Wedding Cake & Alternatives

Just love these cake stands:
Just replace the cakes with pies:

Not exluding the idea of cake altogether, but have always liked other types of deserts better anyhow. If we do a cake (or pie), definitely leaning towards homemade. Tiramisu is an all-time most delicious desert but just wonder how it will hold up in the great outdoors.

Same sorta goes for whip cream. Maybe it will be alright on a strawberry shortcake cake?

This one will work for sure. It's super simple, but pretty anyhow.

I guess this one would work. Can't say I've had a cake with coconut though. Would definitely hide the imperfections though.

Hair

The pictures below came from Etsy.com or from AMountainBride.blogspot.com (besides the Drew Barrimore picture).

Random Pictures & Ideas

This is so simple yet so pretty of a table arrangement.

Just a cute invitation, especially for a woodsy wedding.

Very cute idea. Super easy, great way to share pictures, and wind proof for the outdoors.

It's a functional wedding program!

Old timey invite.

Wedding Dresses

Below are several dresses I looked at with Mom, Hayley, & Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn picked out the one I ended up buying. It's a very simple spaghetti strap all cotton empire waste dress.

This is a David's Bridal dress. Of all the dresses I tried on, this is the one Mom, Hayley, & Kaitlyn liked best. It's very sparkly on top and chiffon on bottom. I just didn't like it.


This dress is made by Venus Bridal and sold at a Homewood bridal store, made from linen. It fit better than any dress I have ever tried on. Bit fancy for a campground though.

All the dresses from JCrew looked exactly like what I wanted. I was too scared to order online, and since I waited until exactly one month before the wedding to start shopping, there wasn't much cushion




This is an off-white lace dress from Davids Bridal.. It fit nicely, but had a few too many sparkles and sequens. It was my favorite from David's Bridal though and reasonably priced. No woman is tall enough for this dress.

This is my favorite online dress. If it existed, I might would have even ordered it without trying it on first. Unfortunately, it was made one time for a runway show and not mass produced.

This is from indiebride. It's cute. It's casual. Maybe a bit too casual.

Location of Wedding

We'll be hvaing the ceremony at a woodsy lodge. It has one main pretty lodge and 5 rustic cabins. Next door there is canoing so that should be fun.

Chicken Coop Names

The following is just a list of other peoples chicken cook signs I've come accross.

This one's just hilarious, isn't it? Creative design of the actual sign too.This sign is modeled after an old advertisement: This one is extra cute just b/c of how old it looks, but it would probably still look cute even if it weren't all faded:

This one's alright, the chicken looks a little mean though:
This one, I love the picture. It's from an old cover to a Good Housekeeping magazine. But the wording could (should) be changed up a bit. This is the custom text some else


Finally got the chicken coop built. It's BUILT but it's not finished. Planning some final decorative touches and establish a creative name.

There are 3 blue & brown egg laying girls in there now, and it's all enclosed (top, bottom, sides).

Here's the list so far:

• Crooked Mother Cluckin Fort (or coop?. The coop is crooked plus I've quite a bit of hostility towards this coop. 1st major construction project and it's NOT pretty, like hoped & planned)


• Pullet Paddy Wagon (there's no run for them right now so it's kinda just a big jail cell)


• The Chick Ranch - Nicest Chicks in the South (ok this one's dad's idea)


• Pecker Place (or Pad?)


• Scratch Pad


• Hen House


• House of Chicks


• Pullet Place (or Pad?)


• Clutch Hutch


• Huevos Rancheros


• Clucker Coop


• Fuster Cluck


• Hen Den


• Cluck-n-Stuff


• Chez Poulette


• Gilley's Gulch (After Shirley Gilley, Moulton city clerk where we got the chickens)


• Coop DeVille

More About The Baby Chicks

Found out the 2 new babies we brought home from Ed's Pet World were 3 weeks old and came from a teacher who had hatched several chicks for a classroom project. Explains why the babies seem so traumatized. We still can't seem to make them as friendly as the original 4, although I think if I feed the black fiesty one enough worms, he may warm up to me a bit. He's always best friends with me for about three minutes after worm time. For the record, feeding baby chicks worms, is about the cutest thing I've ever seen. One will grab it, start peeping in this weird way, and running as fast as possible in circles around the brood with his prize. All the other babies will start chasing the one with the worm. Life's simple pleasures.

The original 4 are now 14 days old while the 2 new ones (and smaller ones, strangely enough) are 25 days old.

Peepers (the one using only one leg) is still , eh hem, only using one leg, but using it much better! She's starting to flap her wings a little bit (the others started flapping well over a week ago and some are almost flying outright). Once she gets good use of her wings, she'll probably be in much better shape with just her one leg. The joint isn't swollen anymore, mostly b/c she's just so good at using the one leg that she doesn't lean/limp on the other one anymore. Definitely starting to look like she'll never use that leg, but she seems happy. She's still very small compared to the one's she hatched with, but she's about the same size as the new black one (Beej). They're buddies, it seems. They snuggle. It's soo sweet. She was the loner before now.

Since the babies are getting pretty big, and I still don't have their coop ready, I've been leaving the door open to their brood (the large dog carrier w/ a light) so they can run out for a few minutes a day. At first, none of them ever left the brood even if I left the door open. I started to think, I could have stuck a lamp on a mat, and that would have worked fine for these babies. Eventually all of them, except Peepers started venturing out a bit though. But today, Peepers came out.

I keep trying to take each one outside (outside, outside) to explore, individually, but they mostly just seem scared, uninterested,.... and scared. Maybe they need to all go out together to stay brave, but I'm too scared for that :). We have a viscous cat in the neighborhood. Pebbles was out today when Normal (the cat) came creeping up. Usually Pebbles isn't afraid of me, but when I saw Normal and immediately threw my hands out to scoop up Pebbles, of course, Pebbles starting screeching and fleeing me (towards Normal of course). That was a little scary. Lesson learned: Don't act afraid around a chicken unless you want the chicken to be afraid too. They pick up on those things.

New Baby Chicks

For some reason, raising chickens has always been something I've dreamed about, but since I lived in the city, I thought it wasn't possible. Now at the ripe old age of 29 (still living in the city), I purchased 4 perfect babies. Did a good bit of research and discovered chickens are legal in the city (most at least) and decided on two breeds: Amerecauna's and Rhode Island Red's. Amerecauna's lay blue and green eggs and the birds come in all sorts of color patterns and sizes, but they usually have these cute little beards (fuzzy cheeks). Rhode Island Reds lay plenty of brown eggs and their featers are reddish/brown (very pretty). Both breeds are known to have good personalities.

When we purchased the chicks, they had just hatched. Matter-oh-fact, they were still wet. The farmer had eggs in an incubator hatching, so you could watch, wait, and carry home if you wanted (very cool). This was at the Chicken & Egg Festival in Moulton, Alabama. The chicks had a two hour ride ahead of them. It became clear, right away, how much they wanted to be warm. So each of us held one in our laps on the way home. They seemed to like that very much. They're pretty easy to read, really. They peep very loudly when they're unhappy sort of like realy babies (substitute peeping for crying).

Once we were home, they didn't seem to understand food and water just yet, so we dipped their beaks in water a few and finally it clicked. They've been eating, drinking, and pooping non-stop ever since. Truly it's amazing how much such small chicks can eat. At one day old, they were already eating a full handful of food/day.

After more time went by, it became pretty clear one of the baby chiks was having a trouble walking. She peeped a lot more than the others (thus her name, Peepers). She didn't eat as much as the others either and eventually became too weak to move aruond. So we started hand feeding / watering her, and she slowly regained her energy. At age 11 days, she still isn't using her leg (and now the joint is swollen, it seems from leaning on it and jumping around), but she does ok on one foot and eats plenty now. She's still much smaller than the others and seems to be at the bottom of the totum pole and always seems to need more rest than the others (more work hopping on one foot), but I think she'll be OK. Checked back with the Chick Farmer and he said sometimes this happens and that chickens can end up living with the use of only one leg. We'll see. She'll always be in a small group.

Anyhow, we were at Ed's Pet World in Homewood (Suburbia Homewood) and they had two baby chicks they were trying to give away. They seemed about the same size as our 4 10-day old baby chicks, so Mark brought them home. Well these two new chicks, I'm pretty sure, weren't doted on non-stop the way our 4 were, and boy do they not like us very much. We've only had them for 1 full day now, but they still peep ALL the time. Our other chicks only seem to peep loudly when they are unhappy, so I can only assume that these new baby chicks are unhappy. It was kind of funny, b/c when we first introduced the 2 new chicks, our seemingly senior chick, Ruby, went nuts! She chased and chased the two new ones around the brood. Figured they were too young for the pecking order, but apparently not. They don't really peck so much, but they certainly make it known whose boss when it's feeding time.

Now to get a coop built! Anyhow, I'll post more in the near future. That's all for now.

Growing Vegetables From Seed

I'm by no means an expert on growing seedlings. Now that I have that out of the way, I'll try to share the little bit I've learned about growing plants from seed.

Buying and growing seeds gives you a much larger pool of plant varieties to select from as a home gardener. If you are like me, you'll want to grow plants you can later collect seeds from and replant. You can't do this with most of the veggies you buy at Lowes or Walmart. They are what's called F1-Hybrids (most of the time). Hybrids have their uses. They often make great plants. Sungold tomatoes, for example, are one of my all-time favorites (though I haven't tried a ton of varieties yet. I plan to.). But with hybrids, you can't collect seeds and expect to end up with plants that are "true to type." They'll vary from their parent plant. They're mutts not pure-bred.

Assuming you have some pure-bred seed to plant, the best way to start them is in a light and fluffy type soil. Many plants will actually grow better if never transplanted. With these type plants, your best bet is directly planting the seeds in the ground outdoors when the time is right (usually after last frost for your area but depends on the plant). These type plants are usually fairly hardy seedlings and prime for a late harvest. Pumpkins are just one example. The county extension office for your state will usually tell you right when to directly seed plants for your region. Seed packets will specify what zone your state is in, but usually your town might have a much different climate from another part of the state, so check your county extension office website.

Some plants, you'll desire an early harvest but the plants won't tolerate cold conditions. Tomatoes are a good example of this type plant. This type of plant should be started indoors. The peat-moss pellet green-houses work great on a small scale. They will run you $3-$15 for 10-100 pods. A little pricey for large scale sprouting, but for small scale, it works pretty nicely.

Get your pods nice and wet and allow them to expand. Once they are nice and expanded, soft, and mushy, you can press your seeds in. A pencil works nicely for creating a hole. Some seeds will grow better resting on top of the peat (it helps if it's a little raked up or loose) and others grow better at a depth (1/4", 1", etc..). It depends on the plant. A general rule of thumb though, is to plant the seed twice as deep as the diameter of the seed.

Leave a cover on your store bought or makeshift green house (saran rap, etc..). This will keep the soil moist and the air humid. The plants should sprout within the advertised amount of time with a fairly high success rate (up to 95%) depending on the plant type and seed age. Fresh seeds are better. If you are saving your seed, that's a whole different article. Once the seeds sprout, remove the cover and add light. A well-lit window or lamp will work. The lamp will contribute to warming the soil which will benefit the speedy growth of the plant. Many plants grow best at 75 or 80 degrees which is slightly warmer than most people's homes.

Another important factor, besides loose, soft, fluffy soil and adequate water is temperature. Seeds won't sprout in any temperature, but if you are growing in your home, chances are the temperature is right. Many seeds grow best when the temperature changes from one range (cold) to another range (warm) and will grow much better if chilled first. Depends on the seed, but most standard varieties aren't too fussy and will grow just fine without chilling.

Once the plants are sprouted and have formed their true leaves (they'll look different than the 1st two leaves that sprouted), you can do one of three things:

• Let it develop in the peat pod for a direct transfer outdoors at a later time
• Move it to a newer / bigger container to allow more growing time indoors because it's outgrown it's peat pod and it's too cold outside
• Move it outside. Before you move it outside, though, you'll want to harden your plants for optimal growth and least transplant shock. Your seedlings will no doubt be very tender from being grown in near perfect conditions. When they're tender, they grow fast but die easily
  

The environment in the garden is virtually guaranteed to be more harsh than the environment within your house. So, harden seedlings firt. Start by taking the plants outdoors on a mild day and placing in indirect sunlight for a few hours (1-2 hours at first). Then start exposing to direct light for short periods of time in the morning or late evening. Then leave outdoors in direct sun for 1/2 day for a couple of days. The entire process should take a minimum of one week. Two weeks wouldn't hurt. Now the plants should be hardened a bit and ready for transplant. It's best to transplant on a cloudy / overcast day (best) or late in the day (second best).

If your plants aren't too large, and the dirt isn't too compacted, your best bet is to move the transplant straight into the soil disturbing the roots as little as possible. If it's compacted, break it up a tiny bit, but be careful because the plants are tender and will go into shock if disturbed too much. The plants might (or might not) survive shock, but it will set them back in growing for a while.

If you want a lower mortality rate among seedlings, then follow these intructions.

Perennial Vegetables & Super Self Seeders

For several years now, gardening has become more and more a time consuming function of our family. It dawned on me, there's got to be an easier way to "Grow Your Own". There have to be SOME perennial vegetables, right? If you read my asparagus article, you know there's at least one, but I was curious to know more. "Super self seeders" are includes in this article too, meaning plants reseeding with no extra effort on my part. Honestly, some plants, it's hard to tell if they're reseeding or resprouting.

Let me clarify by saying, much of my descriptions on these plants, is just my experience, and may not be the behavior of these plants accross the board. We live in zone 7 of Alabama, so we're speaking of plant behavior in this location. Also, some of these plants I've never grown and am just sharing what I've learned from others:

-- Asparagus - See my earlier article for more on this great plant. It will produce up to 25 years and is a very pretty fern during it's off season. If you buy all males, they'll produce more. If you buy females, you'll end up with lots of baby asparagus. Either way, they're perennials.

-- Fruit Trees: I'm not arguing against buying your fruit trees from reputable nurserys where they'll place one variety of fruit tree on another's rootstock for various reasons, but I've known many people to grow from seed/pit with great success. It takes longer and you might (or might not) have a wimpier tree. If money's tight, experiment with a seed or pit. Can't hurt. If you are interested in growing fruit trees, definitely do your research before selecting a variety. Some are more work them others. Some need more/less water. Some produce more/less fruit. Some require polinators or more than one pollinator! I made the mistake of buying a Mutsu (or Crispin) apple tree. This tree has sterile pollen meaning it requires two other varieties. One to pollinate it, and another to pollinate the pollinator. I ended up with three apple trees when all I really wanted was one. Live and learn.

• Apples - Granny Smith is a good variety for Alabama. Some even claim it's a self - pollinator. Besides crab apples, it's one of very few 'self pollinating' apple trees, though the tree experts say it will produce much better with a cross pollinator (another variety of apple tree).
  
• Peaches - Very pretty and tastey too! Usually (if not always) a self pollinator


• Pears - Usually (if not always) a cross pollinator


• Figs -


• Pomegranite - always grown from seed rather than rootstock. Fairly unproductive tree, overall
  
• Mulberry - Makes giant blackberry looking fruits except on a tree


• Cherries - Will have to fight to keep your fruit. Birdies love this stuff.


• Plums - short lived for a tree


• Non-astringent Persimmon - oriental fruit, massive producer of fruit if grown properly. The non-astringent variety is better tasting, in my opinion, because you can eat it right off the tree when it's still firm like an apple.


• Citrus - Meyer's lemon, Satsuma (tangerines), Kumquat, Limequat, Lemonquat. These are all more cold hardy varieties of citrus than your standard variety but would still require protection in the winter. Meyers lemon is grown from seed (not rootstock) even at nurseries.

-- Nut trees:

• Pecans work alot like apples. You have to have two different varieties to pollinate eachother. Strange but true.


• Chestnut, (lots more I'm sure) .

-- Fruit Bushes: Do your research on fruit bushes regarding pollinators. Blueberries, for example, require two different species to pollinate eachother. Blackberries are fine individually.

• Blueberries - needs 2 varieties with similar bloom time to cross pollinate


• Elderberry


• Blackberries - in Alabama, you probably have some of these growing wild in your backyard, but there are actually cultivated varieties with fewer seeds, bigger berries, and fewer/no thorns


• Raspberries - self pollinating
  
• Cranberries - saw these for sale at Home Depot, surprisingly


• Currants - even the bark smells good
  
• Lingonberries - these berries are served at IKEA's cafeteria in case you're thinking "What's a lingonberry?"
  
  

-- Grape or Muscadine Vine - In Alabama, chances are you already have some muscadine growing somewhere in your backyard, but there are great cultivated varieties available too, particularly at Petals From The Past in Jemison, Alabama. They have a u-pick orchard, and offer classes on growing techniques. Great place.

-- Kiwi Vine - This plant has weed-like growth habits and requires regular pruning. It's heavy and destructive without proper support. Must have a male and a female to produce fruit. Takes 5-7 years to start fruiting. There are the "fuzzy kiwis" like you see in the grocery store, the smooth variety, and even a golden variety. The golden variety is interestingly different, a little softer and less tangy than the fuzzy variety. I vote for the green stuff. The kid votes for the gold.

-- Rhubard: This plant will keep producing for up to 20 years. It can be used to make pie and jams. Never even tasted the stuff.

-- Artichoke - Each exotic looking plant grows to about 6 feet in height & diameter. The bush produces approximately 40-60 veggies per season, once mature. Harvest from spring through autumn. The plants lifespan is five years. The vegetable will stay fresh once picked for a few weeks.

-- Passion Flower - This is a BEAUTIFUL flower and it makes an edible fruit too. I'm guessing it's reseeding rather than regrowing, because of how it's always moving around each year. I actually have it all over my backyard, and never knew what it was or that it was edible until some recent research. This year, I'll definitely try some.

-- Horseradish - this is a historical plant with references in Greek mythology and ancient Egypt. This low maintenance perennial's roots can be dug up in spring and fall, broken off, and replanted. New growth is the most tastey and pungent. The strong aroma isn't noticable until the root is ground up and exposed to air. Care must be taken to prevent this root from overtaking your garden.

-- Lettuce Plants:

• Arugula - That this plant is a perennial was a surprise to me, but it survived recent snow storms and cold winters fine in my garden. It not only is perennial, it's evergreen, and very, very prolific. It drops seeds and sprouts effortlessly. In case you are wondering what Arugula is, it's a nutty tasting lettuce plant. I, personally, don't like eating pure Arugula in a salad, but it's tastey mixed with Spinach, which leads me to the next vegetable.
  
• New Zealand Spinach - This is a spinach variety suited to hot weather and is disease and pest resistent unlike the standard spinach varieties. It's very good at reseeding and is known as an heirloom variety. Interestingly, the spinach is rarely eaten by it's indigenous people and is known more as a weed there.


• Radicchio - aka Chickory - It is perennial through mild winters. Haven't grown it yet, but plan to. Might be interesting to make the chicory out of it and add to coffee.


• Simpson Lettuce - haven't grown this, but it's supposed to reseed nicely.

-- Lots of Herbs (not a complete list):

• Parsley (biannual ot perennial, but combined with it's reseeding capabilities, it makes the list)


• Rosemary - evergreen
  
• Lavendar


• Sage - sticks around for as long as you have mild winters


• Thyme - It grows back, but always weaker than the year before unless you divide it


• Catnip


• Chives


• Garlic - So long as you leave a clove in the ground or else dry and replant


• Shallot - So long as you leave a clove in the ground or else dry and replant


• Mint


• Tarragon


• Fennel


• Lemon balm

-- Ginger

-- Strawberries - produces for 2 - 3 years

Learned quite a bit just from writing this article. Will have to try an all new approach in the garden next year. This year's mapped out already.

Planting Asparagus

Ahh, asparagus. Ok, so the above picture isn't mine. But it's what I'm shooting for!

There are two things I really enjoy: gardening and researching gardening. So in my ongoing search for the perfect garden vegetable, I came across the asparagus. I never gave it too much consideration before now for two reasons:

• You don't usually see this plant for sale in the run of the mill garden shops.
  
• Asparagus really aren't my favorite vegetable. They're good, just not my favorite.
  
  

So what makes this vegetable so great?

1. It's one of the few perennial vegetables. Some people claim 25 years production from a single plant. Each foot long section of row can allegedly produce 1 pound of veggie matter per growing season. It only takes a little while to figure out how much work it is to "Grow Your Own" and asparagus takes a little work out of it.



2. Although you have to wait a while for that initial crop, the plants are ornamental in addition to edible. They are beautiful feathery fern like plants for much of the summer and fall. Most folks cut the stalks back after the first freeze. Supposed to help with disease or something.



3. Once the asparagus beds are established, they form a tight knit root network that helps prevent weeds from surfacing.



4. The plants are among the most drought tolerant of vegetables. They want their roots to be cool though, so you have to bury them deep. They don't like to sit in water either, so you have to make the soil sandy / loamy.
   

VARIETY:
At the local super garden center in Birmingham, the only variety around was a male/female mix of Martha Washington crowns. Crowns are root bundles (no leaves) that are 1 - 2 years old. We bought a 6-pack for $3.98. Actually we bought 4 6-packs. I just couldn't stop myself. We were in danger of not having room for all the plants. The male/female mixed variety will have the added benefit (or down-side depending on how you look at it) of growing red berries that will drop to grow new asparagus plants. The energy spent growing these little red berries allegedly reduces crop yield a bit over the competition which is an all male hybrid called Jersey Giant or Jersey Night. It wasn't exactly competition for me though. All they had, at the store I went to, was Martha Washington, and I was ready to plant me some asparagus. You can also start asparagus as seed, but that requires a little bit more attention and effort. I personally, just don't have room in my tiny house for any more starter peat moss pellet pallets.

Occasionally you'll see a more expensive white asparagus at the grocery store. White and Green asparagus are actually the same variety, but white takes a little more effort to grow. You can force asparagus white by not allowing the stalks to receive sunlight. This is achieved by creating mounds of dirt around the emerging stalks.

PLANTING:
Now that I was home with my bundles of crowns, I had to get these suckers into the ground. I immediately tore open the bag, just to see what they all looked like only to realize, I probably should have had my ground dug up and ready for all these plants, especially with them now lying in the open sun, baking. I quickly stuffed them back in the bag and hid them under a piece of paper to get them out of direct sunlight. I started a trench about the width of a standard shovel and 12" deep (easier said than done). Next, I poured about 2" of peat moss in. Then I sprinkled it with a fertilizer and mixed it in with the peat. Then I took the asparagus plants and stuck them in the peat, and surrounded them. It was funny, because I remember reading that "crowns" were just roots but my little plants looked like a little root knot with a bunch of chopped off asparagus stalks growing up. I was so proud, planting these little guys bundle/knot thingy down ward and pointed-end upward. It suddenly dawned on me, that I really wasn't sure if those were "chopped off asparagus stalks." I darted inside, and googled images of asparagus crowns. Well the "chopped off asparagus stalks" were really "chopped off roots" so they needed to go down not up. I ran back outside and turned them all around. This time, I fanned them all out like an octopus with the "knot" pointed up instead. Usually roots are so tiny, these things were big. Not sure if all crown packs come like that or not.

Anyhow, all the plants are in the ground now (as of yesterday). Hopefully, they'll grow into something big and beautiful.

Pumpkins Grown By Milk

I read a few months ago, in Farmer Boy by Laura Ingals Wilder, that you could grow a pumpkin to be huge if you replaced water with milk. I did some research and it said that all you have to do is fill a syringe with milk and tear off all the flowers except one and then stick the syringe in the stem and let the milk go in. Here are the instructions from http://www.ehow.com/:

Things You’ll Need:
Pumpkin seeds
Sharp knife
Clippers
String or wick
Covered pan
Milk, preferably 2%
Manure
Spray bottle
Syringe
Step1Decide on the method you would like to use to grow a milk-fed pumpkin. You can also select several plants and use different techniques to see what works best. Who knows, maybe you'll find your pumpkin sporting a blue ribbon at the state fair.
Step2Use the classic method to grow a milk-fed pumpkin. Choose a healthy-looking pumpkin about the size of a softball and trim all other flowers from the vine. You want the all of plant's energy and nutrition directed towards the one pumpkin.
Step3Make a small slit in the stem approximately 3 inches from the pumpkin. Do not cut too deeply since you only need to insert the wick or string 1/4 of an inch into the stem. Insert one end of the wick into the slit and the other into a covered pan placed in a small hole next to the pumpkin.
Step4Fill a bowl with milk and one tablespoon of sugar. Check the bowl every day to make sure the milk has not soured or been soaked up by the pumpkin. Two percent milk is recommended, but you can dilute whole milk if you choose. Check the wick to make sure it hasn't come loose from the vine.
Step5Use milk as fertilizer if you choose not to use the bowl and wick method. This works best if mixed with manure and ground-up fish. Another approach is to pour a cup of milk around the roots of the pumpkin every day. It's believed that bacteria grow in the enzymes because the milk is warm.
Step6Spray the leaves of the plant with milk. This method is used in New Zealand and is believed to strengthen the leaves of the plant and enhance fruit production. Scientists claim the phosphates in the milk are responsible for the positive effects. Another way to grow a milk-fed pumpkin is to inject milk into the stem with a syringe.

Gardening For Kids

I am an eleven year old girl that has just started to garden. The first thing I did was start tilling some dirt in my back yard and plant some onions I bought. It was simple for my first real garden and, of course, was very proud of myself. I also started a milk fed pumpkin and is growing in a milk carton ( see Milk Pumpkin Project). I have also started buying the little boxes of peat pods and plant seeds in them.
Peat pod houses are good for growing your plants really fast. I grew some bachelor buttons, sunflowers, and cucumbers in a week (sprouting, not fully in bloom). I recomend these boxes of pods for beginers and for pros because they are much easier for growing plants than planting seeds in the ground.