Ok, so a few weeks back, my 5-year-old niece and I were playing around out front and we pushed some old pumpkin seeds (that I had found in my junk drawer and that I know are at least 3 years old) down into the soil of my front flower bed. Well, to my amazement, I now have a beautiful pumpkin plant that is thriving right in the front of my house. Now, I've never dealt with pumpkins before and according to my internet research, this plant could take over the whole flower bed if I let it. I want to let it grow and see if I can at least get one nice pumpkin from it in the fall. Do any of you have any tips or knowledge of "The Great Pumpkin Plant" that you could share with me? My husband is not too thrilled about it and threatened to weed eat it, but I want to prove him wrong .

 All I know is that pumpkins are the easiest thing in the world to grow, given the right conditions and it sounds like you have the right conditions. It WILL take over your yard (they can spread as much as 12 feet in either direction but they don't usually cover a circular area) and if you want pumpkins, you have to let it grow as big as it wants, because the pumpkins are produced out on the stems. If you want just one pumpkin, you can break off any babies that form, or break off the flowers before they open. If the plant just bears one pumpkin, it will put a lot of energy into it, so it will be a large one.

I grew enough pumpkins for our (large!) extended family on two pumpkin vines one year. They're fun to grow.

Thanks Pat! I'm excited to see what it will do! Have you ever heard of a milk-fed pumpkin? I read about it in a children's book where a little fella who was growing a pumpkin wicked milk through a string from a pan of milk to a slit in the vine........hmmmm......COUNTY FAIR, HERE I COME!

That is from the Little House books. It does work if you keep at it. My boys tried it last year but didn't keep up with it. I don't mind using the milk method because we have an ample supply of it, but I don't think I'd use $4 a gallon milk lol!

We have a volunteer plant that started on the top of a pile of pine needles and leaves and debris from raking the yard. It's growing almost as well as the plants that we put between the corn. They are climbing up our 6-7 ft corn stalks.  The pumpkins seem to grow much better with the corn than in their own individual row.

 I've heard of feeding pumpkins milk, but never tried it. I wonder if it's the calcium in it?

 I don't know about the calcium, or what does it, but it makes for the prettiest pumpkins!  They have more of a pink-ish hue when they're milk-fed, almost a peach color, very attractive and easy to spot from regular pumpkins.  I wonder if affects the taste any...Liz

I didn't think about the cost of milk and I don't have a cow.....hmmmm....I may just have a regular pumpkin this year! lol....but i do wonder what it is in the milk that makes them do so well?

 I got curious enough to go Googling, and found this on the GardenWeb forums:

http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/load/giants/msg0413254613049.html 

Interesting thread. My friend and I just planted some pumpkins, thinking that with the heat we have had we may get one or two this year. Last year I grew a couple of pumpkins and the vines were 12 ft. in either direction. Like Pat said, they are easy and fun to grow. One variety I am growing is a grey pumpkin, LOL, reminds me of brains. Hope I get a couple for Halloween.

I've never heard of a grey pumpkin, but seems like you could get real creative with those at Halloween! A tin man or a robot jack-o-lantern would be cool!