During the spring and summer of this year, I tried growing a garden. It didn't do well. Only the wax beans really succeeded, and they only grew tolerably well. I managed to grow one beautiful pumpkin plant and one lovely cucumber plant. Although they looked healthy, these two plants failed utterly. I also planted them right next to each other. My cucumber had the beginnings of a few fruits a few days ago, but they'll never survive with the cold weather we're getting. My pumpkin plant hardly did any better. A couple months ago, it managed to grow what promised to be quite a lovely little pumpkin...before some creature visited my garden in the middle of the night and ate it. By the time autumn arrived, my pumpkin vine only sported three fruits. Two that were too tiny to have any future, and one seriously and oddly deformed little pumpkin...or was it a pumpkin? Although I could see my pumpkin was probably not ready, I decided to harvest it anyway to save it from the cold weather. I gloomily showed off my failure to my family. The gourd surprised my brothers, frightened my mother, and disgusted my dad. I sadly put my poor excuse of a yield into the garage to await Halloween.
Which brings us to today. Despite my sorrow, I was curious to see what my pumpkin looked like on the inside. My brother Aaron was busily carving all the nice, normal pumpkins we bought at a Parowan pumpkin patch. That alone was an interesting experience, but that is another story. Anyway, I opened my pumpkin and strange sights and smells greeted me. My pumpkin looked a little too solid inside, many of its wimpy seeds were embedded in the flesh, and it smelled vaguely of cucumber, On tasting its innards (which actually taste quite nice. the flavor is rather sweet.) both my mom and I agreed in detecting a faint taste of cucumber. This leads me to believe that this unfortunate gourd is really no pumpkin at all. Nor is it a cucumber. In that case, it must be a pumpkumber! Or a cucumpkin? I'll go with pumpkumber for now; that's a little easier to say. But I'll take votes for what we should call it! Oh dear, oh dear. Dad warned me this may happen. I was complaining to him that the bees must not be doing their jobs. I had no cucumbers and very few pumpkins, so the bees were obviously not pollinating my plants' lovely flowers. My dad then told me it was my own fault for planting my garden too late. Then he wondered aloud whether cross-pollination was possible between pumpkins and cucumbers, concluding that it probably was.
Knowing what I know now, I feel much more kindly disposed toward my pumkumber. I cannot blame it for its parentage. Next year I'll start planting earlier.
Below are some pictures for your enjoyment:
