First of all, it looks like you're trying to grow in a half full small planter. NOT! Pumpkins need a LOT of room and a LOT of nutrients! Also a LOT of water! I would say that each pumpkin plant needs at least a 10x10' area to get a few pumpkins. For giant pumpkins, I'm thinking a 10'x20' per plant area is what we had before. We grew them in about 50% horse manure mixed with our regular soil. For the giant pumpkins, start in a pot, then plant when the 3rd leaf appears. The direction the 3rd leaf is pointing is the direction the vine will grow! Happy gardening! Nancy

I have rose bushes, echinacea, wood aster (supposed to look like "snow in Sept."), liatris, great blue lobelia and peonies encircled in 4' high cages. The deer either reach down into the cages (no tops) or rip them out of the ground (staples and all) to get to these plants. I expect trouble with rose bushes but not with others that are on all the "deer resistant" lists that the deer never read. They plucked every peony bloom right off the plants. Thought they were supposed to be fool proof when it came to deer. If the deer don't get a plant I can be reasonably sure the rabbits or "stinking moving shag carpet" (groundhogs) will get them sooner or later. This is all in a residential neighborhood that backs up to a farm and a narrow strip of state owned "open space" land. Too many deer and not enough food...except what I plant. Gets progressively worse each year and this year is a real bummer. My next move is to put another 3' of fencing on top of the 4' fence circles. I'll twist tie them together so I can easily access plants for maintenance and hope longer earth staples work. They've developed a taste for garlic and mint so none of the sprays work any more. Sound cheerful, huh? Not...but I'm not giving up on seeing something bloom after all the work it took to grow, plant and maintain these plants. I fully realize it's starting to look like a plant gulag around the house but I'm not ready to throw in the towel. Close but not there yet.

Thanks! It's unseasonably warm here today (~80 F) so hopefully that's a good thing. And I know it's a bit late, I'm only hoping for one small pumpkin per vine (I planned to trim off any others if/when one really started to take). This isn't a project I plan to repeat until I have my own home/garden =). Also I read somewhere about burying the split vine, is that something I should do?

Sue, I would go with the types of feeders that the grackles won't like so much. You know, the kind the birds have to hang off of, hang upside down from, or crawl into small places to get their treat. The nuthatches and chickadees love those round globe feeders with the holes in the sides. They are about the only birds that will feed from them on a regular basis because the bird's body has to be a certain length to be able to perch on the edge of the hole and still get the head and body forward 'though' the hole. House Finches and Gold Finches will give it a go too but they are just a titch too long in the body to do it comfortably. Grackles would in NO WAY be able to perch or feed from these feeders. They are sold by the company called Yule-Hyde and this is what they look like: Other feeders that feed birds in ways that grackles may not like are the feeders that exclude the larger birds but allow the little winter birds to feed safely: For your finch feeder and suet feeder choose a variety that feeds the birds upside down to exclude the grackles: One more thing that might help is a "dome" to go over your feeders. Most of the larger birds don't like to have to go "underneath" something to get to their food and most domes you can buy today are adjustable so that if you lower it too far, you can raise it up and if that's too far you can put it down a notch so the distance between the feeder and dome are just right to let in the species you want and keep out the undesirable species. Here's a recent thread on the domes: http://nature.gardenweb.com/forums/load/bird/msg111749196145.html?8 After moving to my new house with a woodland backyard I also learned quickly that metal feeders are the only way to go. They cost a bit more but the squirrels can't ruin them. An all metal feeder that might work great against grackles is the "No No Feeder". It's all metal with wire mesh sides and depending on which version you buy, the perch is either wider or narrower. These come in a variety of colours like bright red, forest green, copper, galvanized steel etc... and fold completely flat for off season storage. Here's an example: Once you keep your grackles off the feeders they may be content to nip away at stuff on the ground or just move on to better pastures. It's been 3 weeks now and still not a single House Sparrow on our feeders. Not only have their been no house sparrows but there's been no sightings of grackles or starlings which are a SUPREME NUISSANCE at our feeders normally. They usually perch, dip their beaks in the seed and sift back and forth until the entire feeders are emptied and spilled to the ground. So far this year there's been NONE. I'm SOOOOOOO pleased and the birds are loving it that they aren't harassed by those nasty HOSPs. Barb