Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 17 Entries. Saturday, January 5 View Page Behind in posting this year! However, the patch is looking great and really looking forward to this year's growing season. Tried a new cover crop of mustard. Let's see what happens!   Sunday, January 27 View Page Test germination time!   Sunday, February 3 View Page 100% success! Love it when that happens. Good time to practice before it really matters!   Sunday, March 31 View Page Soil test back, amendments added and soil tilled. Ready to go and loving this spell of nice weather! Usually the patch is a muddy mess this time of year.   Monday, April 8 View Page This year I'm naming my giant pumpkins and squash after Godzilla characters! Watching old Godzilla movies with my brothers was a favourite Saturday morning activity growing up. So the giant squash will be Godzilla and the pumpkins will be Rodan and Mothra! Oh, and I had planned this all before finding out there's going to be a Godzilla movie released this summer!   Saturday, April 20 View Page Did a bit more work in the patch. I'm growing in a different direction this year. Trying more width than depth for a change. The patch is generally south facing, so sunlight shouldn't be affected too much. Greenhouse ready to go.   Tuesday, April 23 View Page And we're off! 2019 lineup is: 2x2150 Skinner 2017, 1167 Pelletier 2017, 1143 Engel 2015, 1378.4 Hain 2014 and 1339 Sundin 2014. Exciting!   Tuesday, April 23 View Page Haha.. My little gardening companion! This is Max, my 2 yr old Maine Coon cat. He's quite large at 17lbs already and still has 3 yrs to grow. He's such a great cat and very curious about the seed germination tent.   Saturday, May 4 View Page And the winner is...the 1167 Pelletier 2017. I thought for sure the Skinner seeds would be super aggressive. Unfortunately, they were both duds. One came up with severely deformed cots and the other didn't germinate. The 1378 Hain 2014 is in as my small patch pumpkin. I ended up giving two local growers (Julie in Lion's Bay and Jeff here in North Vancouver) the 1143 Engel 2015 and the 1339 Sundin 2014 for their patches. Yeah, I'm nice like that. Haha Really looking forward to seeing what this plant does. Definitely one of the most aggressive seedlings I've had.   Sunday, May 12 View Page One week of growth! Looking good. Had a stretch of cooler weather, but looks to be bouncing back to sun soon. I've also completely revamped my fertilizer program, so will be interesting to see if there are noticeable differences.   Wednesday, May 22 View Page Another week of growth on the 1167 Pelletier 2017. Great stretch of nice weather. Vine is already sending tendrils and starting to lay down and vine out. Fingers crossed we can keep this going. The 1378 Hain 2014 is looking great too.   Thursday, May 23 View Page This is Godzilla, the 967 Horde 2015 giant squash. Fingers crossed for this one. Giant sunflowers planted now as well as the giant tomatoes. Only thing left are the bushel gourds 247 Kent 2017 and the field pumpkins 56 Pelletier 2017 which are going out today.   Sunday, July 7 View Page Doubled the size of my squash patch this morning. Godzilla (967 Horde 2015) is doing really well considering the cool weather we've been stuck in. Should have a nice prospect at about 17 ft on the main in about a week or so.   Friday, July 12 View Page This year has been an incredibly challenging growing year in North Vancouver as we've been stuck in a very cool weather pattern for over a month now. As such, my patch is a bit behind where I'd like it to be. Pollinated this lovely 5 lober on Rodan (1378.4 Hain 2014) this morning and crossed it with the 1167 Pelletier 2017. Let's hope it takes as it's in perfect position at 16ft on the main.   Sunday, July 14 View Page My main patch pumpkin vine (Mothra aka 1167 Pelletier 2017) is taking forever to fill in the patch. Have two good prospects at 15 ft and 17ft on the new main. My main vine self terminated because of the cool weather and became so brittle it just snapped off. So, I trained the next biggest secondary as the new main. Hoping the weather improves!!!   Thursday, August 1 View Page Meet Godzilla (967 Horde 2015), my giant squash. This has been a pretty challenging season, but I'm super happy with how this one is growing. DAP 17 and sitting right around 80 lbs. Stunning color too!   Thursday, August 1 View Page And here's Mothra (1167 Pelletier 2017) at DAP 17 and right around 70 lbs. Biggest early numbers I've ever had, so fingers crossed it can be sustained!