Last fall, we carved pumpkins in our backyard and left some of the pumpkin guts out for the family of squirrels that lives in our trees. Fast forward six months and I now have a pumpkin plant growing right next to my immature rosemary shrub. Is there any chance this pumpkin plant can survive right here? Will it kill my rosemary? Obviously they have drastically different water requirements, but will the pumpkin roots strangle the rosemary roots? I’ve read pumpkins don’t like their roots handled, but it is possible it would survive being transplanted? I wasn’t planning to grow pumpkins, but I think my toddler would really enjoy it, so now I’m hoping to save it without sacrificing my rosemary.
by thehappyherbivore
5 Comments
Also, my rosemary plant is larger than shown in the second picture – that was from it was originally planted, but I wanted to show the area they are now sharing.
I don’t think the roots will be as much of a problem as the vines. You can actually ‘train’ the vines away from the rosemary when the plant starts sprawling. The watering requirements are definitely a bit different which is something to consider. I would recommend deeply watering at the base of the pumpkin plant maybe once or twice (if it’s hot) a week. I haven’t had much luck transplanting pumpkins/squash so I always try to avoid it
Pumpkins will take over any garden, they have the largest most pretty flowers! I’m excited to see your yield!
Once I planted too many pumpkins and I pulled a few seedlings out of the dirt and threw them into a bucket to take to the compost. Well a couple of days later my kid found the seedlings and crammed them in the compacted clay and weeds in my yard and threw a rock on top. A few months later they had taken over my backyard.
I know they don’t always transplant well but sometimes they really don’t mind lol.
I would pull that out. It’s going to get huge and vine out about 20 feet. You need a lot of space for pumpkin.