end up with too many mutant squashes). I want to try some of those turk’s turbans, plus those super-warty ones that look like a brain. Maybe a couple of “crown of thorns,” too. I know those are good roasting gourds, as well as being funky to look upon.
I’ve actually thought of planing Rhubarb up front sometime, too. It would make an excellent alternative to those cool, but too fragile for this zone Elephant Ear plants, plus, should I ever get the desire to (and I kind of doubt it, but it would be available if I did) I could cut some of it down and eat it. I don’t think I will, though, because to me, eating rhubarb in anything tastes like doing the reverse of barfing.