Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 59 Entries. Sunday, January 15 View Page I seeded wheat and hairy vetch in October. My goals for this year: 1500lbs 1200lb squash 200lb melon 120" long gourd Of course my main goal is to make it to a weighoff or two :) I need to catch this diary up.   Tuesday, January 24 View Page Sharon and I enjoyed views like this one from our balcony on the Pumpkin Cruise. What a fun and relaxing time we had with everyone. We are already looking to the next one which is going through the new locks at the Panama Canal!   Friday, February 17 View Page My long gourd bed gets an upgrade   Friday, February 17 View Page To make the bed larger, I had to move Thelma's fence and mudhole "ugh" away from the trellis. I have moles and voles everywhere so I put a screen barrier around the outside of the bed.   Friday, March 10 View Page My two melon beds are taking shape. They also have the mole barrier.   Sunday, March 12 View Page The long gourd bed is finished topped with 10 bags of Black Kow and over a hundred 1/8" holes   Tuesday, April 4 View Page I worked on a new irrigation setup.   Friday, April 14 View Page A load of goodies from Seven Springs Farm. I love that place!   Sunday, April 16 View Page Thelma rocking her new makeup! Soon, she will move from her winter condo to her summer home down by the patch and keep me company.   Friday, May 12 View Page Well I put the first kin in the ground on our 33rd wedding anniversary. Sharon didn't mind me making us a little late going out to dinner. For real?! she said it would bring us good luck. I said 3300lbs lol   Saturday, May 13 View Page 1511 Haist* and 1824 Shenoha   Saturday, May 13 View Page 1969 Haist16 and 2066 Geddes   Saturday, June 3 View Page 1969's...gotta cull soon   Saturday, June 3 View Page 1511* and 1824   Saturday, June 3 View Page 2066   Saturday, June 3 View Page 1824   Saturday, June 3 View Page The long gourds have been in for a couple weeks. They are doing pretty good considering the sun disappeared for a week when I put them out. Had to spray they for powdery mildew today. Also having trouble hardening them off between the weather and me with too much N I believe(again) 140.5 Kline & 141.5 G Ansems   Sunday, June 11 View Page We put the shade net up with the heat wave on. Time to grow   Sunday, June 11 View Page 1969 & 2066   Sunday, June 11 View Page Maters are getting going. 7.19 & 4.48 LaRue are doing the best so far.   Saturday, June 17 View Page I lost three of my plants to corn seed maggots :( At least I had one backup potted. I took the chance of not treating the new raised bed because it was looking good and sooo full of worms I didn't want to kill them.   Wednesday, June 21 View Page In four days four feet taller. Both are 140.5 Kline   Wednesday, June 21 View Page 1824 Shenoha ready to pollinate in the am. 93 is the forecast   Friday, June 23 View Page 2066 Geddes nice plant.   Friday, June 23 View Page Melons are getting going now thanks to some sun and drier weather   Tuesday, June 27 View Page Patch View. I hope some of the new ones take. Its been nice weather here lately but 90's will be back to stay soon enough so with any luck my sets will take this week :)   Saturday, July 1 View Page 1824 Shenoha X 2066 Geddes, second female on day three looking good. The first one didn't take but the plant was too small anyway. Its hot here so I am cautiously optimistic about having something on every plant. There are females lined up nicely on the mains so there are more coming just in case.   Saturday, July 1 View Page 1511 Haist* X 1969 Haist 16 Last October I put about a ton of manure on this spot and then got a deal on mushroom compost and put another 30 bags of that. Ouch! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger and she ain't dead yet!   Saturday, July 1 View Page The plus too high Nitrogen is nice long stems :)   Sunday, July 2 View Page 2066 Geddes I pollinated two females with my 1969 Haist 16 which is in the backround.   Sunday, July 9 View Page Patch View. Been gladly ending the plants and hoping they can handle the 97-99 degrees they are calling for the next four days.   Sunday, July 9 View Page I have one melon of size going. 245 Wells X sib The plants are doing great now hoping to see some babys take soon.   Sunday, July 9 View Page 1969 Haist and the 2066 Geddes far side. The 1969 is one bad dude! 35'X35' after ending/shortning vines . I have one tiny but great shaped kin on. I hope it takes off now after I cut the main and all secondaries.   Sunday, July 9 View Page 1511 Haist* with 1824 Shenoha far side. Something stunted secondaries 3-5 on each side so I have been letting thirds fill it in. I think I burried bounced the ends while burring trying to get they down because this plant was growing straight up for a long time.   Sunday, July 9 View Page 1824 Shenoha The south side is full. This plant grew itself I just stayed out of the way.   Sunday, July 9 View Page The north side of the Shazzster   Saturday, July 22 View Page 1824 Shenoha day 24 243ott   Saturday, July 22 View Page 245 Wells day 20, 135.5 ott   Saturday, July 22 View Page My other 245 Wells has one on a week younger. Thanks for the seeds and advice Davis.   Monday, August 14 View Page 245 Wells   Monday, August 14 View Page Another 245 Wells still gettin it despite all the wet weather   Monday, August 14 View Page 1824 Shenoha   Monday, August 14 View Page This kin had a very uniform 4 lobes when it was a smooth little baby. I think it's neat to be able to see the 4 distinct lobes of the fruit now.   Monday, August 14 View Page Got one weighed in off the 5.07 Boudyo.   Wednesday, August 23 View Page 245 Wells   Saturday, September 16 View Page My older 245 Wells plant was about done and the melon was showing signs of being ripe. We were disappointed to find an ant hole in the bottom when we picked it. I will do better with the rack and cover next year to keep them high and dry. It was est @ 170pounds   Saturday, September 16 View Page The other 245 plant is still really strong. This melon growing started out way more relaxing than growing kins. But the bigger the melon gets and closer to the weigh-off it is it's like being an expectant father :)I even dreamt about the thing a couple nights ago lol   Tuesday, September 26 View Page I am tardy with my diary again. My old camera went on the blink and I could not get the pictures into my laptop. It ended up being the cord lol. But now I have a new Iphone that my pictures are on and I hope I am sucessful here. I got nervous and picked my big one on Tuesday before the fair after loosing my other melon. Lacey Jane is checking it out.   Saturday, September 30 View Page I got the seed from Davis Wells 245.7. It was the State Fair of Virginia champion last year and still is the record holder. He is a great guy and helped me a lot this year. He knew it was large after visiting in August and had a chance to break his record. When I called him and said I was cutting it a few days early and needed help, I kidded him that he was at my house in record time and should have gotten a speeding ticket! In the end his record was safe and we are very happy with 226 lbs.   Saturday, September 30 View Page This is the only kin I could get to the scale this year, good for seventh place at 268lbs. Congratulations to Ricky Atkins for winning with a nice dark orange 972lber. Well deserved. He is a good friend and works very hard all year on his patch.   Saturday, October 7 View Page Davis and I had a good trip to Altoona,Pa. It was nice to reunite with many old friends and talk about everything there is to grow!   Saturday, October 7 View Page Davis had a good day. He won the Long Gourd (sorry about your fat one James:) He also got first place with a 190lb Bushel Gourd and new Virginia state record! We always have a nice time at Altoona. If you haven't been you should consider it next year. Great people and fun times !   Monday, October 9 View Page One more pic of the 226. I wanted to keep it forever lol... it really pained me to have to cut it open for seeds. But the deed is done. There will be no pictures of my poor deceased melon :)   Friday, October 20 View Page Next year starts right now. I took soil samples then cleaned up both my watermelon beds and pumpkin patch before seeding my cover crop. After a successful year with melons I wanted to get a feel for what they liked soil wise. This will give me a good base soil report to go back too in the future.   Tuesday, November 28 View Page I am going to grow five mater plants here next year. The tomato team challenge has motivated me to give my best effort on tomatoes and is going to be a lot of fun.   Friday, December 8 View Page I like playing in the dirt so making this bed was enjoyable. I layered and mixed leaf compost, and also some composted cow manure. This will hopefully get it ready to rock out some 5 lbers next year. I topped the bed with a thin coat of manure, some 0-0-60 and epsom salts to melt in this winter.   Friday, December 8 View Page We started making melon bed #3 this week before winter showed up. Lacey Jane is all about digging too!   Friday, December 8 View Page The Long Gourd bed was the last one that I got to this fall. Last year the bed just wasn't right after adding to and moving it. Time should help it to even out. I will do a sample in March and see where it is and go from there. Corn seed maggots got me last year so I will drench Merit earlier for sure.   Friday, December 8 View Page I will grow bushel gourds here and also one field pumpkin plant. One main goal for me in 2018 is to get back on the master gardener list. The upper 2/3rds will go into the mustard rotation for a couple years.