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Thursday, April 1, 2010

Out in the Pumpkin Patch.....

We are starting work on the details of the rooftop garden this morning.

Tessie wants small raised plots where she can raise spell ingredients, among other things. One of the other things is a pumpkin patch. No self respecting witch goes without a pumpkin patch.

I started the patches with a double thickness of quarter inch foam core. It makes no difference what color, because they are going to be completely covered anyway.

They can be any size you want, but keep in mind that the gardener has to be able to reach the middle of the plot to sew the seed, weed and water. I made these 1 1/2" by 3 as per Tessie's request. I did four to start. She may add more later.

I put fast grab glue on one side of each of them and sprinkled them with model railroad ballast. That was what I had on hand, so that is what I used. Nice sandy soil for growing pumpkins.

Next I cut some old baseboard, mitered at the corners to fit around the edges, and painted it white. I glued that on and let it dry.

I went and found the "pumpkins" that April gave me for Christmas. They are some kind of dried seed pod and look exactly like various sizes and shapes of 1" scale pumpkins. She found them in a thrift shop......I trained her well. She has a great eye for things that will work in mini.

Then I whipped out 4 different sizes of leaf shaped punches.

Here you see some of the leaves after they have been shaped with a ball stylus. To the right is the basis for the stems. I simply poked holes in the foam core right through the dirt.

I stuck the pumpkins here and there, making sure that there was a stem that lead to each one, and glued them down.

Then one at a time, starting with the larger leaves and filling in with each smaller size in turn, I filled the vines.

Lastly I took some very fine paper covered wire and wound it around a needle to make the curly tendrils here and there.

Tessie is already making plans for pumpkin pies. She likes the big one in the back.

I was hoping that she would wait at least until I filled the rest of the beds.....No such luck.

She took one look at the first bed and said, "Mmmmmm.....Pumpkin pie....Pumpkin bread....Pumpkin soup.....

I guess I should get back at it and fill the rest with veggies. She is going to have them all cooked and eaten before I even finish the last patch at this rate!

Back to work. See you tomorrow.

14 comments:

beyondbaffled said...

Lovely pumpkin patch!

Debbie said...

Lovely little raised beds Casey. Hopefully, they will keep Tessie out of trouble. x

Irene said...

These look really impressive and the pumpkins don't really look like seeds at all.

miniannalee said...

Love the pumpkin patch. I'd love to find some of those seed pods they are perfect because of the imperfections on them. I wonder what kind they are. Hopefully someone here in blog land knows.

Maia's Twinkle Miniatures said...

It looks great! I hope Tessie doesn't use them all as they look very nice in the planter!
Maia

Lisette said...

Pumpkin leaf looks really great.

DLSarmywife said...

Oh I LOVE the ideas of raised beds...and your pumpkin patch is wonderful...what shape punch did you use for the leaves, I can't place it?

Caseymini said...

In answer to your question, I used four punches for the leaves. Three were the heavy duty, expensive ones that I bought years ago when they were less expensive and I got them wholesale from a friend. The next to smallest one is one that I found at Michael's. The largest is a five scallop, the second size is a six sided, the third is also six sided and the smallest if five. I use the same leaves for geraniums. They really aren't exactly right for pumpkins, but they are close enough for Tessie. I think that a variety of sizes makes them much more interesting.

I do wish that I knew what kind of seed pods they are too. What will I do when they run out?

Kathi said...

Oh my! What a great pumpkin patch!
Love those little seed pods! I want a slice of that pie when it's ready!

miniacollection said...

Your pumpkin patch is a very good idea. I love it.
Geneviève

iseecerulean said...

You're right, the variety in leaf sizes does make the pumpkin patch much more interesting. I made one last Halloween, but only used one size leaf...yours looks much better. I will remember your secret!

Wendy Luane Barber said...

Wow! What a fantastic little tutorial. I'm hooked.

miniannalee said...

I googled the seed pods they are called Putka Pods native to Australia.

Debbie said...

For the people who want to know what those seeds Pods are called they are Putka Pods. If you google them there are lots of places hat sell them.