A Crazy Trick for Growing TONS of Pumpkins and Winter Squash

[@KittyMama61]

I threw some local peach seeds onto a compost heap next to the old smokehouse. The trees grew up out of it, 2 of them, and made the best peaches I've ever had.

[@coldhaven1233]

I think you're absolutely right. You HAVE to make it look like an accidental planting. We had some pumpkins from a local farmer that turned into mush. Now I have two very vibrant vines growing in my back yard. Its a secret. Don't let them know you're planning anything. Just casually drop them on the ground. I bet if you say "oops" when you do it, they'll grow even faster. Wait...what did I do with those mushy pumpkins? *looks at compost* Uh, oh!

[@AndyMatts]

“A pumpkin ate my daughter’s garden.” -David the Good. 🤣

[@monikasturm2575]

I estimate by next year my husband will plant pumpkins. The first year he said no to yellow squash the next year he planted them and i asked for cucumbers he said no but this year he planted some. I asked this year for pumpkins and he said no so I'll check back on the video next year again when he plants the pumpkins. Hehe

[@jsbadger]

This is why i love watching you and Charles Dowding. Compost saves pumpkin lives.

[@mattpeacock5208]

When accidents teach you more than any book reading could. I think it's devine intervention

[@SouthFloridaSunshine]

Except for books by DTG all his books teach you about happy accidents.

[@jimsmij]

#permaculture tells us to "observe and interact" But, most people usually dont observe long enough to put things together. Nature shows us everything, if we just look. #smij #grownostr

[@mgguygardening]

Nature finds a way! A few years ago I had a black garbage can that I used for compost, with holes drilled up and down the side of it to allow air flow for the compost. I ended up with cherry tomato plants growing out of the holes on the side of the can, some of the best cherry tomatoes I've grown LOL!

[@davidthegood]

That is hilarious.

[@hanzketchup859]

The Great Pumpkin has smiled on you David the Good!

[@jordynporter430]

Just dug holes in my yard because I swore you said it was successful 😂 here goes a Missouri experiment I guess! Love what you do. I found you by accident when I looked up permaculture books at the library. My whole perspective on gardening has been changed!

[@davidthegood]

Thank you - glad you're here

[@gigiartstudiowithartistvir3919]

Much like the discovery you made, I made too with tomatoes and watermelons in particular. I planted them and didn't look at them at all for almost 6 weeks during the middle of summer. When I got back to the garden it was a jungle! The watermelons and tomatoes went wild and sprawled out everywhere. I didn't feed these plants, I didn't prune out suckers are extra runners, and I didn't have anything for them to grow on but the ground. The tomatoes and watermelons got entangled with one another. I never had so many watermelons and tomatoes in my 50+ years of gardening, doing NOTHING. The only thing they got while I was away was water from a drip line on a timer. The weeds also took over the space and entangled into my watermelons and tomatoes. It was a big gnarly beautiful mass of gorgeous produce. That one watermelon vine(Crimson Sweet) had 30 gorgeous melons mature before I had to remove the vine. The tomatoes(golden currant and roma)easily produced a couple hundred maters from two plants! I'm fortunate to have the space for letting things go wild. This season I'm experimenting again and just tossing a mix of all kinds of fruit and veggie seeds all over the ground of about 30 different kinds of veggies and fruit. Should be interesting! Love your channel and philosophy of growing food.

[@lelandshanks3590]

Wow!!@ Crimson sweets are a very good veriety.

[@gigiartstudiowithartistvir3919]

@@lelandshanks3590 Yes they had a great flavor and texture.

[@doricetimko5403]

I can’t remember which African nation the recipe came from, yet I once made an unexpectedly delicious salad recipe using watermelon and tomato…. I’m thinking it was Ethiopian in origin? Did it at a summer camp w kids and they loved it too!

[@gigiartstudiowithartistvir3919]

@@doricetimko5403 I can see how that would be tasty.

[@lelandshanks3590]

Thanks David, there's alot of channels out there I watch but I consider yours the best and hats of to your family as they are all involved.

[@IntegratedPestManagement]

"every frame is a painting on these videos" - love it

[@TheDiversifiedFarmer]

This image is one of most homeschool things I've ever seen

[@TheDiversifiedFarmer]

So confident it will be good that I will like it before it premiers ❤😘

[@davidthegood]

lol

[@paladin0150]

Best thumbnail of the year. 🤣🤣🤣

[@dogmomprepper1203]

You are David the Great! Last year we had a couple of rotting pumpkins left over from Halloween. My husband scooped them up with a shovel and plopped them into an empty corner of our garden. They took off and became a beautiful, colorful patch of blossoms! Then we moved! Now we are starting over and watching your videos again to motivate us! And, boy, is it working! Thanks and keep those crazy songs coming!😂

[@davidthegood]

Fantastic. Thank you.

[@johnwilliamson4231]

I used a display of Pumpkins as well last fall in my compost. I now have the most beautiful pumpkin plants loaded up. They have popped up everywhere I put compost

[@davidthegood]

That is great.

[@SmallSeeds]

“They can’t know that they were planted. It has to be a secret.” 🤫 🎃🌿 this is so true! Btw this thumbnail is top tier. Thanks for the great content as usual.

[@mio.giardino]

Shhhh David, don’t let the seeds hear you, they’ll know 😳

[@lisescheiman5092]

Compost your enemies reminded me of the film Fried Green Tomatoes😂❤❤❤❤

[@jettyeddie_m9130]

After years of struggling to grow chayote it’s now become a problem it came back after the winter from last year with a vengeance and is now a thick ground cover , i planted pumpkins and I’m gonna let them duke it out , may the strongest cucurbit Win!

[@almostoily7541]

Lol You should try fig leaf gourd. I saw a guy with a trellis and I'm not sure if his chayote or gourd is gonna win the trellis for its home. He just has the gourds lined up and has some from last year outside in California and they aren't rotten.

[@helenbrown6194]

Cut your pumpkins and squash with a really long stalk they store for much longer as rot doesn’t get in to the stalk

[@nancyseery2213]

The best plants in my garden are the ones that have self seeded! God bless y'all and keep growing!

[@cliffpalermo]

Doing this tomorrow. My goats love pumpkin, now i have a fertility plan to turn an old horse arena into a viable garden plot

[@almostoily7541]

Ahhh, the shirt I love... matches my retro kitchen 😍 I wonder if I accidentally spilled some pumpkin seeds under my old rabbit hutches what the results would be... the jelly melon grows up and over the tree. That'll give the ground to the pumpkins. Thinking 🤔... I might do what another comment said and as I trip and spill seeds,I'll say," oops!!!" Really loud 😅

[@notbarbie582]

I’m gonna try this. It’s about two weeks late in my area to plant these, but seeds are cheap and I’ll use a big pile from the bottom my goat shed. Waste hay, pine shavings, and lots of “organic matter” from the goats. Wish me luck!

[@davidthegood]

Come join the new social media platform and get the entire Plant a Food Forest the Easy Way training course - hope to see you there: www.skool.com/the-survival-gardener/ - We've already got some great discussions going! Thanks for watching. -DTG

[@thefoodforestnamibia]

You are awesome! Love the video and love the thumbnail! You should pin your comment so people can find your link.

[@unitedstatesdale]

My grandpa grows huge perfect tomatoes out of trash cans he filled up with grandmas leftovers and leaves he raked up. Lol.. Its Uncanny 😊

[@TheKrispyfort]

Noticed that my pumpkin vines got along well with the strawberry plants. They started running together. It was beautiful. I'm hoping to recreate it next growing season

[@TheKrispyfort]

Australian Blue varieties of pumpkin and random strawberry variety that somehow manifested in the beds last year

[@Orangatangerine]

Thanks David, you keep making gardening fun for me :)

[@hummingbirdhillhomestead]

Oh. My. Word. I can’t believe the pumpkins are already that big! They look amazing. So awesome!

[@davidthegood]

They planted themselves, showing up before the last frost even hit... then they shrugged it off and started running. Crazy.

[@vinagerie427]

LOL...My hops do this to me every year...They're crazy critters! They cover my chicken & piggy atriums & provide wonderful shade, & the deer don't like them, so I took rogue shoots & ran them up & across my garden fencings...Awesome...and pretty. Thanks for the update...I love the vine-kids & so do all my animals.

[@YasChosenChild_70]

Lmao!!!😂😂. That’s exactly how my cantaloupes did last year!! Now, I can’t even get them started this year! But this is 1st year for Pumpkin & no luck so far, so thank you & God bless you & family ❤

[@ixobola9650]

Nice shirt, David! 😊 Love your videos, they make gardening so much more fun. We live on a little Homestead in Slovenia (Europe) and I´m doing your grocery row style the second year now with big success, feeding my family is now a reachable goal..... Keep going on, dude, the world needs your wisdom in this upcoming rough times!!

[@davidthegood]

That rocks! Very glad. Would love to see pictures.

[@jamezjernagain8665]

Your thumbnail game is smashing! This one is a banger!!!

[@arianamckone7713]

My favorite gardening channel!!! I wish you would come to Canada and bring your humor and wisdom to us cold climate gardeners.

[@suzannemartin1202]

This happened to me with an accidental butternut squash. They were huge too! 😊

[@UsDiYoNa]

Well here I am, already having done 26 of the pumpkin pits by your reccomendation and now you drop this?

[@davidthegood]

It's another method - if you've got some good nutrition in those pits, they should run just fine.

[@faithevrlasting]

I tossed pumpkin remains in my compost pile 3 yrs ago (cherokee tans) in my city yard. 32 pumpkindps on one running vine. Most went to the local food bank from this family of 2. I did nothing.

[@davidthegood]

Cherokee tan is a good one.

[@captainron1960]

Best cantaloupes I ever grew and the biggest , were out of compost piles. They came up on they own

[@johnbasilone6911]

Any tips for dealing with the notorious squash vine borer?

[@thewindmillgarden]

Thanks for all the good videos, information and humor. Love the Thumbnail. 🤠

[@mrbeyondthebeard]

Sticker of the full thumbnail image?

[@TheDiversifiedFarmer]

I second this idea 💡

[@TUKByV1]

Stickers or patches.

[@SuperKyle309]

Screenshot it there's plenty of companies that can make stickers from images you send them.

[@baneverything5580]

In spring the hard rains in Louisiana flatten my lettuce. I`ve been just planting tougher alternatives. There are a lot of Mimosa trees here so I raise my trellis with the long branches, zipties and twine. I found an old 10x10 folding frame after moving here and use it as an easy trellis support since the ground is too hard to dig or drill trellis pole holes with a water nozzle. All my soil had to be created with a mix of sandy soil from a wash, grass clippings, rotting oak firewood I found here, weeds and forest debris. I also plant extra okra because it can grow in this bad soil with mulching and then be turned to compost. I grew a lot of extra things this year that make a jungle of thick stems and leaves like Cape Gooseberries & Red Ripper Peas to get a harvest and use at the end of the year to create compost. The Cape Gooseberries can be trimmed down to a few inches above the soil and covered in leaves and pine straw and they`ll grow back in spring. They set fruit best in cool weather so they produce better after overwintering since they grow so slowly from seed. My fig tree mounds double as late fall & winter growing areas for greens and for Red Ripper Peas in summer but I have to keep the vines from climbing the trees.

[@jessicaerke691]

This has been my experience as well. Those pumpkins love a compost pile!

[@ConscientiousOmnivore]

The best squash yield I ever had was volunteer butternut squash that grew out of our compost pile as a volunteer plant. This totally makes sense! Those were some really beautiful pumpkins you grew!

[@mikhailkalashnikov4599]

Ironically, we have a rogue pumpkin growing like crazy out of our compost heap. Usually in the fall, I go around in my truck and fill it up with bagged leaves that people rake up and put out for the trash. Almost without fail, there's at least one pumpkin mixed in from someone's Halloween display. Part of my fall prep is a layer of leaves topped off with a layer of wood chips. We almost always get rogue pumpkins in the spring time.

[@Golden_SnowFlake]

I collected a bunch of kabocha squash seeds last year, and I too am hoping to grow an absurd amount of them this year. They are so savory! Currently my favorite squash at this time.

[@ImGlyn]

Okay. I'm inspired. It's winter here in Australia. I have horses. I have tons of waste hay from winter feed. I have woodchip from where we took a tree down. Currently making a big compost ring out of chicken wire which will be filled with layers of poo, woodchip & hay that's been poo'd & pee'd all over. Might be growing pumpkins in the bush alongside my horse paddock 😁

[@GoodTimesHomestead]

Yep. We have pumpkins coming up where the kids carved them last year. 🎉

[@user-cg4ch5dh5o]

Love it. Thank you. Hope to join your gardening school one day with my husband.

[@ChadnRanda]

I gotta get on here and figure out how to send pictures. My backyard is gonna be 8 up in pumpkins and gords. The same thing I threw one guard in 1 pumpkin in the compost Months ago and now everywhere I've put that compost, they have sprouted.😮 And I mean everywhere it's kinda c😊ool though (right now) it looks good

[@TheKrispyfort]

Realised that if you dry out the leafy greens before you add them to the compost heap, it composts better

[@joshaklese4969]

The Weather has been up and down and not hot enough. So I waited a bit. Just in time to see this video and remind me to just dump a pile of compost. I have 3 winners lets see if they are winners still at the end of the season.

[@pecker556]

Im about to cook a butternut squash. So I going to give this a shot with the seeds. so exciting!

[@flatsville9343]

It works. I've had it happen with butternut squash. Very tasty.

[@MarshaShelley-t3n]

I had some come up in my compost pile 10 yeats ago. They did great! So that is where I grow my pumkins every year since then! Squasg like growing there as well!

[@dai-nippon_digger]

Ha, we have Kabocha growing in the same manner. We planted them last year but they all died with no fruit. And then, somehow, a seed made it's way to the compost and now we have a big bunch growing.

[@joannmcculley8253]

Had a spaghetti squash sprout out of a molded hole in the pantry 😂😂 hardened it off a few days and planted the whole thing, will see how it goes

[@chessman483]

I will adjust my pumpkin approach this year as we got stuff all the last two years in our food forest. First year we didn’t try and we got literally tons.🙃

[@BryanHice-sr8gc]

Last fall I made a quick bin out of fence and cardboard, about 3 ft diameter and 3-4 ft tall. I put leaves, manure, kitchen scraps and chicken guts. Planted 2 plants in it this year and they’re twice the size of my in ground plants!

[@wendyrafalski1240]

Those are beautiful. If you get a ton, you could sell some as stacking pumpkins.

[@Carolynfoodforest355]

Hit the thumbs up y'all👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[@lindarinke6024]

Healthy plants keep bad bugs out!

[@davidthegood]

That's right

[@92bagder]

Every seed i toss in my worm compost sprouts. When i lived in CA all my avocado pits id toss grow. Gave away dozens of avocado plants.

[@Leahslittlepatchofparadise]

Why am I so happy to see you still have that shirt 😆 I experienced the same thing with our pumpkins recently, I finally convinced my partner to chop down an oleander that we had growing in the front yard, and I told him to drop all the branches and waste where it was growing, I then used it as a compost pile, adding everything from kitchen scraps, to used clay cat litter, and I cannot believe the size of and amount of pumpkins that exploded from that area, they're still pumping more out, and we're due for our first frost here in about a week 😅 Simply amazing 🤩

[@joannmcculley8253]

First frost! In June?! Oh my

[@Leahslittlepatchofparadise]

@@joannmcculley8253 yes, I'm in Australia, southern hemisphere, we're in winter down here.

[@joannmcculley8253]

@Leahslittlepatchofparadise Oh wow! In my part of the US, winter sounds like a dream at the moment 🤣

[@royrodgers567]

I found about 40 or so Buffalo Gourd growing around my house and down the street. Needing ideas for them lol.

[@MK-ti2oo]

Love the play on The Vetruvian Man as the thumbnail!

[@BlueCollarBibleStudy]

"Compost your enemies" 😂 that is amazing man

[@1millionpumpkins542]

Literal life goals

[@davidthegood]

hahhaaha

[@georgeratkowitz8023]

08:50 Actually all pumpkins and squash are evolutionary food of all MEGA mammals (giant sloth, etc) and it makes sense that they love and compost so much :) . MEGA mammals got extinct (hunted by humans unfortunately) but their food remained and was cultivated primarily for nutritional seeds and material for pots and ladles, until the variety digestible by humans was cultivated.

[@wmo1234]

I had this tune going through my my head when you said to "plant the pumpkins on the pile".... Like the song from Drowning Pool - "PLANT THE PUMPKINS ON THE PILE... PLANT THE PUMPKINS ON THE PILE... PLANT THE PUMPKINS ON THE...... PIIIIIIIIIIILLLLLE" lol! I love your videos!

[@davidthegood]

One step closer to the hedge...

[@Trailtotable]

My best performing squash right now is a volunteer patty pan taking over my metal raised bed. I'm ok with that because that is where I planted Kale, you know, the green you're supposed to eat but don't really like.

[@gregorychampion6391]

Excellent! I have been watching over the last couple years as my planted squash and pumpkins do ok, but all the volunteers from last year do amazingly. I think I'll try putting a mound of rabbit manure down in the middle of a grassy area and see if I can grow out of that.

[@leoncaruthers]

My best pumpkin patch was just making giant mounds of literal horsesh*t and planting straight in the top of it. Watered the mounds for two weeks until the canopy formed, then left it alone until October. Dozens and dozens of fruit, vines I could barely control, etc.

[@improveclaysoil]

I made a winter vermicompost hugel "lite" trench with leftover holloween pumpkins smashed up whole and kitchen scraps. Come spring i was shocked by how many plants came up. I did it mostly for worm food, but also so id know when the compost was ready too. When you said 10 piles it made me so happy 🤣

[@diamondniquechloe3043]

Im growing my first commercial pumpkins this year

[@thenaturalhuman9568]

Yes, i’ve had some random cucurbit plants pop up around my garden, they are the only ones to not get attacked by cucumber beattle yet. Seeds spread from last year either by compost or animals

[@ziggybender9125]

The vigorous ones might be from being an F1 hybrid cross that was formed and is expressing hybrid vigor, or possibly the locations but I wouldn't rule out the F1 possibility.

[@markkristynichols845]

You are so flipping CREATIVE AND FUN DAVID!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@YasChosenChild_70]

I LOVE YOUR GARDEN WAY!!!

[@GrandmomZoo]

Mutts and Freedom! ❤ The only way to grow food in my food forrest! It is all DTGs fault as to what I have become. I am forever grateful to him.😊

[@davidthegood]

That is really kind of you.

[@doricetimko5403]

Stealth pumpkins, I love it! Thanks❤

[@shk2564]

My compost is always growing really healthy things and whenever I use it to plant something like a grape vine or fruit tree I usually have a tomato plant or something grow right next to it from a seed that was in my compost! 😂

[@Judith-rr6ww]

Hello from Australia, hope we have those pumpkins here in Queensland I'm going to check it out Thank you guys🎉 Jude

[@wordwalkermomma4]

I love the shot of the pumpkins with the tree loppers, laying handily by. 😄

[@thadrobinson8343]

Just got some "calabcitas"in a restaurant produce order, they look very much like your Seminole pumpkins. Gonna store some seeds in the compost and see what happens. I've got lots of moschatas fruiting right now. Last year the vines took over most of my yard and I only got four pumpkins out of the ordeal. The difference is that this year I made sure to put in lots of flowers to attract pollinators. Boy has that ever worked....

[@5points7019]

for fun, i planted 3 state winner giant pumpkins in a grass area, 2 germinated... they are doing alright even tho they only get 6 hrs of sun each day.... but im going to need to protect them from the rascaly squirrels and rabbits bcs its in my front yard! lets wait and see what happens!!!!

[@debrabeghtol4332]

❤ this is so exciting and fun to look forward to 🎃

[@KathrynRose-cj8xi]

I've been doing similar on my allotment compost heaps for a while; sadly I don't have as much space to let them run but I still get a decent yield. I'm trying it with my melons this year too -- they're marginal outdoors in this climate, but the compost heaps are still a little warm so we might still pull it off.

[@emilybh6255]

I do Bokashi (plant) anaerobic food waste composting in 5 Gal buckets adding spent grains from a beer brewery into the layers of waste in the 5 gallon bucket and then, when it is filled up, I let it sit for three weeks and later mix it in raised bed soil before adding it to my garden and without fail it produces all kinds of squash seedlings. I NEVER have to plant seeds unless I wanted to make sure of the variety. They all germinate from the seeds thrown into the food waste bucket. It germinates so much, I usually have to remove dozens of seedlings that sprout up all by themselves in my raised beds.

[@rdraffkorn3184]

so , i've already planted pumpkins and squash in my garden. does this mean i should go put piles of compost around them ? and should i tell them i'm putting it there?

[@williamvillar2519]

Awesome yields, David. Seriously impressive. It's always the accidental things that grow the best, especially out of the compost heap. Would love to see some landrace seeds of all types in the Etsy store this year. I'm redoing my compost bins because the oak they are under invading with roots, which ate it all and the trap jaw ants have infested anything slightly useful.

[@davidthegood]

The trap jaw ants are really nasty.

[@ragheadand420roll]

Do the labor and God will provide 🙏✌️

[@ProfesorPorcupine-yy5bt]

5:55 how would you stop squirrels from eating the seeds you planted? Or do the rotting seeds taste bad thus get ignored? 8:54 Designed you say? I think you got a point cuz the wild squash species either rot, are dug apart by animals trying to get at the seeds Also wouldn't these huge well Rotted Compost piles grow other Cucurbitacae fruits like melons, Watermelons, Cucumbers just as well? Surely they're heavy feeders too

[@myco_enthusiast]

I just put.mounds of horse manure in my garden bed, and going to add a bunch of molasses/chicken compost to the same bed in week or so after the pumpkins/squash are a few inches tall. Fingers crossed lol I'll probably say "whoopsie" when I add the compost just in case 😅

[@myco_enthusiast]

I also had my toddler help me plant the whole pumpkin bed, so hopefully that helps.

[@melanieallen3655]

Pumkins are sooo exciting2 grow!!

[@ursamajor1936]

Very cool! I'm doing this tomorrow!

[@cristinacruz6493]

I love your channel and music. How do you create a food forest on a rented property without breaking the bank. I love to grow food but don’t want to spend thousands of dollars amending and buying soil on a rental.

[@FloridaGirl-]

That’s really incredible. Quite impressive actually! I was wondering the other day 🤔 How did that bread compost go? I remember you getting a massive load of bread and you composting it all. .

[@davidthegood]

It rotted away. It's amazing how little was left when that bread rotted down. We spread the piles on the garden, mostly. Except for the one that got eaten by Bermuda grass.

[@TheRugghead]

AMEN BROTHER DAVID!

[@PRINCESSDREAMYLYN]

i dumped a bunch of apple cores in a compost pile few years back when i made some apple sauce. Now I have 2 apple trees from it cause i had to thin them as they grew. that are giving me small apples one of the trees the apples are about size of half dollar the other just tiny ones i leave those ones for the birds. they are very tasty let the weather get cold and they get even sweeter. they can be juiced or turned into sauce or eaten fresh. Or you could just use the apple wood to smoke meat or use in a fire place for warmth. make nice shade and feed winter wild life by leaving the little apples on the trees. I love lazy gardening lol i will plant some modern apples once i get moved to my new place but i also plant to grow some more apples from seed just to have the wood and feed the wild critters too. I also have had better luck with squash and pumpkins in rich soil and compost piles as well as other plants like tomatoes peppers and even potato's from the peelings there eyes were cut off in the process. Thanks for sharing ♥

[@davidthegood]

That is really cool that they both fruited.

[@PRINCESSDREAMYLYN]

@@davidthegood I know right! I was really surprised both taste good but the bigger ones are sweeter more the size of the old crab apple. i was truly excited :) never expected anything just waited to see what would happen and last year we got fruit this year they are loaded and they are only 4 years old!