Planting Mini Pumpkins in Your Urban Garden for Autumn and Halloween

I need to preface this entire blog post by saying… I’m not really sure I know what I’m doing on this particular topic, haha!

This blog post is very much in the “learn with me” style, since I have never grown pumpkins in such a tiny space in an urban setting, let alone in this region here in the Pacific Northwest.

Since moving to the PNW, I’ve been trolling Pinterest and YouTube and TikTok for inspiration on if and how I can manage to sneak some pumpkins into our “no backyard gardens allowed” military housing. And maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I’ve felt compelled to give this project a try after seeing the success of some gardeners growing pumpkins in a typical 6-foot-wide plastic children’s swimming pool, or on standard vine trellises, or even completely vertically on wires.

Since we are allowed to garden in the tiny strips of garden beds surrounding the house, I figure I’ll go ahead and give urban pumpkins a shot, and I have them planted just in time for autumn and Halloween harvests!

There is just something so small town Americana and autumn-cozy about growing your own pumpkins for recipes and decoration. It seems like it should be on every autumn-lovers bucket list! Every year in the Freeman household we go absolutely NUTS with pumpkin recipes, and we have an annual tradition of making “Autumn Pumpkin Stew” on the first day of autumn AND making stuffed mini pumpkins while decorating for Halloween.

So this may work.. It may not (and I will be sure to follow up here to let you all know!)… but at least I will have tried! haha.

So here’s the deal (as I understand it) for growing small urban pumpkins:

• You need to grow smaller pumpkin varieties, such as Spooktacular, Baby Bear, Baby Pam, Small Sugar, Wee Be Little, Baby Boo, and Jack Be Little miniature pumpkins. (We planted Jack Be Little and Small Sugar this year.)
• Urban pumpkins need either an exceptionally large container with good drainage, or small mounds for planting in the traditional “hill method”. We chose the hill method. You’ll need to make low hills spaced 3 feet apart, with the hills about 6 to 12 inches above grade and 15 to 18 inches in diameter. (From what I understand this is THE method for the rainy, chilly area where we live, as the hills allow the seeds to warm up quicker and to drain well.) 
• You will want to plant 4 to 5 seeds in each hill, sowing them an inch deep. Once the plants are growing well and have their second set of true leaves, thin to the strongest plant per hill.
• Once you have culled your plants and your established plants are starting to sprawl, set up a sturdy trellis or vertical wires (if growing along a fence or wall) so you can start the process of training your vines to it. I plan to use two 3 foot wooden trellis vines to train my pumpkin vines up and over onto.
• If you are planning on pumpkins specifically for the autumn and Halloween season, keep in mind that small fruited varieties usually need a long growing season, often up to 100 days for the plants to grow and the fruits to mature. Different varieties all have different growing habits, so check the stats of your particular pumpkin of choice, and count backwards from the harvest date to decide when to sow your seeds. I picked mid-May because I want to harvest pumpkins in early September for autumn decor and recipes. Dates seem to range from mid-May to mid-July for most pumpkin varieties planted specifically for Halloween.
• Have fun, and good luck!!