We're ready for Harvest & Halloween

October 17, 2011

A Selection of Gourds

Halloween has been spirited away in recent years, but not through unearthly possession. That’s why Lockwood’s has learned to know pumpkins as well as plants, and grow gourds galore alongside freshly eye-popping perennial and annual Mums.

According to the National Retail Federation, total spending for All Hallows Eve will reach a record-breaking $6.86 billion, mostly by adults and surprisingly, FOR adults (after all, a few bags of candy for the kids couldn’t account for the average $72.00 spending per person on the second most-celebrated holiday of the year. Yes, thankfully, the blessed events in December still rank higher).

Lockwood’s is ready. Our customers want to continue the sense of neighborhood camaraderie and community which comes with decorating their doorstep and front lawn – both into the fall and through the Christmas season. You can count on us as you continue to cultivate your garden, past spring and summer - to both cocoon (maybe, hiding under the covers – it is Halloween!) or bravely entertaining your own creepily-costumed party crowd.

We’ve given enough forethought to your needs: Julie Emerling starts seeding our pumpkins and gourds early. From our greenhouses, they’re planted over two acres by Steve Lockwood and company in June, but holding off on the fertilizer - Halloween is spooky enough; who wants a pumpkin that looks big enough to squash them?

We weed. We tend. We opt for variety to afford our customers both white and the traditional orange pumpkins, decorative Indian corn, corn stalks, hay stacks, and gourds galore.

Attention: Lockwood’s shoppers. This year, we can – as one of our smaller (biggest) competitors brags they do, help you “Save money. Live better.” Our pumpkins are 39 cents per pound. Nearly half the price of the “discounters!” Our own “special” to both loyal and new friends.

How do we do it? Well, no worry about freight charges (our delivery system runs via battery-charged cart; not astronomically-priced, gas-driven 18-wheeler). Texas had excess heat that melted entire pumpkin crops this year, and New England saw whole fields washed away during Hurricane Irene.

Lockwood’s kept gingerly growing our curvaceous beauties and they’re looking good. Our gourds… well, even better.

Worldwide, gourds are utilized as musical instruments, currency, for artistic canvas that incorporates their curvature (think countrified Faberge egg) and have a host of special design and paints to make the most of their varied size, texture and color. They’re a significant tool of our local Amish communities for crafts, for birdhouses and feeders. (Purple Martin is the only bird in North America wholly dependent on human interaction for survival – we build their nests from gourds!)

Check out these sites for more information on the interesting world of gourds:

http://americangourdsociety.org

http://www.thegourdreserve.com/

http://www.amishgourds.com/site/1278922/page/45029