Musings about Pumpkins and How to Grow Them

Last year I started my pumpkin plants waaaaaay too late, August to be exact in Oklahoma. I'm not sure why I did that, I guess I just wanted to see what would happen. Well. I saw the seeds at Lowe's in August and thought it would be cool to try. They ended up getting powdery mildew and produced one small pumpkin which I promptly picked and put in my sitting area.

This year I made sure to get the seeds out in early June. I piled four mounds of garden soil and organic compost, each with 5 pumpkin seeds. I covered with cedar mulch to try to help keep the soil from washing away. This is what they look like today:

Notice the bloom on this one, top right?

This one mentioned above with the bloom has a little boy bloom.
 How do I know this is a boy? I Googled it, of course. 
Boys will have a long shoot with a bloom at the end, like this. 
Little girl blooms are much closer to the vine.
 I don't have a girl yet, but I'll be sure and provide a photo when I do

Little Pumpkin Plants

Planted some Lilly Miller seeds a couple of weeks ago, this is what they look like now. Apparently they don't mind growing in sand. I added a little garden soil and organic compost to the rows as I was planting. Hopefully I have enough time here before the first frost to see a few large Jack O' Lanterns!

How they look today 9/12/2015:

You should continue to add organic compost and cow manure underneath the plants in the direction that they are growing.