PJ's Pumpkin Patch: The Cutest Pumpkin Patch You'll Ever See!

The Pettyjohn family is back again for the 4th consecutive year with their super awesome and well-crafted pumpkin patch. This weekend, I volunteered at the patch, and for me, it was a very pleasant experience.  PJ’s did not disappoint at Saturday’s Farm Festival, and it was a very popular place to go during the event. 

The Farm festival was located down Fern Bluff Road, you see a field with a sign saying “PJs” and you look out through a field of beautiful, round, and bright orange pumpkins ready to be carved into.  

With the shopping and activities, the event had a coffee espresso stand making delicious cups of espresso, and I got myself an “Iced Brown Sugar-Vanilla Latte”, it was a great cup of joe. Also, in the backyard of Pettyjohn's house, was a luscious corn maze that was “very hard to solve but wasn’t impossible” the maze solvers said. They gave the adventurers who wanted to conquer the mighty maze a checklist full of checkpoints, such as wooden people, treasure chests, and doors. They also had a face painting station with 4 of my beloved friends, Regina Jimenez, Ella Pettyjohn, Connor Talik, and Paetyn Schlicker. Personally, for me, I got myself a Canadian Maple leaf and Bee on my face! And what is a festival without an adorable pony!  

The activities and shopping layout were so well crafted and executed successfully, and the mastermind around this lovely Pumpkin Patch is none other than Maria and Jimmy Pettyjohn. These two worked hard to attain this patch for almost 4 years and looking to do it for more. I talked to both, and they love their patch so much and are very passionate about it. 

 Jim stated, “My wife is the one who runs the show, I just love planting the pumpkins.” Jim then recommended I should ask Maria these questions instead of him but truthfully, I think he would rather talk to anybody else at the Patch.   

When Maria and Jim began her Pumpkin Patch, it was a huge DIY project during the tough times of COVID. “We didn’t have any idea or concept of what we were doing” and is “surprising how big it is now,” Maria said.  

Despite the size of PJs at the start of the project, the massive number of people coming to the patch motivated them to continue.  

“The second year we put in the whole rest of the field and that’s when we implemented the corn maze,” Maria said. 

The process of making the patch is stressful. “We order pumpkin seeds in the winter, figuring the different kinds of seeds out, what worked last October and what didn’t work last October, getting the field prepared by plotting and planting, building corn maze by hand, bugs, and stresses of personal time loss making this farm what it is” Maria explained.  

Jim and Maria Pettyjohn have made autumn more of a fun and fantastic time for this colorful time of the year. Places and ideas like PJ’s are what make our little town even cuter and so passionate.  

Overall, PJ’s is a great place during the autumn time to go to in the valley. On behalf of the community of Sultan and the rest of the valley, we want to say thank you for your years of making the Pumpkin Patch.