This being the first summer in my retirement, I vowed to keep up with weeding the pumpkin patch. When they were little sprouts on their widely separated hills, I'd run the tiller between them every week or so to remove most of the weeds, then hand-weed close to and on the hills.

Once they started running, they totally covered the patch. Tall weeds are growing among the vines but I can't get to them to pull them out without risking stepping on pumpkin vines and crushing them.

Maybe I shouldn't worry about it, the pumpkins are thriving, spreading out as far as they can go, and there are already a variety of pumpkins and squash forming on the vines.

Paul