Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 62 Entries. Friday, February 14 View Page I dedicate this growing season to my Mom and Dad. Here they are trying out a brand new blanket. 67 years of marriage and their love was still strong.   Thursday, April 17 View Page Gonna give some Giant Pumpkins a try this year. Hopefully. I am planting the 288 Buglio and the 777 Young. Also some Giant Watermelons, 291 Mudd and the 260 Clemenz.   Thursday, April 17 View Page Oppps...made a mistake that would be the 199.5 Mudd.   Monday, April 21 View Page Had some time last week to do some dry land fishing. Didnt find many, it was nice to be up in the mountains.   Monday, April 21 View Page Watermelon patch ready to go.   Monday, April 21 View Page Pumpkin soil warming up. Plants will be in any day now.   Friday, April 25 View Page 288 Buglio in the ground.   Friday, April 25 View Page 777 Young is also in the ground.   Monday, April 28 View Page Bought some tomato plants for the big garden. They look pretty good. Hopefully the season will cooperate.   Friday, May 16 View Page 288 Buglio looking good. Its amazing how fast weeds can grow when you leave town. Now its raining, guess they will pull easier when bigger.   Friday, May 16 View Page 777 Young, looking good also, seems the vine is yellow, hope its an orangie!   Thursday, May 22 View Page Here is my makeshift bean tower. Found this old bike wheel somewhere. Growing Greasy Bean for saving.   Thursday, May 22 View Page Raspberrys and herb garden.   Thursday, May 22 View Page Pumpkin patch, looking good, Im happy with it.   Sunday, June 1 View Page Pumpkins are vining and looking good, little ones on the end. Im happy. Seen my first cuke beetle today.   Thursday, June 5 View Page Pumpkins looking good, guess it could be bigger that Im happy with it. All is well for now.   Thursday, June 5 View Page One little garden, taters, onion, some flowers, beans on the tower and a bamboo pole for my giant sunflower   Thursday, June 5 View Page Part of our big garden, I grow my cukes on a trellis and my poles beans the same way, only a much bigger trellis   Thursday, June 5 View Page My herb garden with a few left over tomato plants.   Thursday, June 5 View Page My giant gourd plants..looking goood.   Tuesday, June 10 View Page Giant Bushel and Pear Gourd plants looking good and starting to vine. Males are showing up.   Tuesday, June 10 View Page My pumpkin plants are doing really good and Im dong a good job keeping the weeds down. Males are blooming and I see a female at the end of the main. 288 Buglio in the forefront and 777 Young in the back.   Sunday, June 15 View Page The other day I saw a much bigger ground hog, this one has been relocated. I guess I should have put my trap out back in March, now they have babies. I will relocate all I can trap.   Sunday, June 15 View Page Patch is doing pretty good, altho one plant is having a time setting secondaries. Oh well, it will have to wait for ferts cuz females are ready.   Thursday, June 19 View Page Here's one of the pollinations. 288 Buglio x 777 Young.   Thursday, June 19 View Page 777 young x 288 Buglio...looking gooood.   Wednesday, July 2 View Page Pumpkins are growing!!   Wednesday, July 2 View Page Ground hog #2...relocated, Im sure there are more.   Thursday, July 3 View Page Melon patch is doing excellent. Melons are doing their thing. 199 Mudd and the 260 Clemenz   Wednesday, July 9 View Page 288 Buglio...looking good, almost day 20.   Wednesday, July 9 View Page 777 Young, pert near 20 days....looking real good.   Wednesday, July 16 View Page The 199.5 Mudd growing nice.   Wednesday, July 16 View Page 288 Buglio in the front, 777 Young in the back. Looks like I need to do some weeding...Too hot to work.   Wednesday, July 16 View Page The garden looks wonderful!   Wednesday, July 16 View Page View from the front porch, overlooking the pumpkins.   Tuesday, July 22 View Page Here is my mistake. The melon was being supported by some 2x4's and when I was measuring, it rolled downhill and well, the vine split, stem is ok. Dang it. I applied some daconil and will see how that works. Its a 260 Clementz.   Thursday, August 7 View Page This is beautiful!!! 288 Buglio.   Thursday, August 7 View Page 777 Young, might turn some orange..lets hope,   Tuesday, August 12 View Page These are leaves on my regular watermelon. Not sure what is going on...the leaves used to be a nice green, now they are getting yellow, get spots and start to dry up. I have kept up with ferts and sprays. Any ideas?   Friday, August 15 View Page Dang, if it aint one thing its another. I found this in my regular watermelon patch. Had no idea what it was. Contacted my entomologist and he says: This looks like a disease called southern blight, caused by a soil fungus. Try to remove the affected vines and make sure to burn those or bury them deep. Those little structures on the diseased vines are called sclerotia, and are like seeds for the pathogen if they remain in soil. So now I have Southern Blight in my patch. Im sure I have many other diseases also, but I will keep up my sprays and try to keep my Giant Melons in good shape. Hopefully...   Sunday, August 17 View Page Here the latest pic of my 288 Buglio..what a beauty if I may say so myself. It may not be big, around 500 or so pounds, but Im very happy with the shape and color.   Sunday, August 17 View Page The 777 Young is finially turning a little orange. Could be bigger, Im happy and that is really what counts. Patch is weedy, got lazy and way to dang hot to get too serious. This should be fun...right?   Sunday, August 17 View Page The tall sunflower Im growing for biggest head. This picture was taken on the 14th, by Saturday the head was bending over. So should I straighten up the head or just let it bend over? I have no idea. The bamboo that the stalk is tied to is about 15 feet tall. And next to the sunflower is some glass gem corn, cant wait for that to be ready to harvest.   Thursday, August 21 View Page This is normal...right? Just growth spurts. I hope.   Friday, September 19 View Page 777 Young loaded and ready to roll down the highway. Nothing too big, but it was a good year considering I usually get rotten vines, and many other diseases.   Sunday, September 21 View Page Here's what a happy person looks like when they hear their pumpkin went way heavy!!! Measured 687, weighed 798 lbs. Grown off the 777 Young. Thanks John. It was a great day. Oh and did I mention I grew a larger pumpkin than the infamous John Van Hook!! Now that really made my day. Im still smiling about that.   Sunday, September 21 View Page Giant bushel gourd, 165 lbs.   Sunday, September 21 View Page The 199.5 Mudd I grew is now called the 182 Fraley. Thanks Frank.   Sunday, September 28 View Page The 288 Buglio is the prettiest pumpkin I ever grew. Could it be a Howard Dill?? Altho the vines rotted and its been cut from the main and the stem is giving problems, its still the prettiest ever for me!   Sunday, September 28 View Page Dang it! Son of a pupin heimer!! Beauty is short lived. This will know be known as the 559 Fraley UOW DMG. Dang dang dang.   Monday, September 29 View Page Yesterday, took a knive to the ole Buggy, as I call it. Now the 559 Fraley OUW DMG. Yuk, not real smelly yet. Seeds collected and the pudding insides fed to mommy hog.   Monday, September 29 View Page I thought for sure a mouse got to it. Nope, my Styrofoam was completely covering the ground, but I did find a start of a mouse nest, probably a vole not a mouse. But after carefully looking, there it was a hole near the stem. The vines died and I left them attached to the stem, and well, ran into the stem and they ya go. The whole insides turned to mush.   Monday, September 29 View Page And if I go back and look closely at my pics of the bad stem...there it is, an entry way for bad things. Definitely grower error.   Monday, October 6 View Page Susan and Frank with Susans Lucille.   Monday, October 6 View Page Bill Neptune's 2008, what a monster. Oh yea that's me and my husband.   Monday, October 6 View Page All the melons in a row. Almost all of them.   Monday, October 6 View Page Opps, wrong picture. Bill and Susan trading secrets.   Monday, October 6 View Page Ok, I think I got it now. Melons in a row at Hamilton   Monday, October 6 View Page Susan with her Lucille. I very happy Susan placed First! She truly deserves it.   Thursday, October 16 View Page http://youtu.be/2vIkKpSmSe0 The last day at our local Farmers Market, some pumpkin chunkin.   Monday, October 27 View Page Pulled all the giant gourds out of the patch. Found three more bushel gourds and three very very large pear gourds. Found some immature ones also. Cant wait till next year.   Wednesday, December 31 View Page I began my year with thoughts of my Mom and Dad. My Mom passed this year and it was a tough year. Today the last day of the year, Im spending it with my Dad who suffers from dementia. Thank you to all those who prayed for our family during our time of loss and God Bless Everyone with a Happy and Healthy New Year.