Julia Khoury has been tossing plants into her compost pile for years. She had no idea that one day she’d grow a plant out of it.

“I was putting compost in there and all of a sudden I saw a little vine come up,” said Khoury, a Woodway resident.

But Khoury’s vine is no longer little. It has snaked out of the compost pile behind her house, sprouting dinner plate sized leaves that act as awnings to the several hefty pumpkins that are anchoring the vines.

Julia Khoury looks over her compost heap, which is now overrun with pumpkin vines and pumpkins.
Duane A. Laverty/Tribune-Herald

The largest of the pumpkins has roughly the circumference of an oval laundry basket.

This great orange blob and its sibling pumpkins will continue to grow up until about Halloween, Khoury said.

Khoury is pleased with her impromptu patch, if also a little perplexed. She and her son planted the pumpkin seeds in the ground last year.

They watered and fed them to no avail, producing a vine but no female flower and no fruit. Khoury eventually chopped up the plant and threw it in her compost pile.

Now the pile has taken on a life of its own, as a surprise pumpkin patch.

Khoury has been gardening since 2003 and composting for years as well. She has progressed from using a dog crate sized bin to keeping a large pile that she can turn easily, which is hemmed in by hay bales.

“Compost is the secret to good gardening,” she said.

Since the pumpkin vine came up, Khoury’s coffee grounds, eggshells, grass clippings and vegetable plate scrapings have had to go somewhere else.

She said she doesn’t want to disturb the pile and risk disturbing the pumpkin vine.

Master Gardener Jeanette Kelly said it’s pretty common to have something grow from a compost bin. Kelly has had corn come up out of her compost. It’s perfectly safe to harvest whatever grows there, she said.

“I had cantaloupes come up last year and they were really good,” Master Gardener Carol Wood said.

Wood said if your compost starts producing its own produce, you’re not getting it hot enough.

To “cook the compost”, she said, you’ve got to turn it.

“Dig in it, feel it with your hand. If it’s cool, it’s time to start cooking,” Wood said.

A pile may need to be turned about once a month, she said. When it gets hot enough, it will kill any seeds and plant diseases.

The pumpkins produced from Julia Khoury’s compost pile are already big and have months yet to grow.
Duane A. Laverty/Waco Tribune-Herald

If you’re in the market for a pumpkin patch, you don’t have to leave it to chance and your compost pile.

Now is the time of year to get to work planting pumpkin seeds, Wood said. Between July 15 and August 1 is the best time to plant pumpkins.

First, make sure your garden has plenty of room, because the vine is going to go 12 to 15 feet in all directions, she said. Then lay down compost and fertilizer to feed your pumpkin seeds.

“They’re heavy feeders. You can tell that by looking at how well Julia’s are doing in that compost,” Wood said.

Plant four to six seeds together in one spot, cover with more compost and water. In seven to 10 days, sprouts will come up. Wood said to pinch off all but two of them.

Don’t pull them because you may dislodge the roots, she said.

After three weeks, add fertilizer. A male and female flower should come up and the bees will take care of the rest. Seed packages may indicate when to harvest the pumpkins.

Wood said a rule of thumb is to pick them when the rind is hard enough to resist scratching with your thumbnail.

Khoury looks forward to harvesting her pumpkin payload this fall. The real kicker is that she’s not even a pumpkin person.

“I wouldn’t eat a piece of pumpkin pie if my life depended on it. These will be quite pretty sitting on my porch, since they’re not going in my house and into a pan,” Khoury said.

wgragg@wacotrib.com

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