hand pollination. grow pumpkin, grow!

My little pumpkin garden consumes my thoughts.  I so want to be able to grow at least one pumpkin!  One pumpkin!  I have such a deep love for fall and at this point in summer, I am ready to kick the hot weather goodbye and welcome crisp mornings and crunchy leaves.  Reasonable goals, yes?

I've been fretting the last week or so because although I see little female blooms waiting to burst open, none have.  We have lots of male flowers, waiting to do their thing, but no females to flirt with.  I've been researching like crazy, finding out all sorts of interesting pumpkin facts.  I am now a wealth of pumpkin knowledge y'all.

Lo and behold, the last two mornings (yes, I check on my pumpkin plant every morning), I have spied a female bloom.  Open.  Waiting to be pollinated!  And the bees, they are no where to be found.  We have a helluva lot of wasps.  They are pesky and rude and I am terribly scared every time I am lovingly tending my garden they will attack.  Yes attack!  They little buggers are aggressive and extremely NOT friendly.  But back to the bees or no bees actually.  We don't have any.  And so I did what any normal pumpkin loving person would do, I looked up how to self-pollinate.  I looked it up and I did it.  Did you hear that people, I violated those lovely flowers and am making baby pumpkins.  It was so satisfying because today I noticed that the female bloom fell off and we have a teeny tiny wee little pumpkin.  My heart is singing.  And dancing.

Such a silly thing to get over the top excited about but I am.  I am excited.