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Last fall Kate and Matt bought two pumpkins, one orange and the other white. They didn't carve either of them for Halloween. They sat on the patio until after Thanksgiving until they got squishy. Thinking the squirrels and chipmunks would enjoy them I moved them off of the patio table and into one of the gardens. The first blizzard came in December then two more in January and the pumpkins were forgotten by me and the wildlife. After the snow melted there sat two pumpkins remarkable still in their original shape. The outside shell had hardened kind of like a gourd. I had been thinking about growing pumpkins in our veggie garden this summer and decided instead to just let them grow in one of our decorative flower beds. I got out a shovel and turned the soil over where the pumpkins sat and wait to see if they would grow. They are flourishing. The orange pumpkin plant is much larger but both already have flowers on them. In the morning and late in the evening the flowers are closed up tight...

But during the day they are open, big beautiful orange stars.

© Michelle Hines