After a great reception to the launch of Newbury Pumpkin Patch in 2022, we've been working hard to significantly expand this year. We've fenced off a chunk of the Christmas tree block and packed in as many pumpkin plants as we can! Here's a little bit about how we're getting on so far.
We began by planting over 2000 seeds of varying varieties into coconut husk plugs. It was our first time experimenting with any kind of plug - we've not needed them for growing the trees before, so we weren't sure how well they would work.
Thankfully, a few days later we were greeted by some lovely green leaves. The plugs worked amazingly, and they were so much more convenient than the method we used in 2022.
While our pumpkins were beginning to sprout in the greenhouse we took to the patch, and started laying out the water lines.
This is another first for us, it seems to be working well so far - but we have had a few issues with birds poking holes in the water lines so fingers crossed that stops once the pumpkins provide some cover.
Once they were ready we cracked on and got all of the plants into the ground.
After a couple of days of creaky knees and achey backs we had them all planted and we could stand back and begin to watch them grow.
It didn't take long, a couple of weeks later and they were flourishing (admittedly it was looking a bit ropey at first - we thought we'd killed them all!)
You then go away for a weekend and come back Monday to be greeted by an explosion of leaves and the odd flower starting to open up.
It's an exciting time, the bees and insects now get to work pollenating and before you know it we'll have tiny little pumpkins starting to appear all over the sprawling vines.
We'll be continuing to post our progress as the pumpkins grow, so make sure to keep an eye on our Facebook and Instagram feeds - as well as here on the blog.