My youngest daughter has been home schooled since October 2009. As part of her schooling, we joined the Junior Landcare pumpkin challenge. You are sent a packet of Yates Atlantic Giant pumpkin seeds and have to weigh in monthly and also submit pictures of your pumpkin. Unfortunately I don't think she will be a contender for biggest pumpkin this year as so far we only have flowers but no pumpkins yet. However, she has learnt about bees and pollination, seasonal eating and is having fun as well. Thankfully grasshoppers don't seem to like pumpkin leaves. One of our observations has been that there we haven't seen any cicada shells this season which my kids usually have a collection of.I have now sent in my application to join my local Landcare group to be more involved in caring for the environment beyond our boundary fence. I'm not sure what kinds of activities this involves but it something to look forward to.
Tracy
3 comments:
Hi Tracy, I've changed the link on my blog - thanks for letting me know.
I've been known to help the pumpkin fertilisation process along just in case the bees fall down on the job. It's just a matter of picking a male flower (flowers without a swelling at the base) and introudcing the stamen to the female flower.
you could also get a paint brush and brushing over the pollen from one flower to the next, I've been told that helps?
Also a big thank you for commenting on my blog, I hope to see you back again.
Gill in Canada
Oh how wonderful for her to learn that process,I had pumpkin growing here once but that dang wallabies ate them, cheeers Vickie
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