I'm Running a Very Unscientific Experiment

I planted pumpkins this year. Most of them are in an actual pumpkin patch, like a normal person.

A few of them are growing right on top of the fingers of our septic system.

I know how that sounds. I'm not going to eat those ones, obviously. But I had a theory. Pumpkins are hungry. They love nitrogen. And there is, let's say, a generous supply of nitrogen in our drain field. So I stuck a few seeds out there to see what happens.

Based on some very brief research, I don’t think the roots go deep enough to tangle with the septic fingers. Probably. We'll find out.

Best case, I get some ridiculous, county-fair-looking gourds. Worst case, they look like all the others and I've learned nothing from the experiment.

I highly recommend making peace with just trying stuff like this in adulthood. It doesn't have to turn into a hobby or a side hustle or a whole thing. Sometimes you just wonder about something dumb and go find out.

I'll report back this fall. (Beautiful pumpkins, I'm hoping. Pumpkin pie, definitely not.)

The further into my career I get, the more I notice that the people I actually admire are always messing with something. Tweaking how they run a morning, rewriting a pitch that already worked, trying a new drill at Little League practice. Little experiments, constantly. Most of them don't pan out. But you almost always come away knowing something you didn't, and usually it cost you nothing but a little patience and a weird-looking corner of the yard.

This year mine just happens to involve pumpkins and a septic tank.