Big Plants… and REALLY Big Plants
Noah with his pumpkin
The largest plant I have in my garden is a couple of pumpkin plants. They long ago
“crawled” over the fence and seem to wander at will in my yard. That’s OK with me. It’s less grass to mow.
For all its size there are only 5 pumpkins growing. They are large pumpkins and Noah seems to enjoy them. They grew with amazing speed – much like Noah.
This past June I photographed a wedding in California. Since it was a late afternoon wedding my friend Jim and I spent a couple of hours the morning of the wedding at the Big Trees State Park.
The Park is home to some of the largest trees in the world. Some of them were large trees when Christ was born.
Jim looking at fallen tree at Big Trees State Park
Their pace of growth is very different than Noah’s pumpkins, however. While the pumpkins have a few scars from birds pecking and squirrels scratching them, some of the sequoias and redwoods have holes from Pileated woodpeckers and black marks from lightning strikes from hundreds of years ago.
I find the different cycles of plant growth very interesting but I’m glad Noah doesn’t have to wait a couple of thousand years for his pumpkins.
wow, seeing that makes me feel that i won’t be having any pumpkins this year. nothing sprouting so far. if i do, they will be small. actually, the pumpkin the seeds came from was small so perhaps they have a different cycle.
my habañeros however, are doing fantastic!
These are a large variety of pumpkin. They are supposed to be over 25 pounds and I think the one pictured is at least that.
oh look! it’s charlie brown and the great pumpkin
oh and forgot to mention the tree! this tree book just keeps getting more and more interesting. especially the parts i have just been reading about the evolution of trees. the first ones were those that came from seaweed-like plants that got tossed to the shore but were able to adapt and eventually grow into the forefathers of trees. they had no true leaves and no true roots or buds or seeds. just a cushion of tangled root system that fed of of the moss and ferns etc. barely two feet tall. amazing such a tree could come from that. well i suppose 400 million years could take care of that.
this is the cutest picture i have seen in a long time. wow. i really need to come home soon and see pumpkins and cute nephews.
so i am reading something in the tree book that i remember reading in an annie dillard book. around 1870 some measured the pressure a pumpkin exerts as it grows. you won’t believe the number, but he found that it exerts five THOUSAND pounds of pressure per square INCH! watch out noah
Noah seems to be pushing back pretty well.