How To Grow Pumpkins In A Small Yard

We grew pumpkins in our small suburban yard and so can you.

It doesn't take a lot of room to create your own pumpkin patches, you just need to get creative in your existing garden. And keep those vines in line. 

I live in a charming beach community, filled with homes that were built in the 1920s for summer fun at the shore.

They're mostly tiny homes, on tiny lots, in a neighborhood where life has always centered around sand and surf.

Not farming.

So this spring, when my husband showed up with a bunch of seeds, proclaiming that we were going to grow pumpkins and gourds in our shoebox of a yard, I laughed.
You know you need a lot of room for that, right?

I mean the vines get nuts and take over. We don't have that kind of wide open space...

Where you going to plant them? By the pond?

Turns out, yeah, that's exactly where he planted them.

In front of the pond, behind the pool, around the mailbox and in any narrow strip of dirt in our existing flower beds.

He was convinced that they'd grow...despite our lack of open land...and he wasn't wrong.

It was a fun little experiment, one a few of our neighbors participated in as well, since that's where we got our seeds, and you know, it was a huge success.


Turns out you can grow pumpkins and gourds in all shapes, sizes and colors, in a small suburban backyard.

I couldn't believe it, and frankly, neither could a lot of you. 

When I shared this information, most people commented that their yards were too small to grow pumpkins and wanted to know how we were able to do it.

So today I'm going to share all the details.

How To Grow Pumpkins In A Small Yard

Before we get started, I want to be clear, that we grew them right in the dirt. We did not use any kind of vertical frame or raised bed.

That means you have to be ok with a little bit of a mess. The leaves are huge, the vines do spread, crawling over everything, and the plants grow exponentially overnight. 

No kidding. Every morning we woke up and it was like Little Shop Of Horrors out there.


The key to small garden success with pumpkins is not being afraid to cut them back. Rather than letting them take over, we did our best to confine them to the area we had and they flourished.

But. We literally had to trim the plants back every few days to keep those vines in line.

So it definitely wasn't a set it and forget it kind of undertaking.

But then gardening never is, is it?

If you're ok with that, the rest is simple.

Here are the basic steps for a small space pumpkin garden.

We started by planting the seeds in mid to late June like we would with any other.

We dug a little hole for each seed in a sunny area, placed the seeds inside, covered them up with dirt and mulch and watered them all well.

We placed the seeds with the point facing down, but it really doesn't matter, when they sprout, the roots find their way up and out, no matter how you put them in the ground.

Then we waited for the sprouts. Soon after, sprouts turned into plants. That's when we spread a bit of fertilizer around the base of each one.

A few weeks after that, we noticed large yellow flowers popping up all over and then a little bit later, the flowers gave birth to baby pumpkins.

That is when we started trimming. 

Now, obviously we never cut any vines that had flowers on them. We only cut back areas that were just leaves and vines.
Also, you may notice that some of the leaves have white spots. That's a mildew that's very common on pumpkin plants. They don't love water on their leaves, but with sprinkler systems and rain, it's hard to avoid.

We cut away an infected leaves, but ultimately it never spread to our other plants and didn't hurt our harvest.

Because by mid to late August, my cottage style garden was filling up with green, white and orange varieties.

Orange pumpkins grew in the front yard, around the mailbox. I mean talk about a small space. 

That patch was seriously maybe a 2 foot by 3 foot area at the curb and it yielded two giants.


The pond patch was even narrower. That was maybe 18 inches wide, but a bit longer, producing about 5 white pumpkins.

They're actually my favorites.


Their skin doesn't feel as thick and hearty as the orange pumpkins, so I was worried that they would rot or get damaged, but that never happened. Perhaps it was because none of our pumpkins were touching the dirt.

They were either laying on mulch or, by the mailbox, they were laying in grass.

We used our judgement regarding the best time to pick our pumpkins. We waited until they'd stopped getting any bigger, when the colors were full and uniform and the stems began to brown.

We also "listened" to the plants. At some point the leaves began to fade and the vines withered. We took that as a huge cue to cut them free.


To be honest, we erred on the side of caution, because I didn't want to get caught unprepared if a frost snuck in.

But really, I was watching the squirrels and chipmunks eyeing my sweet fruit...so we cut them loose in early September.

Now the animals can eat them on my porch instead.

Just kidding, I only put a few out there, in my galvanized tubs and to use as pumpkin planters.



I brought most of them in the house.

For decor.

For crafting. 

Like how I painted this gourd for Halloween.

And just because I like to look at what we grew.

Since we're farmers now.


In our teeny, tiny yard.

At the beach.

😉

Would you grow pumpkins in your yard?

Hey before you go, if you'd like to preserve your pumpkins for months, check out my friend Sherry's excellent tips!

Happy Gardening, Friends!