Jack Frost and the Great 2012 Heap Update

Wild grape turning color on Eastern Cedar

It had to happen sooner or later.
That's how summer works, it's hot, dry, it rains, the wind blows, leaves change color, and it all comes to an end.
 It freezes. 








  Three degrees of frost  -3C isn't that cold--but it tends to end the garden season.  Doesn't that figure? Just when things are getting good.  Tomatoes ripening. Swiss chard getting big. Potatoes swelling,  Zucchini proliferating.   Enter Jack Frost.  Garden zip.

What about the famous heap?  This is a one heap of an update. Gadzooks!   Heap technology works.

2012 Heap Gone MAD

We pulled the pumpkins and spaghetti squash from the heap, and a few  odds and ends from the garden too.
Check out the loot from the HEAP.  Isn't this amazing?  One heap, yes, that heap,  the wild one,  the  one and only!

Spaghetti Squash (  102) and three kinds of Pumpkins (76)

Even T.T.T. (Tilly the Tall)  is so impressed she decided to stand guard. Well, sleeping or not, she's hard at it.   See?

T.T.T. guarding the Pumpkins and  Spaghetti Squash from the Heap

See the white pumkins? They're special, they were planted by the little  apple inspector. He hasn't seen them yet, and reportedly,   he has to get his pumpkin inspector's license first.

We even have the decorative type of pumpkins or gourds . See these?  Big, small, and weenie!  Striped and plain.  For comparative purposes only.   Nice desk decorations, but they certainly don't taste good.

 Maybe Uncle Mac over at the shed has some ideas how to magically turn them into some kind of  Unlikely gourmet fast food!

Decorative Gourds and Pumpkins:  Eat Not*

*  A necessary digression:   These gourd things taste terrible. So much for that idea, but they do look nice, don't they? Maybe we can store bent nails in them instead.
 Planting gourds anywhere in proximity to  pumpkins, squash or cucumbers in your garden is a terrible idea. They can cross-pollinate and your prized pumpkins, et al  can  turn out to be very bitter just like these pretty little things!  Good thing we learned that lesson the  hard way a few years ago --so  no, they were not planted  anywhere near the   Great Heap of 2012!


Now what?   Get ready for winter, of course! The heap is once again bald, all vines having been removed, so it will be modified and set up for next year. More organic stuff shall be buried in it to maintain the excellent soil quality.

Scientific conclusion:   What a great experiment!   Oops...I forgot...about the count.  It was wrong.    
 Come to think of it, truth be known ----...before THIS heap of loot was harvested, we had already given away a dozen or so new  spaghetti squash --and pumpkins too--- and still have  102 spaghetti squash --and 76 pumpkins under T.T.T.'s watchful eye......so yes, we can safely say:                 "Heap technology works! "

*Addendum:  A casual bit of information for  survivalists and anyone interested in  extended food preservation, ---it should be mentioned that in storage,  we still have a dozen spaghetti squash that remain in good condition -- left over from the 2011 growing season.  After a whole year, these squash  are still in good eating condition because they store  well --apparently for a very long time. 

Is that Incoming I hear?