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  • Good Organic Gardening

    SUMMER VINE

    Aug 05, 2020 4 minutes
    Words Jennifer Stackhouse

    Pumpkin label

    Common name: Pumpkin, winter squash

    Botanical name: Cucurbita maxima

    Family: Cucurbitaceae

    Aspect & soil: Sun; deep, moist, fertile soil

    Best climate: All, but in cold areas wait for warmer weather

    Habit: Annual vine

    Propagation: Seed, seedling

    Difficulty: Easy

    Pumpkins are traditionally associated with Halloween celebrations. Called jack-o’-lanterns, they are hollowed out and their orange skins carved into scary faces lit with candles from inside.

    The pumpkins used for carving are large, soft-skinned varieties that don’t make good eating and are mainly grown for stock feed. Traditional Australian pumpkins are thick-skinned and not suited to carving or hollowing out.

    In most parts of Australia, Halloween — the last day of October — is the ideal time to

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