the pumpkin is dead ... long live the pumpkin

I went out this evening to take a photo of my pumpkin vine.  It had been getting more and more diseased lately, first with powdery mildew and then with aphids.  But they sometimes do this at the end of their life so I wasn't worried.  But I did want to make sure the pumpkins themselves didn't get diseased, so I was going to ask some advice of my favourite garden forum.

I needn't have bothered!  It went from diseased to DEAD in just a day or two!  Definitely time to harvest the last little pumpkins.  They sure ripened up quickly compared to the first batch which apparently they do later in the season.  But they're a little bit smaller than the first batch which I don't mind.  They're still cute!

Oh and you know how I was recently praising how tough elephant ear plants are?  Well guess what I found growing up from underneath the dying pumpkin vine.  It's a little elephant ear I now remember I tried to pull out when I first planted this bed, months ago.  But I didn't dig down deep enough.  And now, here's the little fighter trying again to grow back.  I think I'll reward it this time by digging it up this weekend and planting it somewhere I won't be planting things on top of it.