Originally Posted by David Hare-Scott[_2_]

silky951 wrote:
Hi there, new to the forum so hello!!

Right, i'm not a real gardener infact i hate gardening full stop, ive
even put blue slate chips down where the grass was so i do not need to
cut the grass anymore.

But, i have a little bit of soil space against my fence which is about
3 foot by 10 foot, and I use this space every year to grow things so i
can sit in the back garden on a summers evening and watch what ive
planted. I make lots of home brew ales, and while i sit in the garden
on an evening i have a few pints and just take in the bits and bobs i
have grown through the summer months, these are just the usual stuff a
few onions, cabbage, peas, and potatoes etc (not in the same year i
try to grow different things each year)

Right, This year I put in a few pumpkin seeds, they grew really nice
and lovely yellow flowers appeared dropped off, and then nothing,
after they had been pollinated i expected the flowers to fall and a
pumpkin appear from somewhere, and grow.

nothing has happened at all, but where the flowers where the stalks
have swollen like little broadbean shaped things.

here are a couple of pics hopefully you can see them but they are from
a mobile phone so not great quality.

any advice on what went wrong, or why no pumpkins came please.

[image: http://i29.tinypic.com/2ytr59j.jpg]

[image: http://i27.tinypic.com/24uxhxt.jpg]

Those are not pumpkins they are some sort of brassica (cabbage family)
possibly broccoli gone to seed. They are badly eaten by some bug, probably
cabbage moth but I cannot see clearly enough. The little broadbean like
things are the seed pods of the brassica and they are not generally eaten
although you could save some of the oldest for seed for next year. The
leaves or immature flowering head of such veges are the parts generally
eaten but I wouldn't eat those. Pull them out and stop feeding the bugs.

As to what went wrong - I don't know where to start. Maybe you could get a
book from the library on basic vege growing that has pictures. One step you
need to take if you really want to grow something edible is to plant the
right thing for your climate at the right time of year. If your climate is
cold with a short summer it may not be possible to grow pumpkins at all. As
you haven't told us where you are I cannot give specific advice.

David