At Tyler’s Pumpkin Patch, a project that started to pay for school and a mission has grown into a beloved local tradition.
"Our youngest son thought a pumpkin patch would be good, and that was his summer job for junior high and high school years,” Rick Anderson, Tyler’s dad, said.
Tyler has since moved on, but the pumpkin patch never did. Rick is a retired banker and now spends part of his retirement keeping his son’s project growing.
“Seeing the community come and kind of enjoy a little bit of green space in an urban area does bring a lot of satisfaction,” Anderson said. “We've got a lot of homes in the area, and it's nice to have kind of an open space where people can see where produce comes from, and maybe some animals.”
But keeping the patch growing depends on two things that were harder to come by this summer: water and bees.
“The importance of both water and bees can't be emphasized enough,” Anderson said. “Obviously we have to have water, we're in a desert area, and pumpkins are in the squash family and they have male and female flowers. This year we had a lot of 100 degree days, and sometimes those flowers would close up before the bees could get in there, and that makes a difference in how many pumpkins you can have.”
A dry summer means the crop is a little smaller this year, but that’s part of what makes the patch different from the bigger fall attractions nearby.
“I think it's important for people to realize they should take care of the land they have, the property, and be good stewards,” Anderson said. “And if this is the little bit we can offer to the community, it makes us feel like we're giving back a little bit, for all that we've received.”