Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 70 Entries. Thursday, January 1 View Page Well the 26th annual polarbear plunge is done. It went well. a few minor thing but it went smooth. What a nice day highs in the 50's water temp was 36 degrees. Around 650 jumped I was on of them. Nothing beats jumping into the cold water lol. Friday, January 2 View Page Well my pic is in the longmont Daily times today acctually it was in a group pic, but still I am in the paper. Friday, January 16 View Page Well I got part II of my fertilizers. 5 pounds of seaweed, 1 pound fish, 10pounds of 0-59-32 bloom booster. Sunday, January 18 View Page Well I went to Colorado Springs to help Will aka Wtman cut down a tree so he could grow more pumpkins and vegies. It went well, didnt get as much cut as we wanted but safety first. I got to meet will's kids(the stayed out of our way when we cut, good kids) and saw his garden. now I am worried he will be serious competition . Sunday, January 18 View Page Will showed me his worm area. HOLY CRAP boy does he have an awesome set up. He gave me a tour, boy he knows his stuff. I was greatly impressed. wow, dosen't even describe it. Wednesday, January 21 View Page After day number 3 of my super migraine, I said I need o go to the doctor, Got blood work ekg, some other crapand a Cat scan scheuled for tomorrow. ( I alway used to joke about "you know your in trobule when they get you right in" lol) Sadly my only excuse is that money could go to pumpkins lol. I am nervous about it, and yes Having a medical background, sometimes make it worse. I am scared, scared of what they could find. Luckily I always pray to GOD several times a day. but how come is it that now that I am scared I am praying to him alot more. I am reminded of a fellow grower named Jeff that died a couple yrs ago, he went in and discovered that he had cancer badly. He was a great guy,(I miss him) But I am scared, I turn 35 in march and have been thinking about what difference I have made in other peoples life. Gardening seems to be the only way I have really mattered.(not in the pumpkin world but the vegie garden world) But I know I am going to be fine, I trust in GOD.Plus I know that I cant die till I beat marc sawtell,pete mohr and many other great growers. lol I am going to live forever. Friday, January 23 View Page Well part one of the tests are done lol. I will get to do more tests coming soon. oh lucky me lol. I want to thank all of those who wrote me or called me to tell me it was going to be ok.Thanks to Dad he really was made me not think about it. but thanks to Paul, will, Mike aka scarecrow and his newbie uncle marc(marc is going to beat some guy named joe this yr. Friday, January 23 View Page When I was getting my catscan done I kept thinking I wonder if the 1689 was as big as this thing is round. That thought kept me calm and collective. Sunday, February 1 View Page Worked alittle bit in the patch on sat, It wore me out went in and slept. Going to superbowl party. Monday, February 2 View Page Ground hog day,I saw my first robins of the yr. yaaaaaaaaaaa Monday, February 2 View Page just checked mail and got a packet from No la yaaaaaaaaaa. Wednesday, February 4 View Page Just found a cheap source of blue seed potatoes, will order them soon. I want to plant a 28 ft row of blue potatoes, I figure if I dont like em I can give em away to friends and fellow growers. The variety I am thinking of is called Adirondac blue. Monday, February 9 View Page Haven't worked in the garden as mch as I would like, and for once it's not the weathers fault. Still deciding on what to plant. Go heavy or go orange hard call. but still have 2.5 months to decide. Wednesday, February 11 View Page It snowed last night, and this morning it was really pretty. Been thinking of the garden what to plant so on. Still thinking of 4 28ft rows of potatoes.I just need to get out there and work lol. Sunday, February 22 View Page Been kind of slackin in the Garden this yr. Other stuff have gotten in the way.lol But I still hope to get my butt working in the patch soon. Saturday, February 28 View Page Well worked all day in the patch, wow I am tired. Took out the remained of the chokecherry bush, I tilled for the first time this yr.Sprayed molasses, tommorrow I will retill and start the potatoe mounds. Friday, March 6 View Page Been going through my mind on what to plant. changes daily lol. I am thinking of 1100 est dmg sawtelle. 1004 mohr, 1248 ford, 900 something lovelace1100 hesterx 1041 m. Only time will tell what I plant. Open to ideas and suggestions. Tuesday, March 17 View Page Well here it is St Paddy's day and I have decided only to plant a small area of potatoes today, due to how warm it has been lately.I plan on planting more potatoes than ever before, but later. Garden looks look cant wait to start growing. Sunday, March 22 View Page Well A great guy gave me a 1100 hester, so that will be one of those lucky seeds to see dirt this spring. It is a really nice day out, I should work in the garden but feel like resting. Friday, March 27 View Page Well I may not be able to put sprinklers in the pumpkin patch.Due to a few reasons. Man this will really hurt the pumpkin weights. Friday, March 27 View Page It snowed 12inches of snow yesterday. Glad to see it. Friday, March 27 View Page Thinking about a 1257 hester Saturday, March 28 View Page Been debating about asking for permission to make my north garden bigger. If I could get permission, I would make it 8ft longer. It would put the North garden at 48ft long by 28ft wide. resulting in 1344 sq ft compared to 1120 sq ft now. I don't know if all that work is worth only 224 extra sq ft. I may discuss it and see what happens. Monday, March 30 View Page Well yesterday, I noticed that the sun had melted all of that nice snow we had in the garden. So I made a couple rows and planted one in shallots(I grew these last yr) Red onions (friends wanted me to plant some this yr) I didn't get my heirloom onion seeds this yr, the company ran out. so i will try to find another place that has em. I discovered that my potatoes that I had planted 3/17 had been uncovered so I re-planted them again. Monday, March 30 View Page I also weeded the garlic. It got flattened by the 12 inches of snow we got last week. It does look good now that I weeded it. But the weeds were thicker than they normally are this time of yr. I plan on fertilizing em sometime this week. Been debating planting Elephant Garlic. worried about onion maggots. didn't have much problem with them last yr. but those darn things destoryed my awesome Elephant garlic row 2 yrs ago.I didn't have one bulb that hadn't been touched by the maggots they ate every elephant garlic bulb.. Tuesday, March 31 View Page Well I fertilized the garlic. Then I added some humic acid to em as well. They are looking good. but I may need to add some iron fore they aren't as dark green as I would like. Sunday, April 5 View Page Well we didn't get the big snow storm we were supposed to get. So the RMGVG's spring meeting got cancelled. Snowed 2 inches here. Well I finally got my Yukon Gold potatoes in.about 8-10 pounds. I will try to plant these this week. I will put these in a 36ft row. I paid on 78 cents a pound, not bad but they were late. They aren't organic like I ordered, but with all the trouble I have had with getting my seeds in this yr I wont send em back. Wednesday, April 8 View Page I will spray molasses tonight. I planted 6 Elephant Garlic bulbs. Garden is looking good just dry. Thinking about 1100 hester 1257 heaster, 1100 sawtelle in the ditch(for a pumpkin boat) but wont go to weigh offs on this pumpkin. reserve list is huge but number one seed is 1004 mohr. This was a great pumpkin very pretty and it hauled well in our truck. Tuesday, April 14 View Page Yellow onions were finally planted, they look good. Garlic dosen't look taht great, I will have to dig up a bulb and look at it. Been getting some great advice on a temp green house. Still haven't decided on the date for planting pumpkins. Friday, April 17 View Page Nice to see the rain, not much snow but lots of rain. I will add some steamed bone meal to the garlic to see if that helps em. Monday, April 20 View Page Well it rained for 3 days in a row. so Sunday when the sun came out, I got to work in the garden. After I helped Pete in his patch, i went in and got it done. I planted brussel sprouts red cabbage. Retilled the garden, and discovered that I have a lot of new sprouts coming up. Monday, April 20 View Page Applied steamed bone meal and reg bone meal to the garlic. Onions are starting to come up. Monday, April 27 View Page Well I transplanted my tomatoes into bigger pots. 4.5in and deep 3.5in pots. Black from Tula, Purple Cherokee, Black Cherry, Early girl, one Delicious, One German. Also my Red Russians came up. so I have 16 in 3.5 inch pots. Never grew em before so I prob will give some away. Monday, April 27 View Page Garlic is looking better, steamed bonemeal seemed to help it. nice tall healthy looking plants. Brussel sprouts are looking well. I lost a couple cabbage and will transplant some soon. Friday, May 8 View Page Well getting ready to harvest my first radishes of the yr. ornamental pumpkins are having a hard time germing. I will give it more time. But Strawberry festival is next weekend, and some of the plants will be sold to help the SVHS. Tomato plants are looking better. but still a little behind what I was hoping for.But they are up atleast. Saturday, May 16 View Page Tilled garden last night. Lots of baby weeds. Got rows dug for pepers and tomatoes. I will try to plant soon. but debating about how many peppers I want. Monday, May 18 View Page Spent sunday tilling and planting in the garden. I planted 20 tomatoes (2 left to plant) 8 eggplant, 10 peppers. Still need to plant pumpkins, cucs zucs and mellons. but feels good to plant somthing in the garden. Sunday, May 24 View Page Went fly fishing today, caught a 14 in brownie. Monday, May 25 View Page Got up early and I spent many hours in the garden weeding and other stuff. Man was it wet and muddy. I won't be able to do much tilling until it dries up. Beans are in the ground and the bean fence has been moved and fence posts pounded in. Monday, May 25 View Page I am hoping to get the pumpkins in the ground this week, but I need to redo the mound. The 1100 Hester has the second leaf, while the 1257 Hester has been struggling. I will try to replant a 1100 Sawtelle. Was hoping to get the cucs and zucs in, but too wet. Wednesday, May 27 View Page Well I planted rest of ornamental pumpkins. My 2 AG's are doing ok. I did sneak a peak at the root growth and discovered they havent filled the pot yet. The patch is still a swamp. Sunday, May 31 View Page Have some potatoes with blooms on them this morning. Wow real early. Sunday, June 7 View Page Well I have to replant all of my ornamental pumpkins as well as my beans and half of my cucs. . I have a really big problem with cuc beetles, they are into everything. I sprayed once, but haven't noticed any difference. Monday, June 8 View Page Last night I went out and discovered that the reason i dont have any cucs and beans and ornamental pumpkins, is becuz of SLUGS. As I went through the just watered patch and garden I discovered em. ARGGGGG. Have to replant em all Wednesday, June 10 View Page Well I have begun to fight those damn slugs. I have to replant allot of stuff and have already begun the process. Looks like I may not have a lot of stuff ready by fair time. But will give it my best. Tuesday, June 16 View Page Well, I went out to the patch last night, and saw someone had helped em selves to some plants. they dugout zucs cucs and the volunteer pumpkin I was going to transplant. Keep chugging along I say. Thursday, July 2 View Page Well this yr has been a learning adventure for me so far. Been battling slugs, people digging up my plants. But I did dig up some garlic,looks good. not as big as I like but still nice to get something that hasnt been stolen by people. Wednesday, July 8 View Page Well dug up the rest of the garlic last night. man I had some really nice bulbs(hope to enter these at the fair). I noticed 2 things first that garlic left with the tops on are smaller than ones I cut off in may. 2. Its hard to believe that a diference of 2 weeks would make on garlic. the garlic harvested last night was a lot bigger. Got it tilled and will retill tonight. Monday, July 20 View Page Well garden looks good, Pumpkins are starting to vine they averaged 3-4in a day(have to get this up) Hoping for Aug 1 polination, but it may not happen. Bigger vine ='s bigger weight so I may wait a couple extra days. Only found 2 squash bug egg clusters. One the good side I haven't(knock on wood) seen many cuc beetles. Friday, July 24 View Page One week till the county fair, I don't have much to enter this yr. I am giving it my all, but just don't seem to have luck with anything this yr. potaotes eggplants are looking good. Monday, July 27 View Page pumpkins arent too impressive no fruits yet. Getting ready for fair. I am hoping the fair will let me enter my produce sat morning instead of friday night. I wont have as much to enter this yr. but I have a couple corners of some stuff that has been over looked by looters. But worried it will be gone by friday. I'll give it my best and hope for the best. Friday, July 31 View Page Getting ready for the fair, Not as much produce as in yrs past. But I will give it my best and hope for the best. My ornamental pumpkins are doing ok, One Queensland plant is doing really well(wish my 1100 was that great) infact the queensland may have some 1225 jutras in it. how cool. Tuesday, August 4 View Page Even though I didnt have many entries at the fair, I won Champ, Grand Champion,Best of Show at the county fair.A commercial grower won 15 first place ribbons and Reserve Champ. 10 Acres vs a 22x28 patch lol. But we got a lot of 1st, 2nd, 3rd places so it was still good. Thursday, September 3 View Page Well upstairs neighbors water heater blew thus leaking down and all over my ceiling. Guess where my seeds were. yep right under the down pour. lost pumpkin books, seeds journals pics. Man this yr just cant do anything right by pumpkin growing. Saturday, September 5 View Page While waiting for the clean up crew that never showed up. I planted my garlic. German White, German Red, Kettle river Giant garlic, Romain Blood Red are just some of the varieties that I planted Monday, September 7 View Page Well saved some seeds but lost a lot, did save my pumpkin book vol 1 but 3 and dicks tips was distroyed. my journals are gone. thank goodness i have some info on this diary. phew. Monday, September 7 View Page Found a way to get seeds to germ just wait for your upstairs neighbors water heater to explode and rain water on em. yep great way to germ em. DAMN did my best to save em. But it was so HUMID in my house. Saturday, September 26 View Page I took a 25.5 inch red noodle bean to Jareds weigh off to show people. this is one vegie I am proud of this yr. my pb on long beans. plus I grew a 7 inch long purple fingerling potato. and a potato bigger than a softball. ya atleast something to make the season end happier lol. Sunday, October 4 View Page Well It froze last nigth. lost a lot of stuff, but was kind of ready for the end. like one of my pumpkin grower hero's said(Brett Hester) "Is it 2010 yet" so true for me and the ag pumpkin patch. Monday, October 19 View Page Well season wasnt so bad. I had discovered(tripped over a squash) and decided to take it to the weigh off. Didn't get a 1st place squash ribbon. The weigh off site didn't have a first place ribbon for squash. lol It was the only squash. But I am thinking of maybe growing sq in 2010. Friday, October 30 View Page well we got about 14 inches of snow at my house. the patch looks great covered in snow. going to put it to bed soon and take time off from gardening for a while.still have brussel sprouts and red cabbage growing. Sunday, November 1 View Page Got the seeds out of the 25.5inch Red noodle bean. Hard to belive when I first started growing em my first yr pb was `6 and 18 inches long. Going to grow these next yr. Now I just need to decide what else to grow. Monday, November 16 View Page We got snow this weekend nice to see. been the snowiest fall I have seen since I have lived here in Colorado. Wednesday, November 18 View Page I have been debating what to plant for 2010. Some of the passion I used to have has disapeared I am hoping this is from the normal garden burn out I experence. I lost a lot of my journals from yrs past and seeds when my upstairs neighbors water heater blew and of course what was below it my garden journals and seeds. arg. I havent decided on what ag seed to grow. I like a Pete mohrs 2009 plants. but that is all so far. I have grown a lot of Giant Vegies since 2001. But I seem to be the only one in colorado that shares my love for different giant vegies. Friday, November 20 View Page Well as of today we have gotten over 24 inches of snow, normally we get about 12 or less by now. So we are ahead of the winter season. Monday, November 30 View Page 1146.5 young 998 x 1207 Monday, November 30 View Page Well I add anouther pb to my list, I grew a 67.5 inch tall brussel sprout plant. it was kind of ugly It fell down but still kept gowing on its side. Nice to get some fresh brussel sprouts yesterday. Thursday, December 17 View Page my indoor potatoes are doing well. nice tall thick stems for being grown inside. Wednesday, December 30 View Page we have had 36.7 inches of snow this season so far. We normally get about 17inches so we are twice as much as normal. Oh ya Thursday, December 31 View Page AS I look at how this yr has turned out in the vegie patch. While my plants got dug up i still managed to do well GRAND CHAMP and best of show. 6th yr in a row. I may not do well in AG but I can grow stuff lol. It may not be big pumpkins but a Ribbon is a ribbon and we got over 30 this yr.oh ya