Lynn Brown-Summers and Tim Summers are a dynamic husband-and-wife team. Their differing strengths have made them an inspiring team in serving their local community wherever they are needed. UC Cooperative Extension (UCCE) San Bernardino County Master Gardeners since January 2019 (Lynn) and July 2017 (Tim) and UCCE Master Food Preservers (since 2017), they enjoy spending time together gardening and preserving their own food.

Lynn's strength is to connect with like-minded individuals to accomplish mutual goals. She has the mind, heart, and soul of an activist, which comes as no surprise since most of her family members are involved in public service, politics, and publishing. Her mother, Cheryl Brown, is a former Assemblywoman of the 47^th District and current California State Commissioner on Aging who has devoted most of her life to public service. In 1980, Lynn's father and mother founded Brown Publishing Company to produce Black Voice News. This weekly newspaper focuses on local news in Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Lynn knows how to “make things happen” and the right people to help in that effort. As Tim says, “My wife is one of those forces of nature. Tell her what, you point her in the direction, and she will get it done.” A self-proclaimed “gardening nerd," Tim is the “nuts and bolts' implementation force of the team. He enjoys the hands-on part of their collaboration, and it shows through his gardening. Together, they are unstoppable in their goal to make the world better through the Master Gardeners' mission, “To extend research-based knowledge and information on home horticulture, pest management, and sustainable landscape practices to the residents of California.”

Learning the researched-based approach to sustainable gardening taught in the Master Gardener program has helped Lynn and Tim fulfill their strong desire to help others. They believe that the program provides supportive credibility to their Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver presentations. It gives them a greater depth of knowledge and background of information to pull accurate and useful information. Lynn and Tim believe that research-based knowledge is especially critical for integrated pest management (IPM). They took a UC ANR IPM class a few years ago. They recommended that anyone interested take one of the online courses or workshops https://www2.ipm.ucanr.edu/master-gardeners/.

Tim and Lynn believe that society can be affected positively by teaching people how to grow and store their own food. Food insecurity is a problem throughout the world. One of their goals is to educate people regarding how they can have access to healthy food. There is a sufficient supply of food in the world to feed people. However, a lot of food is thrown away. As a society, we are accustomed to seeing food that perfect in appearance. Many foods thrown away are perfectly acceptable for consumption. Still, they may have some blemishes that we are not used to seeing in grocery stores. Encouraging people to understand that unattractive fruits and vegetables are not always bad and teaching them how to preserve them could make a difference in our society. They would like people to understand that these items are perfectly acceptable for food preservation and consumption. Doing this one thing could help make a difference in our society.

Before COVID restricted activities, Lynn and Tim were active in presenting Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver workshops at the Rialto Community Garden at 539 Acacia Avenue, Rialto. They are passionate about teaching people the safe way to preserve and store food they have grown.

They took the Master Food Preserver class together in 2017 to teach people how to become more self-sufficient. The course helped Lynn grow in the way she preserved and canned foods. She grewup preserving and canning, but techniques have changed since she learned from her grandmother. When teaching a gardening class, they incorporate concepts and techniques for food preservation. This includes fermenting (pickles), preserving (jams, jellies), pressure canning (just about anything including chicken), dehydrating (fruit), and drying (spices, okra).

Lynn and Tim are involved in so many projects that I am amazed at how they find the time and energy to keep “all the balls they are juggling in the air.” They are currently finishing a new (second) Rialto Community Garden at 150 Palm Avenue opposite City Hall. They are proud that they were asked by the City of Rialto to work on the garden for the past two years from start to finish. They served as the UCCE Master Gardener experts for the project, helping develop and implement a garden plan. They represented the community garden project as advisors, attending city planning meetings and spoke at city council meetings regarding the project.

They have developed a curriculum for workshops held at the garden when COVID restrictions are lifted. They are excited to have a garden plot where they will conduct monthly gardening workshops. Their goal is to get relevant gardening information to the local community and encourage more people to become involved in gardening. They want people who may not have sufficient space for a garden to know that there is a place for them to learn about starting their own garden.

They are also working with the Mayor of Rialto to start a seed bank there. There is a beautiful old adobe building at the Bud Bender Park that Lynn and Tim think would be a perfect spot to start a seed bank. The early 19th-century structure is the oldest building still standing in Rialto. It has been used for many purposes over the years. The internal temperature of the adobe structure is perfect for storing seeds. The Mayor would like to use it for the seed bank, but it needs some repair work. The project is currently in the planning stage “on paper." The city likes the idea and is reviewing the budget for available funds. Lynn and Tim don't easily give up, so if the adobe site doesn't work out, they will find another location for a Rialto seed bank. It may be at the community garden at Bud Bender Park if the idea to use the adobe structure doesn't work out.

Lynn and Tim have participated in the City of Rialto's annual Civic Day for four years. Their favorite activity at the event is teaching Rialto Unified School District third grade students on their annual field trip how to grow vegetables. Lynn and Tim provide all the supplies for the project, so each student can take a seed planted in the soil home with them. Last year Lynn and Tim introduced the students to some of the basic concepts of designing a garden. They provided a large roll of paper for all the students to draw their garden designs. Afterward, Lynn and Tim presented the students' plan to the Rialto School Board and the Rialto City Council to foster awareness of teaching children that gardening is important and fun.

For three years, Lynn has worked with the San Bernardino Public Library and the American Girl project to teach girls who participated about some of the historical characters who had victory gardens. Lynn and her mother on the San Bernardino Library Board were planning a fundraiser for the library. They weren't sure what they would do. Lynn's sister, who serves on the Irvine Foundation Board, told them about another organization that had successfully done an American Girl fundraiser.

Lynn thought having an American Girl Victory Garden workshop would be fun and educational for young girls and attendees to learn about gardening. Stations were set up where the girls made paper, planted seeds, and made a berry jam. The UCCE San Bernardino County Master Food Preservers made food to sample, such as finger sandwiches, cakes, cookies, and other goodies from the American Girl cookbook.

Several people donated American Girl dolls and books to the San Bernardino Public Library. Any of the children who were not able to afford the American Doll event could check a doll and book out of the library and journal their thoughts before returning the library items.

A tea was held for the girls attending the first year. During the tea, each of the girls had an American Girl doll who had historically had a garden sit with them. The girls learned about historical characters like Kit, Addy, and Kaya. The families of the latter all grew and prepared their own food to survive. Kit Kittredge is an American Girl Doll whose family loses their comfortable life during the Great Depression. They had a victory garden, a vegetable stand and made their own preserves. Addy Walker is an American Girl doll who escaped slavery on a plantation in the 1860s. Addy helped on her family's gardens, where they grew all their own food. Kaya'aton'my (Kaya) is a Native American Girl doll. While the men of the tribe were away hunting, the women gathered, dried and prepared food. At the end of the event, one of the girls even won an American Girl doll!

The American Girl Victory Garden workshop that Lynn organizes each year is a well-attended, popular event. The organizers were sad they were not able to hold a workshop this year due to COVID restrictions. However, everyone is looking forward to having another workshop as soon as possible.

Lynn and Tim are highly skilled at helping people feel comfortable to think outside the box to come up with creative gardening solutions. They recently discussed how property at the St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in San Bernardino can be converted to a garden with a minister's alliance group. The AME Church does a lot of outreach on self-sufficiency, sustainability, and how to give back to the community. Having their own garden would be a promising avenue for them to sell their product and help the community.

The first step is to help them develop a design concept for the designated area that takes water constraints at the property into consideration and choose the best plants for their needs. They have asked the alliance group to consider planting berries or grapes. Lynn and Tim would also like to teach them how to preserve food and make jams and jellies. Knowing Lynn and Tim, they will make the garden a success!

Like many UCCE Master Gardeners, Tim and Lynn have a life-long love of gardening. Tim grew up loving horticulture as a child and has been gardening for over 50 years. As a young adult, he had his own landscape company. Lynn developed a love of growing her own food and canning from her grandparents in North Carolina, who had 10 acres of land. Together, her grandparents raised pigs, chickens, geese and grew and preserved all their own vegetables and fruits.

I was so inspired by Lynn and Tim, their strong partnership, and their drive and passion for teaching the world how food insecurity can be alleviated. They were such an exciting and engaging couple that I could have spent many more hours chatting with them. UCCE San Bernardino County Master Gardeners and Master Food Preservers are thankful to Lynn and Tim for their dedication and support. They are an inspiration to us all!

 

 

Are you ready to transform your yard into a more sustainable landscape but don't know the first thing about irrigation systems? Our very own UC San Bernardino County Master Gardener Anita Matlock really knows her “stuff” when it comes to irrigation! She has enough experience and in-depth knowledge about irrigation to teach anyone how easy it is to transition their landscape from spray sprinklers to a drip irrigation system. She has provided numerous in-depth presentations and hands-on workshops that helped attendees increase their knowledge of beneficial irrigation concepts and decrease water usage in the garden.

As a Master Gardener, Anita has been our “de facto” trainer on irrigation systems since 2003. She says, “there are still many people who are unaware of how much water and money they could save by simply swapping out standard sprays and rotors for those with integrated pressure regulation. Communities everywhere continue to face the problem of high water pressure. High water pressure causes irrigation systems to experience a higher water flow rate, which results in wasted water, higher water bills, and damaged system components.”

Before retiring, Anita's professional background since 1991 had been in the irrigation industry. She was familiar with the irrigation concepts related to the "plant, water, soil relationship," but she was not familiar with growing plants. In 2003, she was inspired to join the Master Gardener program because she wanted to learn how to prune grapes and rose bushes. Through the Master Gardener program, Anita learned about growing roses and developed enough expertise and knowledge to teach a rose pruning workshop in January 2020.

Anita says that if you enjoy gardening and want to give back to your community, consider joining the Master Gardener program. You will experience many hours of pleasure spent in your garden while also teaching others about the many joys and benefits of gardening. She also wants to remind everyone to consider joining the UC San Bernardino County Master Food Preservers program if you enjoy growing edible gardens, especially if you grow many fruits, vegetables, and herbs. You will gain a lot of satisfaction from growing your own food, preserving it for your family, and giving your preserved foods as gifts! Joining the Master Gardener and Master Food Preserver programs will open opportunities for you to develop your interests in many different directions and make life-long friends with similar interests and passions.

Anita has used her expertise in irrigation to lead several Master Gardener landscape renovation projects. Her most recent project was in the summer of 2018, at Micah House in Redlands. Along with fellow UC Master Gardeners Betty Richardson, Trisha Fitzgerald, and other volunteers, she participated in transforming a grassy area in the front yard of Micah House into a lovely drought-tolerant garden. Master Gardeners removed the existing lawns and replaced them with drought-tolerant plants watered by a new drip irrigation system. The project was made possible through a grant from the Inland Empire Resource Conservation District (IERCD).

In 2018, Anita donated irrigation equipment to a research project that measured the impacts of gardening on 82 first and second-grade students at Norton Space and Aeronautical Academy, a charter school in an ethnically diverse neighborhood in San Bernardino. It was a team effort with Master Gardeners Loleta Cruse, Jackie Brooks, Robert Simpson, and other community volunteers. The study found that students participating in planting and caring for the garden had greater concentration and group cohesiveness than students participating in other group activities. These positive outcomes corroborated research from several other studies worldwide, linking enhanced mood, feelings of self-worth, improved cooperation with others, and even higher standardized test scores and grades to school gardening.

Anita's previous career in marketing and consulting sales presenting to customers and potential customers, and becoming a Toastmasters member helped her develop the confidence to speak in front of groups. She has presented at Master Gardener events too numerous to list in this article. In 2018, she presented SoCal Landscape Transformation – The Hunt for Water Savings, a workshop at Western Municipal Water District (WMWD).

In April 2020, she presented at a free webinar on DIY water-efficient landscape irrigation hosted by IERCD in partnership with the (San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District (SBVMWD.) She led attendees through the ins and outs of retrofitting and drip irrigation to increase their knowledge of effective irrigation practices and help decrease their water usage. 

If you are interested in presenting as a Master Gardener but are hesitant to take that first step, you don't need years of public speaking experience like Anita has. She has some great tips to get anyone started. The first step is to study and understand the subject you are presenting. Prepare an outline for your presentation and practice it in front of your family and friends. Here is a great tip that worked for Anita when preparing to present a new topic to her fellow Toastmasters. She would introduce a shorter version to get feedback and gain the confidence to fine-tune her final presentation. Try it yourself and see how it works for you! Don't hesitate to ask your fellow Master Gardeners for help by giving you feedback on practice presentations or co-presenting with you on your favorite gardening topic.

Anita's latest gardening project reflects her interest in vertical gardening. If you have not already “dipped your gardening toes” into this fascinating and fun gardening activity, I highly recommend trying it! I think you will be inspired to try your hand at vertical gardening when you read about Anita's vertical herb and vegetable garden.

In 2003, Anita (and her husband Tony) decided they wanted something more visually appealing to look at while enjoying their patio than a bare wall separating their property from their neighbors. They also wanted herbs to use for cooking that they had grown themselves, so they built a vertical herb and vegetable garden made of wood. After 7 years, the wood had deteriorated. They recently created a new vertical system made of HDPE drainpipe to replace the old wooden system. Be creative and start your own vertical garden using unique and fun materials.

 

Anita’s old vertical herb garden made of wood

 

You never know where the path of being a Master Gardener will lead you. In 2003, Anita and her husband Tony started a hobby in home wine making. Anita also decided to join the Master Gardeners program in 2003 because she wanted to learn how to prune grapes (and roses.) Fast forward to 2018, when Anita and Tony decided to take their years as home winemakers to turn their hobby into an encore career to establish their commercial winery. Anita is now an award-winning winemaker and serves as a Board Member of the Yucaipa Valley Wine Alliance. She has provided hands-on training at many workshops on growing grapes and wine making.

UC San Bernardino County Master Gardeners are thankful to Anita Matlock for enthusiastically sharing her extensive knowledge of irrigation concepts that decrease water usage. She is a wonderfully approachable presenter, and we are proud to name her as this month's Spotlight Master Gardener!

When Loleta first learned she had been chosen for the Monthly Master Gardener Spotlight for March, she said she didn't think there would be much of interest about her to put in the article. I soon came to the realization that this was Loleta's humility speaking. I found in talking with her that she has had many interesting life experiences, all while developing a huge knowledge base of gardening experience and training.

Loleta grew up in a small town in Illinois where she met her husband Pete. After she and Pete got married, life got very interesting for them! Pete was in the Air Force and they travelled around the world together for much of their lives. As Loleta and Pete traveled from place to place, she always had a garden wherever they lived. She would plant a garden knowing that she and Pete would move onto the next place within a few years and she would eventually leave her garden behind. Throughout their travels, Loleta learned a lot of gardening tips and tricks through her own research and good old-fashioned trial and error. She very generously and humorously shared with me some successes and failures that she learned in some of the many places she has traveled to and lived.

 

UCCE San Bernardino County Master Gardener Loleta Cruse

 

One of the most important gardening lessons Loleta learned during her travels is that gardening in California is nothing like gardening in the Midwest where she grew up. While living in Sacramento, she learned that calendulas are easy to grow in Sacramento in the winter, but she never had any luck growing them elsewhere. Loleta was able to really indulge and further develop her interest in growing things when she and Pete moved to their current home in the San Bernardino area.

 

Loleta accepting Certificate of Appreciation from Master Gardener Coordinator Maggie O'Neill

Loleta has been a UCCE Master Gardener in San Bernardino County for over 25 years, and, as she says, “the rest is history.” One of the most interesting projects that Loleta participated in her early days as a UCCE Master Gardener was “YIMBY” otherwise known as the “Yes, in My Backyard” program that Janet Hartin, Area UCCE Horticulture Advisor, UCCE San Bernardino County Co-Director and Master Gardener Program Manager initiated with the support of several Master Gardeners including Loleta, who earned Master Composter status after completing additional training. These ‘doubly certified' Master Gardener/Master Composter volunteers mentored community members who were interested in backyard composting, even visiting their homes to get them started with their own composting projects. Due to safety concerns, the home visits were discontinued but the training in this area continues by many current Master Gardeners who share their extensive knowledge on soil health and composting with San Bernardino County gardeners.

Loleta also participated in a project with UCCE Master Gardeners Jackie Brooks, Robert Simpson, and other volunteers as part of a multidisciplinary research team that measured the impacts of gardening on 82 first and second-grade students at Norton Space and Aeronautical Academy, a charter school in an ethnically diverse neighborhood in San Bernardino. It was a team effort, with UCCE Master Gardener Anita Matlock donating the irrigation equipment for the project. Loleta's many years of experience as a schoolteacher and School Counselor were very helpful in guiding the students on planting vegetables and tending the garden. Some of the students came from gardening families, but many did not. Many of the children were very surprised that vegetables that came from the grocery store started out as tiny seeds! When the broccoli, greens, and peas matured, they loved harvesting and eating fresh produce right in the garden. During the summer, students, families and even some teachers and staff kept the garden weeded, watered, and properly cared for. The study found that students participating in planting and caring for the garden had greater levels of concentration and group cohesiveness compared to students participating in other group activities. These positive outcomes corroborate research from several other studies around the world linking enhanced mood, feelings of self-worth, enhanced cooperation with others, and even higher standardized test scores and grades to school gardening.

If you call the San Bernardino County UCCE Master Gardener phone helpline on Tuesdays from 9:00-11:00 AM, there is a very good chance that you will reach Loleta (Ann) Cruse. She thought it would be interesting to work on the helpline, so she gave it a try to see how she liked it. Lucky for callers, she liked it from the beginning and has been providing excellent research-based information to anyone who calls since! Loleta managed the helpline, which included developing a record-keeping system and recruiting Master Gardeners to address inquiries from gardeners throughout the county, for many years which has greatly contributed to making it the success that it is today. (More and more inquiries come directly into the e-helpline (mgsanbern@ucanr.edu) since photos of garden woes can be attached.)

 

Loleta Hard at Work in the UCCE San Bernardino County Master Gardener Helpline Office Providing a Caller with UC Research-Based Gardening Information 

 

Loleta's most recent gardening project has been replacing her lawn with drought-tolerant mostly California native plants. She and Pete covered the lawn with cardboard, then added mulch on top of the cardboard in June and let it sit until November. After sitting under cardboard and organic mulch from June to November the grass died and they began putting in their mostly California native plants garden. They sunk unglazed terracotta flower pots about 18” away from each plant to serve as an olla. An olla is an old Spanish method of watering plants. Loleta thinks they probably may not have filled the ollas as often as should have. True to Loleta's spirit, challenges are opportunities for learning and everything turned out great with most of the plants now thriving. She is already planning ahead for her next gardening project which will be to plant drought-tolerant California native plants in a park strip with an existing large tree.

 

Loleta Preparing to Plant Her Drought-Tolerant Garden at Her Home

 

I was interested in learning more about Loleta's use of cardboard as a mulch in her lawn so I asked her how she learned that method. She told me that she attended talks given by Lisa Novick, Director of Outreach and K-12 Education for the Theodore Payne Foundation and learned about using cardboard as a mulch. As Loleta said, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear” and it was certainly true for Loleta in meeting Lisa.

 

Loleta's Drought-Tolerant Garden

Work of an Artist, Work of a Gardener.......Or Both?

 

Her love of gardening is interwoven with her many memories of travel to different places she has lived. Garden sights and scents are associated with her memories, each place a different gardening experience that she carried to the next place she and Pete were transferred to. When they lived in Japan, Loleta loved the beauty of the azaleas and scented camellias. When they returned to the United States from Japan, they were stationed in Sacramento. With the memory of the beautiful plants she saw in Japan still fresh in her mind, she planted a scented camellia. And four years later, when they moved onto the next place, the camellia was still thriving from Loleta's care.

To know Loleta is to know that she has a wonderful sense of humor and way of looking at the world. She told me that she learned the meaning of “grass roots” when she tried digging up Bermudagrass by back door to one of their homes. She also learned that lizards eat bugs, but there aren't enough lizards to eat all the bugs in the garden. While stationed in San Antonio she learned that it's really hard to grow plants in caliche soil which is a layer of soil cemented together by calcium carbonate that's almost like concrete. San Antonio was one of the few places that she was not successful in growing a lot of plants. However, as gardeners know, we learn as much from our mistakes as we do from our successes. And then there was Las Vegas! That was where she learned that even though it's blistering hot in the summer, it also freezes in the winter, creating some unique gardening challenges. She did have some success with roses in Las Vegas! The most painful lesson she learned, though, was if you ‘top' (an often preached sin in our Master Gardener class) beautiful 15 feet Yew tree down to 4 feet it will die . . . quickly.

I think all gardeners know the pain of losing a plant that you have lovingly cared for. Loleta said “The pain is even greater if you are the one who murdered the plant. However, you shouldn't give up on any plant until you have killed it at least 5 times.” I call that a gardener's loving persistence and Loleta's wonderful sense of humor! A yard in one of the first homes that Loleta and Pete bought was filled by the previous owner with a whole array of plants that were placed without much thought about their needs, mature size, or how they would look together. When Loleta and Pete looked at the house for the first time, the realtor asked, “Do you like gardening?” Loleta replied, “HA, of course!” As she shared with me, gardening is a puzzle to be solved and she has always liked solving puzzles. Even though gardening in that yard was a struggle with the array of mismatched plants, poor soil, the heat, and the bugs, Loleta never gave up trying to solve another gardening puzzle.

Her persistence and love of sharing what she has learned with others is one of the many virtues that make Loleta a Superstar Master Gardener! Loleta told me that in the gardening world, there are gardeners, and there are artists. And she said, “I'm a gardener”. Gardening can be considered both an art, concerned with arranging plants harmoniously in their surroundings, and as a science, encompassing the principles and techniques of plant cultivation. She sent me the following picture of the garden at her home. If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Loleta's garden looks like a work of art backed by scientific gardening principles.

Loleta and Pete are life-long learning gardeners, regularly attending many gardening workshops and talks. They have attended talks at the East Valley Water District in Highland, the Waterwise Community Center at Chino Basin Water Conservation District, and a couple of weeks ago they attended a meeting of the Redlands Horticultural Improvement Society. They rarely miss a presentation on California Natives, and they always learn something new at each talk. Throughout her many years with the UCCE Master Gardener program, Loleta has participated in nearly every program activity, providing research-based knowledge to the public. She has shared her knowledge at myriad UCCE Master Gardener events including information tables, workshops and seminars. She has mentored numerous students and her fellow Master Gardeners in the joys of gardening.

Loleta sent the following photo to me with a message, “Not a great photo, but great photos of me are harder to find than unicorns.” I think you will agree that this is a great picture of Loleta looking happy in her garden. The UCCE Master Gardeners of San Bernardino County are thankful to Loleta for her many years of gardening knowledge that she so generously shares with us all, her persistence, patience, humility and wonderful sense of humor!

 

Loleta at Home in Her Drought-Tolerant Garden. I Think We've Found a Unicorn!

Sandy Szukalski and I enjoyed a visit to the McKinley Elementary School Garden this past week.  Virgina 'Gin' McMillin, the Garden Director had an amazing amount of enthusiasm for the garden, the children, her IERCD grant, the future pollinator garden and just the future of the McKinley school garden in general is was infectious!  

Gin asked us to come visit so she could show us her failing pumpkin plants and get some advice.  It seemed as if the plants were not going to thrive.  They were undersized, yellowing, and had a bit of fungus.  The pumpkins were planted by the children on Earth Day (late April).  The school district had provided a 50/50 mix, but it seems as if it was not very nutritious and may have had unhealthy plant material.  The plants were also planted too close together for pumpkins.

Below is a summary of the information we shared with her and a few more bits that I hope will help your pumpkin garden thrive:

- Build up mounds for each plant - plant mid-July - August depending on growth projections.  If pumpkins ripen on the vine too early they may get fungal rot. 

- Plant plants 6-8' apart, using 3-5 seeds in each mound.  Heavily mulch.

-Introduce nice soil to the pumpkin mounds.  Especially if your current soil is not very nutritious.

- Use mulch to help keep moisture in and reduce weeds.  That will also provide a nice bed for pumpkins later.

- Once plants germinate and are 2-3" tall, begin thinning out less healthy plants, leaving the healthies 2 plants. 

- Pumpkins need to be fed.  Use nitrogen for early plant growth then when the plants are larger but before they bloom she should use phosphorus.  Alternatively, you can use the more easily accessible forms such as coffee grains or manure. Feed at regular intervals.

- Water in the morning (keeping the soil moist until germination), and if it gets very hot, in the afternoon as well.  Water deeply 1".

- Be patient for fruit - mail and female blossoms are needed.  Don't use insecticide.  The plant needs bees.

- Snip off fuzzy ends of vine after a few pumpkins have formed to focus plant energy on fruit.  Pruning vines will help with that as well. As fruit develops, turn (with great care) to encourage nice shape.  Slip a thin board or plastic mesh under pumpkins to protect them. 

- There is an excellent problem diagnosis for pumpkins from 'California Master Gardener Handbook', page 394 and a list of recommended varieties from page, 395.  This book - it has a wealth of information!

Happy Gardening - stay hydrated!