Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 110 Entries. Sunday, January 4 View Page I'll be growing this upcoming season for sure. After that, I may have a year off. Not sure at this point, but I'll be going full speed this upcoming year. Three plants, and only one at this point is known. I'll be growing my 1463 next season. Which was my best plant that I've ever had. Here's my past pumpkins that I've grown, all lined up in a row....   Sunday, January 4 View Page This was my first pumpkin that I grew in my new garden in 2011. It was the first plant that I had grown in 10 years. It was from one of Don Langevin's seed packets, which I don't remember the cross. The pumpkin estimated in the 700 pound range. I took it to a scrap metal dealer and they placed it on thier certified scale. It was 941 pounds. Solid as a rock and ugly green.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Next season I grew a 1641 Montgomery after talking to Greg Montgomery. The 1641 grew into a 1146 pound blob for me. I had bad stump rot and lots of powdery mildew. I didn't know why, but it's funny how much you learn quickly. Now I spray a lot and keep the stumps dry, among other things.   Sunday, January 4 View Page In 2013 I built another garden with enough room for two 750 square feet plots. This brought me to three plants. It was a good year for me on three plants, bringing 3700 pounds to weigh-offs that year. Here's the 1351 that I grew from my 1146 and crossed with the 2009 Wallace.   Sunday, January 4 View Page Also in 2013 was this really nice 922 pound pumpkin from the 1778 Daletas (x 2009 Wallace. The nicest pumpkin that I've seen in person, and a Howard Dill winner. It was 8% heavy, like everything from the 1778 Daletas. I'd like to grow it again some day and see it with some 2009 in it.   Sunday, January 4 View Page The best from 2013 was my 1463. It was a 2009 Wallace (x 1778 Daletas). I loved this plant. It grew consistently all year, putting on 400 pounds after September 1st. I'll be growing this in the upcoming season, after seeing a big weight grown from it in dry and hot southern Italy last season.   Sunday, January 4 View Page 2014 was a tough year with only plant growing past the mid season mark. Grower error (Round-up) got the other two plants early in July. Still, I guess with only one plant it was a good year. I grew my largest fruit ever at 411", but it went light and came in at 1379 pounds. It was a 1985 Miller, and I crossed it with the 1789 Wallace.   Sunday, February 1 View Page I was digging through some boxes this winter looking for something when I came across old pumpkin pictures from 2000. I was 18 and growing at the house that I grew up in. My parents composted all the kitchen waste and every fall my dad would haul the maple leaves from the huge maple in our yard directly into the garden. 15 years ago, I don't know if he knew it or not, but he was a composting trailblazer. It's kind of funny since he's not one of "those people", but that soil was excellent. I remember tilling it every fall. Absolute black with so many large worms.   Sunday, February 1 View Page The garden was in a low lying area. I know now that I simply rotted the stump off with the underground water fed through that blue rain barrel. One barrel a day. Dill rings got the pumpkin in the end, but it was big for the time period. I don't know the cross but it was one of Don Langevins from his seed collection that I got with his books. I read them all cover to cover and remember the time that I nervously called him to ask him a few questions. He was a nice guy, professional.   Sunday, February 1 View Page My parents grew vegetables in most of the garden, but I was given an area to grow one giant. After about eight feet, the main grew on the lawn each year.   Sunday, February 1 View Page My parents grew vegetables in most of the garden, but I was given an area to grow one giant. After about eight feet, the main grew on the lawn each year.   Sunday, February 1 View Page It split in a dill ring at the beginning of September. I tried to patch it but it rotted quickly. It was the most impressive fruit that I have grown to date, when compared to weights at the time. It estimated 868 pounds on September first when the split was noticed.   Friday, April 10 View Page GreenGro products came in for myself and some other Ontario growers. A bit of a learning experience getting shipments over the border, but all is well. I'll be using GreenGro exclusively this year.   Tuesday, April 14 View Page Tillable.   Monday, April 20 View Page Soil test results are back. Going into the third year of balancing soils, things seem to be very close. I'll just slightly drop Ph in new garden with a small amount of elemental sulfur. Happy to see the ratios where they are.   Thursday, April 23 View Page Soaking and incubator tomorrow.   Sunday, April 26 View Page I wanted to prep my planting holes better this year. I started by adding about three pounds of Earthshine Biochar, one bag of premium grower mix, a scoop of humic acid and enough mychorizha. I then deep tilled each plot to mix ingredients.   Sunday, April 26 View Page I dug down to the sub soil. The clay base was still quite soft as both of my plots were made three and four years ago and all was trucked in, even a foot or so of sub soil. I opened up the base with a shovel to loosen it up even more.   Sunday, April 26 View Page I then ran a 35 foot long eaves trough heat cable in all three plots. I find these are heavier duty and throw more heat than the growing supply cables.   Sunday, April 26 View Page Then all contents were back filled onto the heating cables and mounded for plants. The soil is nice and loose, and deep. I should have done this in the past.   Sunday, April 26 View Page Cold frames installed, cables plugged in. The natural soil temperature was 46F before heat. I'll be interested to see what 24 hours will do. I didn't bury the cables as well last year, not deep enough, but they really heated up hot. These cables are down a good 15 inches. You can see the pile of nuggets that I dug out of the subsoil behind the first cold frame. They were under the stump of my largest two pumpkins grown to date.   Monday, April 27 View Page I use an 8" temperature probe to check soil temperatures.   Monday, April 27 View Page After only 12 hours the soil temperature 8" down is up to 88 degrees. It was 45 degrees last evening before I turned the cables on. Last nights air temperature was about 35 degrees. I love these cables, they heat up fast and won't short out even if crossed. I'll have to turn them off later today as they'll get too hot. I'll probably just turn them on at night until the plants go in probably this weekend.   Wednesday, May 13 View Page Looking at a low of 0 C tonight. With the heat cables and a blanket over my plant cover it should stay fairly warm. Weather has been quite cool the last couple days, but I'm still getting some visible growth.   Thursday, May 14 View Page The fall rye/hairy vetch cover has grown very well this spring.   Thursday, May 14 View Page I'm starting to trim a perimeter around my plants and will have the areas tilled under with amendments by the weekend.   Thursday, May 14 View Page One of the first adds to the trimmed growing area will be a sprinkling of coffee grounds. I have a lot of it on hand. I've been collecting it weekly since last fall. I figure there's 1800 gallons or so.   Thursday, May 14 View Page The coffee gets hot. This part of the pile has sat untouched for six months and is brewing at 140 degrees.   Monday, May 18 View Page I spread the coffee grounds as well as about 45 pounds of Biochar on each plot. Interesting texture and smell to the Biochar mix. It certainly smells like something was happening in the bag. Wouldn't want to work in that factory all day.   Monday, May 18 View Page I went with mychorizha from the same company as the Biochar, Green Gro, because well, who the hell knows what's good and what's not.   Monday, May 18 View Page I hope no one has a amyloliquefaceans allergy.   Monday, May 18 View Page Here's the rainbow of coffee grounds, Biochar and mychorizha on the green rye canvas. Beautiful. I spread the myco around each cold frame only and tilled in figuring maybe the roots will catch it there, but with mychorizha, who the hell knows. I'll I use the other 15 pounds for vine burying. No broadcast and till this year. I had to triple-pass till all 2500 feet to get through the rye and vetch mix. Maybe a bit too heavy seed spread last fall. I finished all three plots but couldn't lift my arm to take a phone pic.   Tuesday, June 2 View Page One of the things I wanted to work on this year is watering. I had a gut feeling that I was an overwaterer. I needed to find my soils Field Capacity in order to determine how much water it holds. Once I know this, I can find the right moisture content with a moisture meter. The first step was to take 100ml of garden soil. I have two separate gardens made in different years with different soil trucked in, so I did the test for each garden.   Tuesday, June 2 View Page The next step was to fill another beaker with the same amount of water (100ml). I didn't have great marks in high school chemistry, so all this beaker talk had me nervous.   Tuesday, June 2 View Page I then poured my soil into a funnel which had a small piece of cotton holding the soil from falling through. The soil has to be totally dry. I took my samples before I tilled cover crops under and had the soil drying for two weeks before I actually got around to doing this.   Tuesday, June 2 View Page The funnel was placed over a graduated cylinder and the 100 ml of water was added to the funnel holding the 100 ml of garden soil.   Tuesday, June 2 View Page Within a short time, water starting dropping into the collector. I waited a few hours until there were no drops. It was pretty much all collected in 30 minutes but I waited for six hours before recording. With 100 ml of water, I was surprised how little made its way through the soil.   Tuesday, June 2 View Page Only about 24 ml ended up passing through the soil, meaning the soil retained 76 % of the water. The water was strongly coloured.   Tuesday, June 2 View Page On my other garden which I grow 2/3 of my plants in, the soil held even more water, only giving up 16 ml, giving it an 84% field capacity. Surprisingly the water was much clearer. I think I did this right, and now I need to convert these numbers into ideal moisture meter readings in my soil.   Tuesday, June 9 View Page They're back, and in record time. I haven't had them this early before.   Sunday, June 14 View Page Mid June update. Plants are growing well, about a week ahead of my all time best start. The soil prep and deep heat cables were the difference. For the second year in a row my 1463 is the best plant out of the gate and it's not close. I've pulled off one female at about 10 feet as soon as I saw it a week or so ago. I have another at about 12 feet that I may take off too. I want to go with bigger plants this year and pollinate the first, and keep it. The last few years I'd pollinate two and usually take the second, all the while the second pollination sits idle for a week while the first takes all the growth. The 1463 is so aggressive with large vines and leaves. I want to see if the fruit acts the same way, hopefully. I ended up pulling the 1719 Daletas because it was a little funky. For the second year in a row I had to drive to Todd Klines magical kingdom and get a backup. Only Todd has quality backups like the 1676 Daletas, which is what I have growing in the right side of the photo. Nice and low leaves, smaller vines, and an easy plant to grow so far. 1463 on the left.   Sunday, June 14 View Page My single plot has the 1873 Steil growing in it. This garden is always the last out of the gate, probably due to a different cooler soil type. Both gardens were made a year apart and with different soils trucked in. Anyway, the 1873 isn't an easy one to grow. Slow side vines and some early sides shooting straight up. I haven't broke any yet but it's a handful to get in place. I hope the rest of the sides wake up and start moving. This garden always finishes strong and has done back to back seasons of 400+ pound September/Octobers.   Sunday, June 21 View Page The 1873 Steil has been slow and troublesome so far. Very few secondaries with the main at about 9 feet. I won't be pollinating for awhile. The first secondary grew straight up and I kinked it coming down. The next grew out the same side and I had trouble getting it back to the right.   Sunday, June 21 View Page The 1676 has been a good plant. Easy growing, low leaves and consistent daily growth. I should be pollinating this within the week. The main is about 13 feet.   Sunday, June 21 View Page My 1463 from 2013 is still my best plant. Very aggressive at 16 feet for the main and now 19 feet wide. I should be pollinating this one tomorrow morning. I have one at 13 feet ready to open. I'd like to be a little further down but I'm going to take this one as I've never had a June pollination. I've always been a late starter until this year.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page 1463 x 1676   Monday, June 29 View Page The 1873 starting to move. Slow secondaries still with this one. I won't pollinate anything for a week to 10 days, even if a female is ready.   Monday, June 29 View Page I pollinated one on the 1676 Daletas a couple days ago at about 13 feet. It looks to have taken for now. I have read a few people having the top of their main vine split open on their 1676. I also have had that problem in two places. The vine has opened like a canoe. I've made some covers out of plexi-glass to let the light dry the vine and keep the water out. I'm hoping it will be fine. There's no movement in the vines, but the top just bursts open.   Monday, June 29 View Page Here's the 1463 with a Day 6 pollination. The plant is about 25 feet wide now and ready to be clipped on the first secondaries. I'll clip the first two to hopefully stimulate pumpkin growth, then fork the other secondaires up the side of the patch.   Monday, June 29 View Page Day 6 on the 1463. I pollinated the next female three feet down this morning, perfect 5 lobe. I'm going to keep this first one unless someone talks me out of it. The last couple years I've taken the second one, but this year I want to see what that first 10 days of growth is worth.   Saturday, July 11 View Page 1873 Steil starting to finally move. I'll be closing in on 20 feet when I get one pollinated which will be another week still to wait. The plant should be large, and I'm happy with that.   Saturday, July 11 View Page 1676 Daletas in front of my 1463 to the back. Moving well but this patch is low in calcium, boron, and manganese, and high in phosphorus. I have to get this sorted out soon. I knew something wasn't perfect. I got my tissue test back yesterday.   Saturday, July 11 View Page There's a short stem on the 1676. I'll be fighting with that all year I believe. I pollinated another a few feet down and it's the same short stem. Both pumpkins are long though, so I like that.   Saturday, July 11 View Page Here's my 1463 Hoelke. Still the most aggressive plant I have. I culled the first pollination a week ago, which is exactly what I said I wouldn't do in my previous post in June. To be fair, I like being further down the vine and I like having 20 secondaries in front of it. The first pollination didn't look great so I knifed it. I'm forking the secondaries up the patch. They will all go ahead of the fruit to the end of the soil. The first two secondaries were dead headed at the edge of the garden. I will grow this pattern on all plants. I haven't had a foaming stump since going this way three years ago. On a straight Christmas tree pattern I was batting .500 on foamers.   Saturday, July 11 View Page Here's the 1463, at maybe day 11? Not sure as I have it in my paper notes. Starting to finally grow after some cool weather plus I'm sure my high phos and low calcium, boron and mang isn't helping. We're in the middle of a very warm three days.   Sunday, July 19 View Page Finally pollinated one on the 1873 Steil a few days ago. In the photo, it's under the white table in the distance. It's out a ways, and was the first female that I got after I removed one around 8 feet. This one has 28 secondaries feeing it and with the late start I'll treat it as a trial and throw a lot at it all season long. I'm going with a straight Christmas tree pattern on this one as time doesn't allow me to fork the secondaries ahead.   Sunday, July 19 View Page The 1463 is 20 days old today. Too small of day 20 numbers to talk about. I'm low in calcium, manganese and boron in tissue test, but not soil. Could be higher ph locking things out. Doing light sprays. The vines are really growing, as you can see them rising up on the tips. I'm guessing a bit much nitro from the three cover crops last years and one in the spring. The forked secondaries will reach the edge of the garden by the weekend, then all will be chopped. At that point I think I'll see better fruit growth. This is the earliest I'll have full vines filled in. Big plants, small fruits right now.   Sunday, July 19 View Page This is the 1676 Daletas. Day 22, I kid you not. The smallest day 20 numbers I've ever had. So small that there's no way I'm posting them online. Deer tracks on the right. No damage yet on the pumpkins.   Monday, July 27 View Page Rounding up ahead of the plant has worked great this season. Best part is, I didn't kill any plants this time. All patches are pretty much weed free. Here's a shot under the leaves today. I've not hand weeded one weed from this patch this season.   Monday, July 27 View Page I didn't broadcast and till in any mycorrhiza this year. Instead I put a good amount in my vine burying mix. I've seen a difference. The roots are burtsing out of the ground in most areas of the garden.   Monday, July 27 View Page I've been liking the Green Gro mycorrhiza granular that I've been using. I took a peak under a seldom used walking board and found these guys.   Wednesday, July 29 View Page Day 32 for the 1676. It has finally awaken. It's doubled it's daily gains in the last couple hot days. The plant has improved with calcium and mg sprays. Hopefully the 1676 will be steady and long growing like it's known for. I'll need it after the slow start.   Wednesday, July 29 View Page Day 30 for the 1463. 110-72-20 252 OTT. I'm happy with that after a very slow start. It's amazing at this time of year what 10 days makes. Looking back at the Day 20 photo makes it hard to believe what a week and half will do at this stage in the game. This one is going to be a nice orange too. Right now it's doing serious gains, and while I don't believe the early Day 20's and 30's weight estimates are true on the chart, I'm just looking at inches. I want inches. Lots of them. Pumpkins are really loving the heat. We're in a 90 degree four day pattern and the fruit are loving it.   Tuesday, August 4 View Page The 1463 @ Day 36 sitting at 600 lbs. Up 277 pounds for the week, averaged to 40 a day. It was a slow start but my highest gains I've ever had and they've been consistent since about Day 28. The weather cooled now after a hot week. We'll see how the cooler nights perform in the coming days...I think I'll miss the hot nights that we had. By the tape-to-DAP, this one is just ahead of the mother, my 1463 and last years 1985 Miller. But with my eariler start time, its miles ahead comparing by the calendar. We'll see how things play out as we're only in the third inning of the game.   Saturday, August 8 View Page Patches are pretty much full and all terminated. Vine growth has been vigorous this year and leaves are larger due to the new burying mix. It's makes the fruit look small.   Saturday, August 8 View Page 1676 Daletas (x1873 Steil) Day 42 - 295 OTT Been doing mid 30's for a good ten days now but the slow start hurt. We'll see how long before it tapers.   Saturday, August 8 View Page 1463 Hoelke (x1873 Steil) Day 40 - 325 OTT Still rolling despite a few cold nights now. Leaves look good, hoping to double this one from here on out.   Thursday, August 13 View Page I lost the 1873 Steil in those hot days a couple weeks back. The fruit stopped around Day 15 in the heat. It was a late pollination but on a huge clean plant with great roots. It's a shame to pull such a nice neat plant but it's probably better to work the soil with a cover crop than to grow a carver. The best roots I've seen came from this 1873. Too bad.   Thursday, August 13 View Page 1676 Daletas on Day 47 @ 750 lbs. Nice steady growth. Nice shape and smooth finish.   Thursday, August 13 View Page 1463 on Day 45 at 940 pounds. We've had some cold nights and looks like some warm days ahead in the short term. In the last two years my biggest fruit did were at 54% and 53% of their final weight (OTT) at Day 45. I'll take that again and hope I can keep it going.   Thursday, August 13 View Page I have to plug this pumpkin tracking website. It's great. www.reporting.giantstogrow.com A simple, quick website that lets you put in your OTT and it tracks gains per day and also lets you compare fruit to see pace. I just open it on my phone and enter numbers from the tape, right in the patch. Or you scribble them down on paper and enter them on home PC or tablet. Great site, I've used it for a few years and it's nice to compare previous fruit growth on certain days to see how your current one is doing.   Thursday, August 13 View Page I forgot to add that at Day 45 the 1463 did 247 pounds for the week, averaged to 35/day.   Tuesday, August 18 View Page DAY 52 for the 1676 Daletas. 347 OTT for 925 pounds. It's got a stem split and I'm not too confident in it. Trying to keep dry. No rot yet. This one has actually caught up to my biggest two ever on the tape after not even being in the same game early on. What a plant though. Since Day 28, it's averaged 34 pounds a day...and that's now over 24 days. No slow down in sight with this one. I like where my soil and feeding is at. This was my slowest grower ever at Day 20. It was volleyball sized. It's a good lesson to not worry about your Day 10 or 20's. I'm not even going to measure early on anymore.   Tuesday, August 18 View Page 1463 Hoelke at Day 50. 1114 pounds est at 371 OTT. This one is growing at a pace that I've never experienced before. It's dusted any 40 and 50 day numbers that I've seen in the past. The plant is fairly healthy, new leaves are fresh looking. I have minor bubbling at the stump, but I should be able to keep that in check with scrapes and peroxide. Main vine is mint, dry and hard. This stem side of this pumpkin is so nice looking but I can't get a good shot of it. It's going to be nice and deep orange and hopefully large. Since Day 28 it's averaged 38lbs/day (x 22 days). What I find crazy is, since pollination, it's averaged 22 pounds a day. We've all had pumpkins in the past that wouldn't do 22 during the prime time stretch let alone over the full growth life. This one has been fun to watch. I'm not going to measure for a while, or at least try and not measure for a while. It's going to be hard to sit back and watch.   Monday, August 24 View Page The 56th sunset with the 1463.   Wednesday, September 2 View Page My 1463 really slowed down in the last week. I couldn't figure it out as it went from 30 a day down to next to nothing. I had a slight "V" opening under the blossom so I decided to slide my GoPro camera under for a quick peek. Now the growth drop off makes sense.   Wednesday, September 2 View Page I'll perform the final dimensions later. I would guess it split about a week and a half ago. Really frustrating. The slowdown appeared to be after day 53, when it was at 1200 pounds and growing well at 32 per day. If it stayed together I had it conservatively tracked into the 1600's by using the past two seasons numbers per day rates to close out the season. Of course, nothing is for sure. Really nice orange colour coming out now. I'm going to pick it up and get a weight and see what we have for seeds before things go downhill too far in this heat and humidity.   Saturday, September 5 View Page I weighed my 1463 the other day and didn't expect to see the kilogram scale read into the 700's. Quick math and I knew it was over the 1400's and final math from google conversion put it at 1572 pounds. I certainly didn't expect that. I really wish I didn't put the small pumpkin on couple 2x4's for the first week and a half when it was small. The small base pushed in the bottom and that's where I had my split way up underneath. I'll use a flat hard surface from day one now on. I ramp my main vine to keep it rooted later in growth, but early pollinations are in the air. That's where the stacked 2x4's support came into play.   Saturday, September 5 View Page Really nice looking pumpkin and 14% heavy. The way this was growing it would have been nice to finish the year out. Once the vines were removed I could get an exact OTT on it. It came in 403" @ 1380 pounds. Actual weight, 1572 pounds. +14%. I crossed it with the 1873 Steil because I liked the shape of that one and it was nice orange too. We'll see what the next generation brings.   Sunday, September 6 View Page To clarify, the 1463 Hoelke was a 2009 Wallace x 1778 Daletas. It's pictured above at the top of the page as well as the pollinator, the 1778. This years 1572 dmg was a 1463 Hoelke x 1873 Steil.   Tuesday, September 8 View Page Decided to get the seeds out of my 1463 fruit before it got messy. Had to get creative, tried to save the fruit for display.   Tuesday, September 8 View Page I dug a hole and managed to flip it sideways to enter from the bottom in order to keep the fruit uncut above. Turns out it was starting to soften so I just flipped it over and did things the easy way.   Tuesday, September 8 View Page We got a decent amount of seeds out in time. About 300, with 250 being perfect quality. Too bad the fruit won't last for some display time.   Wednesday, September 16 View Page 1676 Daletas still hanging on at Day 81. I've had some fusarium issues on the older vines. I've lost many older leaves but the middle of the plant leaves look great still. Small leaves on the 1676 and lots of them packed tightly. It's been a good plant to grow. I think my leaf stalk rot and fusarium issues came from over feeding via foliar feeding early on with a too strong of mix. Leaves bloated and burnt, etc. In the middle of the plant growth I got dialed in and the leaves look great. They're packed tightly and don't catch the wind as much. A nice plant to grow.   Monday, September 21 View Page Hey LC, thanks for the tips for going for deep water Lake Trout. Everything worked like a charm.   Friday, September 25 View Page Here's the stump from the 1463 which split and was removed three weeks ago. I left the plant in since the plant is back to back with my 1676 Daletas. I didn't want to disturb the mixed roots. Everything with this plant was huge. The stump here is 22" in circumference.   Friday, September 25 View Page 1676 Daletas x1873 Steil. This is the last day for the plant. day 90. It really hasn't grown much in the last two weeks.   Friday, September 25 View Page Plant removal. Getting ready to lift for weigh off.   Friday, September 25 View Page 60 foot main on the 1676 and a nice shaped pumpkin starting to orange up.   Friday, September 25 View Page Blossom end of 1676.   Friday, September 25 View Page Getting ready to lift...   Saturday, September 26 View Page Soft bottom. This one surprised me. It didn't grow at all the last two weeks but I thought it just was at the end of the line with the plant in rough shape overall. We got it up a couple inches and I could see the strap sinking into the side. 0 For 3 this year. Nothing to a scale.   Sunday, September 27 View Page I weighed my 1676 with the soft bottom. 682 kgs = 1503 pounds. It was 408" so about 5% heavy.   Sunday, September 27 View Page After two of these backyard weighs this season, I hope to never have to do this again. It's much better weighing a sound pumpkin at a weigh-off than these soft ones in the backyard. There's few people around and it's quiet. It feels like a pumpkin funeral. No weigh-offs this year. Two identical soft bottoms. I think I know the reason and will make one or two changes next year. This fruit didn't grow an inch in 16 days, so even at the late growth pounds it should have been pushing into 1600. I would have expected the 1463 to get well into the 1700's, but there's no guarantees. I'm left with nothing official this year, but did grow two personal bests in 30 and 40 days less time, so that's one positive. I just need to keep them together. Final Numbers: 1676 Daletas x 1873 Steil, 408", 1503 pounds + 5%   Thursday, October 8 View Page I found this roof top shot on my phone from back in Mid August. It was tracking to be a good year, but with both underside splits, it turned into another soil prep late summer/fall. Overall still promising with 3080 pounds sitting there between the two plants, with both cut short by a month or more of growing time. Hoping for better luck next year. What a fall for growing though. September was warmer than June. Sun, and more sun. Last night was the first frost of the year. Pretty late. Wished I had a couple plants still going for that weather.   Monday, October 12 View Page Canadian Thanksgiving Monday turned out to be great weather for the 3rd Annual pumpkin drop. Since I had a split year with nothing to a scale, I had to "borrow" a squash from Todd Kline. This is his 1202 which was weighed a couple weeks ago. The crowd loved it.   Monday, October 12 View Page I picked up a gorgeous 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass Salon for the drop.   Monday, October 12 View Page The 1202 pound squash was dropped from 45 feet.   Monday, October 12 View Page There was a huge pop which was an added bonus. Not sure if the frame snapped or what made the noise.   Monday, October 12 View Page All of the pumpkin stayed in the car. It was a perfect drop. Not a cloud in the sky and really warm weather for this time of year helped with the crowd. This year the local Food bank was in good financial shape when I checked with them, so this year the money went to the local farmer's market which was struggling. Over $1500 was raised for the local Farmers Market. When I get a chance I should have some video up. I had three cameras running so it will take some time to sit down with it.   Monday, October 12 View Page Seconds before the pin releases.   Monday, October 12 View Page Time stands still.   Saturday, October 17 View Page The buckwheat/rye/soy mixture has been growing since I pulled my 1873 a couple months ago. Today is the day that I spread my leaf compost and till both plots under.   Saturday, October 17 View Page Here's a photo from last November. It's a great shot of all the leaves that I had collected. Today, almost a year later, I'll be spreading those same broken down leaves.   Saturday, October 17 View Page This is that same pile today, much smaller in volume and almost completely broken down. I could have used a few more flips of the pile, but that's usually the way it goes.   Saturday, October 17 View Page Leaves spread over both plots. More this year than last as I can tell in the coverage.   Saturday, October 17 View Page Black Gold. At this point I'll till everything under deeply and plant fall rye. It's late, but it will still germinate.   Tuesday, November 10 View Page I may have over done it with the leaves. After three years more people give me their leaves. It's starting to snowball now. It's the largest pile yet. A guess would be a couple tons of leaves, or between 600-700 bags. This pile is 100% leaves, no filler other than about 300 gallons of coffee grounds to provide the nitrogen ratio. I'm not sure how much is too much, but this will all go in a 2500 square foot garden a year from now. I've stopped using manure as of this year nothing but pure leaf compost.   Thursday, November 26 View Page The work for the year is pretty much over. The leaf and coffee pile was flipped earlier in the week. I'll try and get it flipped one more time in December. It's warm.   Friday, November 27 View Page This photo should be full size.