This project is taking place in the East meadow, to the west of the house. The area is grassland populated predominantly by Aegilops grass. The soil is very rocky near by, but is free of surface rocks in the area selected for pumpkin row.
(Note: Squash are referred to as pumpkins here. Without realizing it, I have used that term throughout. What we are planting would be called squash in the US, not pumpkins.)
The first step is to chop the grass in the area we want to plant. This grass is now too tall and tough for the sheep to eat. Here is Christopher chopping a row with a machete.
After several days, the chopped material was dry and Christopher raked it into a row in the middle of the chopped area. He attempted to rake any easily burned brush into the middle leaving a small fire break all around the row.
Here John is checking to see that the fire break will hold, while I rake any parts that look like fire might spread.
Here, a bit back, along our escape route, we have the rake and a bucket of water. We don't like to say we have gotten good at this, because such overconfidence is an invitation for mishap. On this day, we did not need to use any of the water.
Here the fire is burning the middle of the row.
Now the fire is out, the middle row has been burned very hot. The only thing that survived in the black area is some Aegilops grass seeds. The fire burned exactly where we wanted and with some persuasion from the rake, no further.
The grass seeds left behind will grow. But we are planting pumpkins here and the young grass will be relished by the sheep who will very efficiently weed and manure the young pumpkin plants. Although they will occasionally sample a pumpkin leaf, the sheep don't really eat them.
The grass will stand up and regrow all around the burned row. But we will come through and pull it out and use it as a mulch for the young pumpkin plants.
Between our mulching and the sheep eating and fertilizing, the pumpkins should do well. The mulch is important because this is the dry season, and we normally do not get rain. Each day however early in the morning there is a very heavy dew that condenses on all outdoor things making them wet. But by around 8am, the sun drys all this, except those areas where mulch has protected the moisture from the strength of the sun.
We planted pumpkins and cilantro together in this row. The pumpkins we planted more densely than normal, because sometimes the plant is above a rock and does not grow well. We will thin the pumpkins slightly. The cilantro should be sprouted, grown and picked before the pumpkin plants are very large. We may plant black eyed peas which are really a bean here too, although since the sheep will have access to this row, we probably will not.
We want to start a row of pumpkins every month. They are very productive, but fizzle out after a while. Sometimes they gain a new foothold where the vines sink good roots, but these plants are seldom in a convenient place.
Here are some pictures of pumpkin plants planted earlier.
One of these has just begun to bear fruit. The fruit is picked while very young, the local ladies consider it correct if they can easily pierce the rind with their fingernail. For ourselves, we keep the mature fruits that got missed until they were beyond the locally desired stage. We prefer them mature and steamed while locally, people slice them and fry them young. Also, we collect the seeds to replant, though we eat some of the seeds. Picking the pumpkins young like this results in much greater productivity as the plant does not need to ripen the fruit.
Pumpkins tend to shade the soil. This is important here because our soil drains very fast and quickly dries due to the hot sun and breeze. Some shade can keep it moist longer even if the plant that provides the shade takes some of the moisture for itself.
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