Its all a bit harvest festival

... the pumpkins finally succumbed to the mildew so they got picked.

Here they are with some various other squashes from this year's crop sitting pretty in a fabulous multi-purpose basket that I got from http://www.green-baskets.co.uk/.
Monstrous, and they weigh a ton.  Also grew some weird gourds again this year, but not so many - I guess something to do with May and June being so dry - they really didn't want to get going.  Last year I used some saved seed for the pumpkins and know now quite how promiscuous the squash  family are.  The plants had a very  pumpkin-like sprawling habit, and the pumpkins (were they pumpkins?) turned orange like pumpkins do, but they were the shape of enormous marrows and very hard inside. We took them to London for the Halloween weekend with Julie and Nick and carved them there.  Here they are spooking up Julie's kitchen..

The kids like the gourds.  Tom says its ninja gardening but I am not entirely sure what that means.  He likes the ones that look like hand grenades. I think its just great when they start heading off at their own will.  Last years took off over the fence in to next door's garden.  They hung like lanterns in the hedges..