Gothic Gardening: it's not all pumpkins and thorns (though I fail to see where that would be so bad)

Cooking and Crafting have been put aside for the last few months, except for the necessary kind of things; nothing fun and Halloweeny.

But as I said last week, I'm getting back into the hobbies slowly and starting off with some attempted pumpkin-growing, which will inevitably fail but gosh-darn-it I'm gunna try!

All this working with dirt and seedlings reminded me of an old, old website--now defunct--called "Gothic Gardening." Does anyone else remember this site?

It was MARVELOUS, and thankfully internet archive still has it up for us to enjoy: http://web.archive.org/web/20001109030300/www.gothic.net/~malice/

If you are less-inclined to kill anything you put in the ground, that might be a fun place to stroll through and get some theme garden ideas.

Some other neat, dark gardening things I've been finding on the web:

• Grim Gardens - they have a few birdhouses and these little garden 'gnomes' like things that are incense-holding Grim Reapers.
• Live Journal Gothic Gardening Community - a place to go and chat about gardening while pale
• Botanical.com - an herbalists guide; full of interesting information and neat illustrations. Includes (if you navigate from the home) a list of some poisonous plants.
• Graveyard Garden - I don't know about this exact thing (I'm not advocating you buy it), but what a cool idea! A Graveyard/Dark-themed terrarium! Here's a similar (even cuter?) idea for that theme - just need some mini-props and to make a moss terrarium.
• Halloween plant(ing) ideas

I told you there were pumpkins being grown

Sorry to keep beating this dead horse, but this is the farthest I've ever made it with pumpkin growing, so I'm both giddy and terrified:

Holy mackerel! Tiny plants are emerging!! And soon, very soon, they will become unwieldy vines!

GREAT SCOTT, WHAT HAVE I UNLEASHED?

More On Pumpkins

Remember when I said me, growing pumpkins, would be a calamity? Oh yeah--we are off to a SMASHING start on that front.

Temperatures here in Georgia are being wishy-washy. It's been cold, so I've had seedlings upstairs where the heat rises because we have turned off heating and cooling in the house until the outside sorts itself out (we will dress accordingly, gosh darn it, but I'm not flipping the thermostat back and forth!).

Sudden and unplanned for hot air + seedling kit lid + well-watered seedlings + Carrie Mae forgetting to prop the lid=1 down, 7 seedlings left. One got moldy. AND DANG IT if it might not have spread to the only Lumina seeds I planted. But I digress.

Well, enough of that! The seed kit is not downstairs with the lid propped and I'll just keep a close eye on it, thank-you-very-much.

But the good news is it did prompt some quick research that led to a few more interesting FAQ's and Facts on Pumpkins and Pumpkin-growing, should any of you also be interested:
* General Information: http://urbanext.illinois.edu/veggies/pumpkin.cfm
* Harvesting: http://www.weekendgardener.net/blog/2007/08/how-to-harvest-pumpkins-properly.htm
* DRYING GOURDS: To dry gourds, first wash gently in a solution of 10 parts water and 1 part bleach, carefully removing all dirt, then store in a warm, dry location. Pumpkins and gourds should be stored at 55-70^oF and at 70% relative humidity.

Happy Friday, Y'all!