Why didn’t anyone tell me how ugly Pumpkin plants are?

I have gone down the road of many homeowners and 6 months ago planted quite a sizable vege garden. This was done with the big idea to get the kids involved in gardening, have an outside interest, and start teaching them a little about finance. I financial whiz of a friend gave me the idea to start the kids on their entrepreneurial road early in life and have them tend the garden, grow lots of veges and sell them to me, and then invest their money into more plants, fertilizer, reproduce more veges and sell to me, etc.  I am sure you get the picture. My 4 year old was not overly interested but my 6 year old thought it was a great idea and was very enthusiastic for about 4.5 minutes. But I thought it was a great idea, especially as I make my living out of supporting artists and designers who make, produce and create for a living. I would love to pass on the message to my kids to embrace their creativity and do what they love in life rather than be stuck in a profession for life that doesn’t make them happy.

We did grow some beautiful celery, and have a great crop of cherry tomatoes and that was about the extent of it, even though we had zucchini, squash, carrots, the list goes on, growing. No success there. So we moved on as you do, can’t live in the past can you. I planted herbs (that died) and pumpkin. Why did I do that? Ugly, soo ugly. And it produced nothing, just overran the vege patch and my lawn.

So it was completely pulled out on Saturday and replaced with flower seeds...... A lot of fun was had by the kids and me however I did have the misfortune of encountering a small cane toad which was disappointing and meant I could not enter the left hand side of the garden for at least 24 hours (slight toad phobia). However I have a fearless 4 year old boy that would probably pick the ugly thing up and deposit it somewhere more appropriate then my backyard with little encouragement. Anyway we now have a beautiful patch of dirt that will produce a mass of colouring flowers in 14 -16 weeks. Yah. Pictures will follow....... maybe depending on the success, don’t hold your breath.