From

Location

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Date Posted

Ashby, MA

I thought I would share my pool versus pumpkin story with everyone. You see... my wife and I have three young children 11, 9 and 5. So this spring we bought an above ground pool. My wife was telling me that the pool would look great right in the middle of my pumpkin patch. I must confess, there's a love hate relationship between my wife and the pumpkins. Anyway, my pumpkin patch currently has a 1674.5 Connolly and a 1520 Sperry growing (in cold-frames). I argued with my wife for about 2 days on where the pool "should" go. Turns out that our dilemma was solved by the pool company who said that the best spot for the pool would be in the middle of the pumpkin patch because "it's the flattest area in your yard". My answer to that, of course it is the flattest area. :-) He told me that if I wanted to put the pool somewhere else I would have to build a retaining wall and/or have a fence installed. Neither of which I'm willing to do. So after the man from the pool company left I told my wife that, "she won". The pool is going to have to be installed smack dab in the middle of my pumpkin patch... However, I have an idea! In order to save my pumpkin plants I will make another patch.

My yard is an old apple orchard. So in order to build another 30'x60' patch I had to rip out 9 overgrown apple trees and plow an area for the patch. I also had to move about 10 yards of that good quality soil that I had in my other patch. After all that I tilled it all in and now I have a new patch. It took me about 8 hours in total to get this done. But it was worth every minute. Now I can continue to grow some pumpkins this year. Will they be as big as if they were in the original patch...who knows.
I'm just glad I was able to move them.

My kids, well, their thrilled because they get the best of both worlds, a pool and they get to see the big pumpkins grow.

Cheers,
Greg

5/12/2011 11:06:17 PM

Cedar City, Ut

way to figure it out man!!! everyone is happy!?!?!?!

5/13/2011 1:31:55 AM

Massachusetts

GREG, SORRY FOR YOUR LOSS, BUT LOOK AT IT THIS WAY, IF THE POOL DOES NOT WORK OUT, YOU WILL HAVE ONE GIANT (Soil Soup & Compost Tea) BREWER IN YOUR YARD,:-)HOPE THE KIDS HAVE FUN!!!

5/13/2011 6:16:43 AM

Johnston, Iowa

I would've made the pool man come over & do all the work, but dang - you did all that in 8 hours?!? You're an animal! At least now you can watch your pumpkins grow from the comfort of your new pool.

5/13/2011 9:04:58 AM

Ashby, MA

Did it all with the help of my neighbors 35hp diesel farm John Deere tractor with a 1/2 yard front bucket. Also used a 6' grader blade and a 4' tiller (grader blade and tiller attach to the 3pt hitch). I would of never been able to do this by hand.

Replanted my pumpkins in there new spot this morning. Hopefully, I didn't set them back too much by moving them.

5/13/2011 9:38:30 AM