The Patch Post

Prairie stories, growing tips, and reflections from our Kansas garden. Follow the seasons with Autumn Prairie Pumpkins.

The Pumpkin Bakery cookbook cover, a bushel basket of pumpkins on weathered decking, from Autumn Prairie Pumpkins in Newton, Kansas

Our First Cookbook Is Here: The Pumpkin Bakery

The Pumpkin Bakery is out: 40+ farmhouse pumpkin recipes from our kitchen in Newton, Kansas. Signed copies, a PDF edition, and gift sets are on...

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Illustration of a Kansas gardener cradling a pumpkin that is half green and half ripening orange in a prairie garden row

When Do Pumpkins Turn Orange? A Morning Walk Through the Patch

There is a pumpkin at the far end of the third row that was solid green on Friday. This morning there is a patch of...

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Maggie at a farmhouse kitchen table in autumn morning light holding a white bowl heaped with pale pumpkin seeds, a whole orange heirloom pumpkin beside her

How Many Seeds Are in a Pumpkin? I Sat Down and Counted

There is a bowl on the kitchen table right now with a wet heap of seeds in it, and a Long Island Cheese pumpkin sitting...

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Maggie holding a mug of coffee in the September pumpkin patch at Autumn Prairie Pumpkins in Newton, Kansas, with ripening pumpkins on the vine behind her

Is Fish Fertilizer Good for Pumpkins? Notes from the September Patch

There is a jug by the fence post that my neighbor gave me three summers ago, and every September I have the same argument with...

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Small pale green immature pumpkins fallen on straw beneath vine leaves in a September Kansas pumpkin patch at sunrise

Why Do My Pumpkins Keep Falling Off? A Walk Through the September Patch

There is a particular sound a small pumpkin makes when it lets go, and it is barely a sound at all. A soft thud in...

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Heirloom Cucurbita moschata squash ripening on the vine along a weathered wooden fence in a Kansas pumpkin patch at sunrise

A Walk Through the Cucurbita Moschata Varieties in Our Patch

The dew was still on everything when I went out this morning, and the coffee was still too hot to drink, so I walked the...

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Maggie holding a mug of coffee in a late-summer Kansas pumpkin patch at golden hour, big green leaves and ripe heirloom pumpkins behind her

Watering Pumpkins in Hot Weather: What the Afternoon Wilt Is Really Telling You

Three in the afternoon, first week of September, and the thermometer on the shed says 96. I walked out to the patch with the last...

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Cartoon illustration of Maggie in a Kansas pumpkin patch gently holding an unopened female pumpkin flower bud, with a ripening pumpkin and a cream mug of coffee nearby

Female Pumpkin Flowers Dying Before Opening: What the Patch Taught Me

There is a particular small heartbreak that happens at the base of a pumpkin vine in late August. You spot a female flower, the one...

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Maggie holding a mug of coffee at sunrise beside a Kansas pumpkin patch, checking the vines after a wet week

Can You Overwater Pumpkins? What the Low Corner of the Patch Taught Me

The sprinkler had been running for a while before I noticed. Not long, maybe twenty minutes past when I meant to shut it off, but...

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Cartoon illustration of Maggie resting a hand on a ripening orange pumpkin beside a compost pile in a late August Kansas pumpkin patch, Autumn Prairie Pumpkins mug on a wooden crate nearby

Are Pumpkins Heavy Feeders? What Our Kansas Patch Taught Us

A woman at the Newton farmers market set down her bag of tomatoes last Saturday and asked me, almost apologetically, whether it was true what...

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Kansas gardener beside raised rows of dark amended soil with pumpkin vines and a cracked clay path, prairie horizon behind, 2D illustration

Growing Pumpkins in Clay Soil: What Actually Works in Kansas Ground

The first spring I put a shovel into this ground, it came back up with a slab attached. Not soil exactly. More like a wet...

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Maggie watching open pumpkin flowers at dawn in a Kansas pumpkin patch with her morning coffee, cartoon illustration

Do Pumpkin Flowers Open and Close? What I Learned Watching at Dawn

The first summer I grew pumpkins, I walked out to the patch with my coffee just after sunrise and found every blossom flung wide open,...

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