Pumpkins, Zucchini and Squash

Last year I attempted to grow pumpkins, actually I attempted to grow them the year before that too, but last year I actually got a little pumpkin on a vine whereas the year before I had stunted little plants that barely started to vine let alone set fruit. So back to that one little pumpkin from last year...I think I killed it with love. I checked on it daily and even put a paper plate under it like I'd read somewhere to keep it from sitting in wet dirt and rotting. Well, that little pumpkin was discovered detached and withered looking one day. It made me sad, I didn't like to think about it and I didn't want to talk about it when the husband brought it up, he knew I was excited about it, I'd made him check it out any time he was anywhere near my garden. Fortunately, this year I've got lots of pumpkins, they are growing wonderfully. Why is this? It's got to be that they like growing in the designer soil in the raised bed. I've also given them a natural fertilizer called "Bio-Fish", twice, once when I put the starts in the ground and again right before I watered recently. My plans for those pumpkins? Pie and decoration. We may even carve a few this year - if the s-son is in the mood, he's turning 13 later this month, so it can be tough to predict what he's still into and what he's outgrown. By the way, the two little pumpkins in the picture below were vine rejects, they were detached when I found them, believe it or not, they were actually further along in their growth when I found them than my one little pathetic pumpkin from last year. I've got more squash right now than I am prepared to deal with. I'll confess that I've been taking the bigger zucchini, splitting it open and giving it to my chickens. I figure if they eat it then I eventually do benefit from growing it. The bigger zucchini doesn't taste as good to me as it does when it's small - of course it's my fault that so much has grown big because I didn't get out early enough to pick it. I do love the odd things that can sometimes happen when growing vegetables. Like these conjoined crookness squash - love them! They are currently taking up space on my coutertop because I like to look at them.Another oddity, the two zucchini's below were grown from seeds that came from the same pack.I suppose it's not a long stretch that I'd be such a geek when it comes to pumpkins and squash, I am the lady who regularly takes pictures of her chickens and their eggs. Honestly though, when I look at the gorgeous golden stripes of the crookneck squash in the picture below, I'm kind of amazed that I started the seed that grew into the vine that set the flower that was polinated by a bee and then grew into that squash. I'm okay with being a gardening geek, I can own that.