I am a master gardener

You might think the title of this post is a bit of a stretch.

But let me tell you a story. And then you'll be a believer.

There once was a pumpkin.

The ugly one with warts.

Poor pumpkin.  It wasn't worthy of a fairy tale like this French Peanut pumpkin below.

What a beauty.

But this green-warted pumpkin had an advantage.  It didn't taste good.  Squirrels devoured the French pumpkin instead. It was so delicious, they risked getting on our porch with us only a few feet away.  You could hear them murmuring yummy yummy yummy.  All those starches went straight to their hips, too.

So our ugly fruit was left alone for a long time until one day, a hungry squirrel ate half of it, and left it for dead next to our front steps.

The months rolled on. A little snow (seriously, only a pathetic amount this year).  A lot of wind.  Some rain.

Poor dried out pumpkin.

Behold! What is that green seedling next to the pumpkin?

It is a pumpkin plant!

And inside the pumpkin? More seedlings!  

So while Cinderella was consumed by obese squirrels, our ugly duckling pumpkin is here for another year in the form of her children.  

A real-life fairy tale.

We planted the pumpkin carcass last night in the back yard. We'll leave the other seedlings out front (I found more than one self-planted seed).  Who knows what pumpkin-squash creatures will emerge this year (it might've been a hybrid of some sort, so its babies will be a surprise at this point), but it'll be fun no matter what.  You are now welcome to acknowledge my supremely green thumb, since there is no way these seedlings would've emerged without my lazy ass leaving the pumpkin in the front yard.  Boo-ya!