Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 87 Entries. Wednesday, January 2 View Page Happy New Year. Last fall I added 4 tons of leaves to my 2 beds. I like to sheet compost, that is throw down a 12" layer of leaves and let the critters do all the work. In Nov. I broadcast a sack of lime on each bed. Now the winter rains and living soil are working to break it all down. Tuesday, April 8 View Page The beds are prepped. The manure has been spread. Now I'm waiting for the spring temperatures to rise. Spring is 2 weeks late and the ground is ice cold. Today Rollie sent me 100 seeds for a project in my church. On June 1 the Sunday School will plant them and we have a pumpkin carving night the Sunday before Halloween. I have my seeds from the PNWPG and the contest is on in the neighborhood too. Sunday, May 25 View Page I created bottom heat for germination by laying bricks on the floor of the garage to make a square. I laid a string of Christmas lights inside the square. My square flat with 9 one-gallon pots sits on top and the soil is warmed to 90 degrees. Good germination combined with an early warm sunny spell got the young plants growing strong and thick. Transplanted two biggest starts into the hoophouses on May 19. A few more days of sunshine are helping for a strong start. Sunday, May 25 View Page I am also employing something I learned from the Ag-Experiment station at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. They call it "Cool heads and warm feet." A layer of clear plastic on the soil surface 10 x 10 feet (I use the cheap thin painter's drop cloth plastic). I stuck a thermometer in it yesterday during sunny weather and the soil temp 6" down was 80 degrees. Wednesday, May 28 View Page Like zombies from a bad horror movie they creep out of the darkness. Slugs that is. The past two mornings have dawned overcast and warm and the garden beds are swarming with 5 species of giant slugs with voracious appetites and rasping tongues bent on the destruction of all things green. Friday, May 30 View Page Here's the other bed as of last October. This one has a better foundation of organic material, and better sun, and is flatter. But farther from the hose bib. Saturday, May 31 View Page Here's the bed after a winter of rain and critters running through it. Even the moles are my friends in this case, devouring and churning the sheet compost. Hoop houses are serving double duty for the pumpkin and to grow on sundry other transplants in pots. Saturday, May 31 View Page The upper bed catches the morning light well. I wish I had a wide open yard, but I like my trees too. The beds are serving double duty too. This one has 4 rows of hardwood cuttings rooting on the far side. In the other bed, 1/2 of it is planted to early red potatoes. My plan is to harves the red potatoes before the pumpkin scrambles there. I'll return the potatoe vines to the sheet compost. Saturday, May 31 View Page I admit I know nothing about seedling selection. I just planted all 16 of the seeds sent to me from PNWGPG and watched for the biggest, most vigorous starters. This is a strange obsession. How many pictures will I take of this plant? And why do I check on it 14 times a day? Saturday, May 31 View Page I have a nice hill next to the driveway. In the fall the lawn service one-ton dumping trucks dump loads of leaves next to the driveway, which I fork into a compost pile. After that, I let the leaves sit for a year and in September I fork it down the hill. You can see the devil's food cake black compost at the bottom. It's two years old and ready. So I work the compost only twice. First to form the pile. And a year later to roll it down the hill, using gravity to help. Monday, June 2 View Page Been out weeding this morning. Very cool and overcast, in the mid 50's with a cold breeze off Puget Sound. Surprised to find that the ground is bone dry in most places where I pulled weeds. Rained constantly all winter and has been below average cool, but the ground is very dry now. We're at the latitude of Duluth, MN, and the days are long. Weeds are growing like rockets :[ Tuesday, June 3 View Page A beautiful day of gentle rain all day. About 3/4 inch and the whole world is vibrant green. A bit cool for the pumpkin, but the rest of the yard is green green green. Friday, June 6 View Page OK, enough already with the rain. It's been gray, and 15 degrees colder than normal all week, and it's continuing to pour, drizzle and pour, 4 inches. We live in the "convergence zone" of Puget sound which is where two weather systems reunite and collide dropping a lot of rain. But this is October weather, not June weather! All of the native vegitation is flourescent green. The hostas are HUGE. Inside their hoophouses the pumpkins are barely growing. Meanwhile the mildew lies in wait and the slugs are slithering everywhere. Started 100 AG seeds for Sunday School classes, and they are germinating well with ample bottom heat. C'mon sunshine. Saturday, June 7 View Page I picked the wrong year to try growing my first AG's. Fifty degrees all week and another night of rain. Weather forecasters are saying cool summer through July. Leaves rotting right on the trees from so much rain. Slugs so plump from rain and gorging themselves that they pop like a grape under my boot. Upper bed plant has begun to lie down and is the bigger, stronger grower. Lower bed plant is just sitting there. Both are yellow green. If they can just hold out until the sun shines. . . Saturday, June 7 View Page Instead of calling them upper and lower bed plants, my wife and I named them a few weeks ago, after two of our grandmothers. So the uppper bed is Helen. The lower bed is Vera. Helen and Vera henceforth in the diary. Sunday, June 8 View Page This has been a difficult week. My 100 AG seeds showed very low germination success, perhaps 20%. I decided not to file the edges and reaped the consequences. Next year they get filed and soaked. I learned my lesson. . . But, as I write this lo and behold, the sun is shining! And it's like 63 degrees out. So things may be looking up in the hoop houses. Monday, June 9 View Page Today another inch of rain and blowing. A low pressure down from the Gulf of AK has picked up the moisture over the Pacific. We call it the Pineapple Express, and we usually see it in fall and winter. I'm home sick with pneumonia. This just sucks. Tuesday, June 10 View Page Weatherman says this is the coldest spring on record since 1894--114 year record cold spring. Thursday, June 12 View Page Today Monster Grower called me and gave me a pep talk. Thanks, I needed that. The temps are supposed to climb this week to mid 60's and higher by the weekend. Saturday, June 14 View Page Vera day 25. She has gained a little this week. I'm trying a light folar feed of 20-20-20 Miracle Grow to get her started. Sun today and upper 60's. Saturday, June 14 View Page Helen day 25. Original seed stalk has laid down, and new growth trying to go straight up. Thicker, more vigorous of the two. 80 degrees humid greenhouse feel inside the hoop houses. Not sure about the mottled green/chartreuse leaf colors. I'm looking for that deep vibrant crayola green. Maybe this is the week things take off. Tuesday, June 17 View Page A little background. I'm from Cedarburg, Wisconsin, having grown up on a dairy farm. I've been gardening since I was a child. I am 46, and I've been working this piece of property for 5 years. I am an episcopal priest by vocation, and an avid gardener by avocation. 25 years ago I grew Big Max pumpkins, Hungarian Mammoth Sqash, and a patch of jack-o-lanterns which I gave away to friends and neighbors. This fond memory is one I'd like to revisit in October 2008. We shall see. Monday, June 23 View Page Well I've been visiting several other growers in my area and I'm amazed at the variation. One friend has a horse farm and bulldozed a mountain of 3-year old horse manure to make his bed. His plants are small now, but they are in unlimited sun with unlimited humus. Now the sun is shinging and he is going to crush me by season's end. Another has plants that have hardly grown an inch. Looking at some of the local diaries, I can't believe how big others' plants are already. I'll be lucky to have a flower by mid July. Monday, June 23 View Page Helen, Day 34. Today the vines have lain down enough for me to slit the plastic mulch to allow them contact with the warm soil underneath. I screen some 2-year-old compost mixed with composted chicken manure as a top dressing to bury the vines. Monday, June 23 View Page Vera's bed is rotting away nicely. In anticipation of her running out of the hoophouse I turned the sheet compost. The shovel cut through it like layers of Greek pastry! Rich brown leaf mold. I will turn it a couple more times before the vine reaches it. This was lawn last fall when I started. I laid down 18 inches of leaves which smothered everything creating an instant garden. Monday, June 23 View Page Forgot the pic of Vera's bed. By spading the sheet compost I injected air into the soil which accelerates the composting process. I makes for a good nutrients, but it also burns out the humus faster. If it weren't for my precious AG, I would not have sacrificed the sheet compost. Monday, June 23 View Page Here's Vera, all tucked in with her compost top dressing, ready to send down her advantitious roots into the rich earth beneath. She's sitting on a motherload mix of 2-year-old leaf mold and 3-year-old horse manure. Monday, June 23 View Page And here's Helen. All tucked in to the Good Earth. Nice weather, about 65, hazy bright. Hoop houses are greenhouse warm, but not in danger of overheating. Saturday, June 28 View Page As I mentioned in earlier posts, the cool wet spring weather has not been the best for pumpkins, but my hostas are loving it. Here's a shot off the back deck. Saturday, June 28 View Page Sum and Substance is the name of this hosta. Saturday, June 28 View Page Sagae. That's my size 11 foot for scale. Saturday, June 28 View Page We're headed into a warm spell with highs in the low 90's daytime, and nightime lows in the 60's. Seems like the pumpkins do much of their growing at night, gathering steam in the day and stretching out in the dark. Monday, June 30 View Page Vera day 41. Weather is hot and humid. I notice that Vera is in the shade by 3PM. Now I can see where the light would have been better. Third leaf is now on the ground and I'll bury it today. The main is beginning to run. Interestingly, with the warm temp the stems and tendrils have turned rich yellow, and the leaves grass green. Monday, June 30 View Page Helen day 41. I can see how this plant might have been placed better too. She wants to pull to the right with the morning sun. It would have been a more natural growth pattern if she were down in the other corner of the bed to begin with. Helen reaches very high before laying down and I'm worried about snapping the main. Bull Taco (Alaskan Deer Calls) has given me some advice for supporting the runner tips, so as to let them down easy. Thanks, BT. Thursday, July 3 View Page Covers came off the hoop houses last night. Night of warm gentle thunderstorms. Great for sleeping in the PNW. No worries for tornados. Woke up this morning to thunder and steady rain, 60 degrees. Soil has been warmed by two weeks of warm weather. Looking at three days of rainy weather. Turned Helen's bed yesterday. Will spade it a second time to mix compost with soil and inject air. Excellent moisture retention and booming with microbial activities. I can water all week and it will never compare with a night of warm rain. Monday, July 7 View Page Helen has issues. Her stems have split like this in two places. The main bowed low and then got a kink. I think I rescued it by burying the stem. This side shoot was growing almost straight up. This morning it fell under its own weight and has a big split. I'll bury it in a few days if it survives. Monday, July 7 View Page Helen day 48. I spaded the compost twice last weekend. Very fluffy, retains moisture well. Dug a trench forward of the main for burying. Seeing some flower buds. Monday, July 7 View Page Helen day 48. Monday, July 7 View Page Vera day 48. She is crawling up a hill and her vine is more supple, thus she has not Helen's brittle issues. Leaves a little wilty in the heat of day. The sun is warming the ground under the clear plastic. I need to train Vera out about 25 feet before setting a pumpkin, as that's the first flat spot available. Monday, July 14 View Page Some of Vera's new leaves have been burned on very hot days. Anyone have an wisdom on this? They are in shade after 3 pm, but the heat is intense here 10 am to 2 pm. Monday, July 14 View Page Vera day 56. You can see the burned leaves. Am I burying the vines too soon? Curios also that there is only the main and no laterals on this vine. Is this common? Leaves are big and main is running strongly. First female forming. I have trimmed off the tendrils because I think it helps the vine lay down sooner. Anyone else try this? Monday, July 14 View Page Helen day 56. My anxiety with this plant is the way it reaches up. A few of the laterals have popped as they laid down, but they seem to be growing fine, putting down roots at every leaf. This plant doesn't get as much sun as Vera, and is in shade by 1:30. Seems to like it. Little female flower visible in the tip of the main. Laterals are running nicely too. Monday, July 14 View Page Now that it has warmed up, the yellow is gone and the plants are really green. Some big leaves too. Helen is an impressive plant. I am eager to see some flowers and fruit setting. Monday, July 14 View Page Speaking of big leaves. It's one of the things I like about AG's. I grow some odd perennials with big leaves: Gunnera manicata (Dinosaur food), Petasites japonica, Petasites palmatum, Darmera peltata (Indian rhubarb),Rheum palmatum (ornamental rhubarb, Rogersia aesculifolia, and this one Astilboides tabularis. Also the big hostas, some of which have 16" wide leaves. Monday, July 14 View Page My garden creeps some people out. It is like a jungle and some of the plants are strange. This is Dracunculus vulgaris (named after Dracula's hood). It is pollinated by blue bottle flies. It reeks of rotting fish on the beach when it first blooms. Wednesday, July 16 View Page I've been reading around on the site about sun burned leaves. It makes sense in Texas and Utah in 100 degree heat. It doesn't make sense in the PNW where it's in the 50's every night and the garden is in shade after 3 pm. This does not appear to be from too much fertilizer. I just don't know what the problem is. Any help out there? Thursday, July 17 View Page I believe the leaf burn is because of fertilizer. Now that I piece it together, I'd mixed a batch of 20-20-20 Miracle Grow in a 5 gal bucket, and I didn't measure. It looked a little too blue, but I thought it would dissapate in the soil. The burning has all happened up the stem from that point to the tip. Tip is OK. I'll have to wait it out now, and limit the fertilizer. What a doofus thing to do. Friday, July 18 View Page On August 23 I cut this pumpkin. After some initial growth it began to shrivel. Sunday, July 20 View Page On vacation Monday-Friday. Vera seems to have outgrown her overdose of fertilizer and the new growth is standing up to the sun. Both vines growing rampantly now. When I return we'll see the difference. Monday, July 21 View Page Helen day 63. First male flower opens. Female flower is buried. Monday, July 21 View Page Vera day 63. Looks a little rough, but keeps on growing. Finally sprouting a few laterals. Monday, July 28 View Page Vera day 70. It's been a little cooler and the new leaves are not afflicted with burn any more. Buried 4 leaves last week and she's almost up the hill to the flat spot where I can try to grow a pumpkin. Monday, July 28 View Page Helen day 70. I am trying a compost tea experiment. I have lots of well-rotted compost. So I changed the ratio of compost to water, and just put a wheelbarrow full into the barrel at left. (First filled the barrel half way (25 gal)and let it sit 24 hours.) Will see what happens. Monday, July 28 View Page Helen's first flower does not want to quit. Pushing up from the buried vine. My experience is that first flowers are not the best pumpkins and not worth pollinating. . . But I'll give it a chance. Also a problem as we're on the slope here, and the vine is tightly rooted at every leaf junction, and the vine is growing straight, all a recipe for the pumpkin breaking off. Anyway, I'll leave it for the time being. It's all one big experiment. Monday, July 28 View Page Two flowers in the tip of Helen's vine. This is how I remember pumpkins growing. Lots of males, then one female, then 3-4 more males, then desperating sets in and lots of females formed. Time is running out for me. If I'm lucky I'll set a female by the end of the first week in August. Monday, July 28 View Page I wish this feature had spell check! Monday, July 28 View Page Helen day 70. Compost tea in barrel to left. Monday, July 28 View Page Compost tea experiement. Here's my simple compost tea brewer. I filled it with hose water yesterday. Let it sit overnight to allow the chlorine to dissapate. This AM I shoveled two five gallon buckets of 2-year-old compost into the barrel. Here it is 2 hours later foaming away. I give it a whirl with the shovel ever once in a while. Tomorrow AM it will smell good, and the compost will have settled to the bottom leaving the brown tea with it's explosion of microbial growth ready for folar feeding and watering. When the barrel gets low, I tip the sludge onto the garden. Monday, July 28 View Page I later cut this pumpkin as it failed to grow. Friday, August 1 View Page Gentle rain through the night. Clouds cleared and it's a sunny morning. Rain in the PNW is rare July-Sept. Sunday, August 3 View Page Helen day 76. Pollinate first flower using three males from Helen and one from Vera. Monday, August 4 View Page Vera day 77. Climbing and rounding the bend for the "flat spot" and a promising female flower coming at about 25 feet on the main. Monday, August 4 View Page Helen day 77. One female at about 15 feet and two in a row at the tip, about 20 feet out. Looking at several days of sunny 80's weather. Thursday, August 7 View Page Another anxiety. I'm going away until August 18--chaplain for summer camp. My wife has agreed to pollinate the 5 females due to open in that time. Pollination: "It's just like working on a craft," she said. Note to self, next year I need to get my pumpkins set before the first weekend in August. Monday, August 11 View Page Got home yesterday and my wife had pollinated three flowers for me. Thanks honey. One more to open in a couple of days. We had three hours of rain on Saturday while I was away. Perfect weather this week. No pics today as I'm at summer camp. Saturday, August 16 View Page It's been blazing hot this week. My wonderful wife took care of our pumpkins while I was gone. She pollinated flowers and watered them. Oh, how I love her! Monday, August 18 View Page Helen day 91. Twin pumpkins in a good location. It looks like they will overtake the first pumpkin that set about 10 feet back of them. A concern of the twins, splits. One has a stem split and the other a nick on the blossom end. They are very young and might heal. Monday, August 18 View Page Vera day 91. She has two pumpkins set in not the greatest spots, and another due to bloom this week in the perfect spot. This plant looked ratty for a long time but now seems to be growing robustly. Monday, August 18 View Page A compost tea experiment. Today is a rainy day. So I finely sifted some 2-year old compost and just scattered it all over the leaves. I noticed that the leaves were not bothered by accidentally scattered compost, contrary to my expectation. So here I've given Vera a good dusting of compost to mix with todays rain so as to create compost tea on the leaf surfaces. I also threw it on the contorted filbert, rhubarb, and some perennials nearby to see the result. Monday, August 18 View Page Helen's twins. Had to make an "S" bend in the vine to accomodate either of them. One is slightly uphill, one slightly downhill. (Alas, I have very little flat ground here.) Both pumpkins have small splits. We had a week of blazing hot weather and it got rather dry. Two nights ago I might have overwatered causing the vines to be engorged and split. Noticing some slug damage too; they go for the cut ends of vines and have done some damage to vines themselves. So out comes the slug bait. And slugs are crazy for make flower anthers! That pollen must emit a tastey fragrance to them as I often see slugs curled inside the male flowers feasting away. Monday, August 18 View Page So today all vines have been dead ended and buried. No more laterals allowed. The two mains can go as far as they want. Both vines given a dose of compost, one by tea and the other by dusting. And it's a very humid cool T-storm day. This took me about 3 hours to complete for just two vines. I'm all caught up now. Wednesday, August 20 View Page 24 hours of rain and about 60 degrees. Last female on Vera pollinated today using two males from Helen and one from Vera. Flowers kept dry under leaves. Visited Josh Venter's patch this AM and he has 4 pumpkins set, largest about 15" diameter. Then down to Monster Grower's patch to see his two BIG pumpkins. Wow, I just can't fathom how much weight and size they put on in the past two weeks, looks like a five fold increase. Next year I need to move my patch to more sun and get the fruit set earlier. I'm watching with concern as Helen's twins display splits in the stems. Saturday, August 23 View Page Ok, I love this site because I can read around for solutions to problems. I will let Helen's twins grow on for a while and hope for the best regarding stem splits. Also, cut off Helens earlier pumpkin as it was failing and the twins are fattening up well. Vera has a pretty good set that growing steadily. I will let the second female go a while and see who grows faster. Need to figure out some shade for both pumpkins next week. Monday, August 25 View Page Helen day 98. Today I moved the hoop houses over the pumpkins and covered them for shade and rain. We have had two big rains. On Sunday it rained through the night. Temps are in the 60's. To put the summer temps in perspective, two summers ago I took the kids swimming in a local river at least 20 times from July through September. This year the water level is 6 feet higher and the river is 57 degrees. Now it's even higher and colder with last night's rain. Monday, August 25 View Page Vera day 98. Most of the vine is over the hill and out of view. Growing carrots in a tub on the left, red potatoes in ground to the right, trees and shrubs in pots among the potatoes. Lilac, contorted filbert, rhubarb, and horse radish in ground too. Last fall this was lawn. This summer it's a garden--without any spading, just an 18" layer of leaves. Monday, August 25 View Page Helen's twins. Looking for the stronger pumpkin. Orange blush to the skin of these two. Maybe I'll keep both and grow them to 100 pounds. I don't know how much growing they will do with this cool weather. Monday, August 25 View Page Vera's pumpkin. The size of the hoop house cover seems like overkill. Dream big! Monday, August 25 View Page Follow up on the dusting method of "compost tea" The pumpkin leaves are washed clean by the rain and any watering I did. I noticed robust new growth with larger leaves on the contorted filbert. It really liked the treatment. I am going to try this next spring on some of the more spot prone plants like dogwoods and oriental lilies. There's also a Thundercloud plum tree that got very sick during the cold rainy spring weather. The advantage of the dust is that I can throw it up under and on top of the plant, coating the leaves thoroughly. Good stuff for pumpkins and the whole garden. Thursday, August 28 View Page Gave a dose of 0-10-10 liquid fertilizer to both plants, followed by a dose of compost tea on the leaves. Friday, August 29 View Page Today is a perfect pumpkin day, 83% humidity, 67 degrees, feels like a greenhouse. I decided to keep both of Helen's twins. Is't like the opposite of "Sophie's Choice." So Vera grows one pumpkin, and Helen grows two. I already know ten things I will do differently next year. Monday, September 1 View Page Vera day 105. A folar feed of 20-20-20 Miracle Grow and a folar feed of compost tea. Pumpkin is growing slowly in unseasonably cool cloudy weather. Went to the Evergreen State Fair on Friday and the biggest AG there was 35 pounds. The PNWGPG need to sacrifice and get a 200# there to display as a promo loss leader. Monday, September 1 View Page Helen day 105. 20-20-20 folar feed of Miracle Grow and dose of compost tea. Twin pumpkins are not growing evenly. I agreed to save both. It's an experiment. In addition to folar feed of tea, I dumped my tea barrel sludge, about 20 gallons, for a big drench of compost tea. Friday, September 5 View Page Another dose of 0-10-10 and compost tea. Friday, September 12 View Page Oops. Forgot my Monday entry. We're getting some late summer sun which is helping a bit. I've done all I can for this year and the return has been meager. With the shortening days, I'm really in the shade now. My vines are happy enough. And I've learned a great deal about the way these beasts grow. Monday, September 15 View Page Stem splits on both pumkins this weekend. Same for my buddy Josh. Will try filleting the stem to ease pressure. Good info on this among the message boards. Friday, September 19 View Page Helen has split wide open. This vine has had splittng problems since it started running. Vera's got shallow stem splits, but appears to be holding her own. Both plants are a total disappointment. No 200 pounder here. Saturday, October 4 View Page Vera grew a tiny white pumpkin that I cut about a week ago. Maybe 50 poounds. It began to rot sitting on the front porch. So I grew no pumpkin in 2008. On the other hand, my buddy Josh Venters grew a 250# with the same PNWGPG seeds. A year ago he had a manure mangagement problem on his horse farm and this year he can't get enough.