The Gardeners Anonymous Blog

How to Personalize Your Pumpkins

My girlfriend showed me the pumpkins she was growing for her daughters. The pumpkins were still small. She told me that another friend of hers had carved her kids’ names in the pumpkins and that as the pumpkins grew bigger, their names grew bigger, a different kind of pumpkin carving.

My first thought was that this would cause the pumpkin to rot. Evidently not. It works quite well, really.

When the pumpkins are small, take something such as the end of a paper clip and scratch a name or a word or a design on the pumpkin. It’s like a balloon, the bigger the pumpkin gets, the bigger the design gets.

My girlfriend used a paperclip to scratch the outer layer of the pumpkin skin. Be careful not to stick your scratching implement all the through into the center of the pumpkin. That would probably make it rot.

Stumble It!

Green Thumb Sunday

Orange roses. Moonstone Beach, Cambria, California.
Gardeners, as well as plant and nature lovers, can join Green Thumb Sunday every Sunday. Visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

How to Keep Weeds Out Of Your Vegetable Garden.

Today a neighbor asked me how to keep weeds out of his vegetable garden.

It is important to keep weeds out of your vegetable garden because weeds will deplete the soil’s nutrients—the ones meant for your veggies.

My favorite organic and easy way to keep weeds out of the garden is with newspaper and mulch. Hey, you’re recycling while providing a bit of light reading for your plants.

The first step is to remove all unwanted vegetation from the area that you want to keep weed-free. You can do this by using a sharp hoe and cutting the roots right below the soil. Or you can just yank them out by hand. It depends on how many weeds you have.

After all the weeds and unwanted plants are removed, put down a layer of newspaper about eight sheets thick, and completely cover the area. The newspaper will keep the sun from reaching the soil, therefore preventing weed germination.

Then simply place mulch, such as chips, over the newspaper. This looks a lot better then the classified section laying there in the middle your garden, plus, you’ll need the weight on the paper so it doesn’t end up in your neighbor’s yard.

The newspaper will eventually decompose, but in the meantime—no weeds.