Monday, November 24, 2008

A Very Belated Pumpkin Party Wrap-Up


Time has passed quickly here at Muddy Paws. The dog has turned two and is now absolutely no calmer than she was at one when we adopted her. However, the garden is surviving her.

And the garden seems to have survived our annual pumpkin carving party. We had over 140 people this year -- about 60 children between the ages of 2 and 12. That was crazy.


The best thing I did to protect the garden was to take the time to pound in about 40 stakes (maybe 2.5' high?) and to staple holiday lights to them.* It wasn't enough to be a true barrier (if someone just had to trample upon my scotch broom, they could) but it was a polite and gentle reminder to stay out of the garden!


We also moved the carving activities out to the alley. This kept the seeds and the guts out of the lawn and garden soil. I expect I will still have to weed out some pumpkin sprouts in the spring but fewer than in previous years.

It rained for one hour of the party, but then we had a tremendous rainbow and it was beautiful for the remaining two hours.



The pizza was delicious. The beer, our local Legend's Brown Ale, got rave reviews. The pumpkins were amazing. And check out this incredible flower arrangement my friend Jennifer gave us for the party!


It was a wonderful afternoon. The next post will be much more current!


*I'm not sure I would recommend this technique, I shocked myself twice.