Since we are still having days that are in the mid 70’s I don’t have the heart to buy a truckload of pumpkins only to see them go bad mid-October.
There is nothing like an early pumpkin purchase gone wrong to cure you of ever wanting to purchase them too early again.
While I share the shots of this year’s Fall Front Porch I will revisit the epic fail I am referring too in the not so distant past.
I give you Fall 2014.
I decided that in my vast knowledge of pumpkin growing and carving, that I would take a risk that year.
I was going to be different.
People were going to stop and ask me how I kept my pumpkins looking so freshly carved for weeks.
I prepared well in advance, grew a bunch of pumpkins and bought a few as well.
The ghost pumpkins, and giant knobby gourds were all scattered about, lovingly placed around a collection of carved pumpkins.
I was pretty sure as the last pumpkin was placed a tiny Tinkerbell type creature hovered and sprinkled fairy dust, thus blessing my choice to carve those glorious pumpkins WAY TO DANG EARLY.
I know it happened to other people, but I really felt like I had a chance to prove my vegetable oil theory once and for all.
You brush it inside the pumpkin and seal the moisture in.
Yeah I know, not very high tech but I seriously hoped/thought/prayed it would work.
Well, since this is the Pacific Northwest you can guess what happened next.
It rained.
And rained.
Then it rained a bit more….the days were damp and cloudy.
Two more great check-the-box things to do, keep them out of sunlight and keep them from drying out. So even though it was raining those pumpkins had the moisture they needed to not dry out right?
I WAS A WINNER OF EPIC PROPORTIONS AT THIS POINT.
I felt like nothing could hurt these beautiful pumpkins, not on my watch.
Until, that is, I found the first slug.
Slugs in this part of the US are a few inches long and are born to destroy what you have planted.
That is their job.
I know God created them for a reason which I have not discovered besides destroying a 40-something’s pumpkin dreams, but they surely have another purpose.
Word obviously had spread to neighboring slugs as they pretty much overnight invaded my porch, covered my sweet little creations with slime, and pretty much ruined my life all in one night.
Ok, that was extreme.
But I was not happy as I schlepped each gross pumpkin back to the compost pile.
Vowing that I would never again carve too early.
Reassuring myself that something must have gone wrong.
But at the end of the day, remembering I live in the midst of the slug capital of the entire universe.
And from then on out, I would never, ever carve a pumpkin or decorate with real pumpkins too early.
Especially when weeks later the dog was found eating their fermented innards and was rushed to the vet only to be diagnosed as “pumpkin drunk.”
I am telling you, these are the real risks you take when carving too early, trying to do the right thing by composting, and having a lush for a dog.
So, now that you know what type of blog this really is, and what type of pumpkin person I am, I hope you will keep coming back.
And I hope you will now see why I have clusters of fabric, velvet, and any other type of pumpkin besides the real deal.
For now that is.
This year I will be using a bit of bleach on them and only put them out days before the 31st of October.
And I will not allow the pooch to have access to them.
That is my new plan, I will of course share with you how it all goes.
In the meantime this is my farmhouse style front porch, and you can see the before and after of our Farmhouse Style Church Pew here.
And our washed canvas pumpkin tutorial here. They are so easy to make and I love them!
And they are slug-resistant needless to say (:
So there you have it, a simple wreath, a garland I have had forever, some pretty little pumpkins and a blanket for good measure. This is our fall front porch, all decked out in some farmhouse goodness, and not a pumpkin-drunk dog in sight.
Thank you as always for reading this little blog of mine friend, I would love it oh so much if you shared, tweeted and PINNED this post all over the place.
xo, Tanya
linking up to: http://www.savvysouthernstyle.net/
And these awesome parties: https://twelveoeightblog.com/awesome-link-parties
8 Responses
LOL! I hear ya, I cannot real pumpkins outside A because of the heat here and B I might have pumpkin drunk bunnies! Your porch looks SO lovely! Pinned!
You know I have not thought about the bunnies until now, I will really be keeping an eye on those composting pumpkins this time! Thank you Katrin, xoxo
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