All of our vegetables in the garden are doing great this year. The only thing that has not worked out so far are our pumpkins. We grew six pumpkins from seed, they were all hardened carefully, transplanted to the garden, and then they all died in about a week. Pumpkins need warm weather, and unfortunately we had a couple of cool nights in late June that probably killed them.
However, we do have a volunteer pumpkin in our side yard which is doing great. Is the term ‘volunteer’ used outside New England? It means that we did not plant this one, it just started growing. Most likely from a composted pumpkin from last year. It stretches across two sections of fence, each about eight feet long. Every few days I have to check to see if it is growing into my neighbors yard, I’ve already had to move the huge vines out of the neighbor’s yard twice.
There’s also a small tomato plant squeezed in there too.
I hope we get some pumpkins from this one!
Mr. C's Dad 
The term ‘volunteer’ is used here in the UK too: in my case it is usually volunteer potatoes from recycled compost. They pop up every year.
It looks quite dry there: do the pumpkins need a lot of watering?
Very observant! It has been dry here. The area it’s in has been used for our grass clippings and autumn leaves for many years, so its the one spot that is rich in organic matter. It retains moisture very well, unlike the surrounding area which is mostly sandy soil. It’s raining right now thankfully!
I really miss having a garden – HOA rules and all. I don’t know why I agreed to buy here!!
Most of this has been thanks to my wife, she’s very do-it-yourself. A friend of my parents had the same issue with a HOA so she started doing the garden for her church.
…and then again she’s the only person in that church “garden club” so she can do whatever she wants, which has got to be a rare situation!
Super healthy pumpkin vine!With me, it’s volunteer tomato plants every year. We welcome them.
Just noticed this weekend that it’s also growing up the lilac bush that’s in the background of the photo- that part of the vine is about ten feet off the ground now!
Hope you’ll be carving jack-o-lanterns come October!