JONAH AND THE JUMBO PUMPKIN

JONAH AND THE JUMBO PUMPKIN

Ogg’s grandson Jonah lived at a place called Ngunnwal in the Antipodes, a very long way from the little green country where Ogg lived.  In the spring when Jonah was two years old Ogg thought that nasturtiums, sweet peas and a pumpkin might entertain Jonah who already showed great interest in green plants that flowered.  So Ogg wrote a letter to her daughter Claire who was also Jonah’s mother, but Ogg had also thought that Jonah might like a small pet (he already had goldfish) so Jonah and his mum and dad had already been to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals shelter where they purchased two rabbits who lived together in a cage.  Then Jonah’s family purchased an inside hutch for the night time and an outside hutch for Rabscuttle and Raspberry (who were both black and white bunnies) for the day time.  Jonah’s mum made a special fence so Rabscuttle and Raspberry could be in part of the garden during the day and there was still some space left for Jonah’s garden (there was no room left in the little garden for vegetables).  But in the little garden at Ngunnwal there was also a very large compost heap.  Matthew (who lives in Scotland) knows a lot about compost as his family has a compost bin and also near his home there is a Community Garden that has very good instructions on how compost works.  The compost pile in Jonah’s garden originally grew a wonderful tomato plant but this spring Jonah’s mother planted three organic heritage seeds from an early American variety of pumpkin (Ogg is also very interested in heritage seeds and their preservation and sometimes she is a little bit bossy).  The pumpkins seeds germinated beautifully but this summer in the Antipodes was very, very hot so Jonah’s mum made a shade tent so the pumpkin vine would not die in the long, hot afternoons.  And with watering in the evening, all the nutrients from the compost heap and with shade from the little tent, the heritage pumpkin vines grew and grew, even putting tendrils through the fence of Rabscuttle and Raspberry’s daytime run (they thought the tendrils and new stalks were delicious but the leaves were not delicious at all, but made nice shade).  Then one day while Jonah was a his day nursery the pumpkin vines made their first flowers, enormous, golden yellow flowers attracting lots of bees who visited them.  Even before the flowers dropped off the pumpkin vine something very interesting happened.  At the base of the flower stalk there was a round green lump.  Jonah was allowed to touch the little green lump very, very carefully.  As the summer went on Jonah and his dad feed the ducks very often at the Ponds, and the pumpkin vine fruit grew quietly bigger every day.  Then one day near the end of the Antipodes summer Ogg received a wonderful photograph, Jonah sitting on top of a jumbo pumpkin.  What a wonderful surprise!