Congratulations to Jim and Kelsey Bryson on their 2006.5 pumpkin weighed at the Woodbridge fair weigh-off.

It looks like 2021 will be an interesting season for me and I have been keeping a low profile until I was cleared to work in the garden again. My shoulder has improved significantly over the past few months and although it won't be 100% I think that it is good enough for me to grow a few pumpkins this season. I was able to get the planting sites and hoop houses up early although my cover crop was really sparse after the chickens spent weeks eating the seeds. Only two AG's this year for me and maybe a field pumpkin tomatoes and some other vegetables The heater cables have been tested so everything is a go. The soil PH is at 7.6 now so the patch will need a major application of sulfur to bring it down a bit. The wind fencing needs a lot of work but I am still not ready to pound in "T" posts yet and I am concerned about potentially damaging winds on Friday. I suddenly found myself with more space at home due to a change in my life so the plants were brought into my living room from the usually hot solarium. In the past there was a problem with them becoming leggy from the heat and it looks like it is working. The 1450 Fifolt plant on the left is one of the best starts I have ever seen and the 2226.7 Boonen/Herman beside it is looking good as well. There are several mangel wurzels and a few kohlrabi plants that are ready to go in the ground now as well. I am tempted to plant the pumpkins this weekend but I need a reliable heat source in case of a deep freeze in the coming weeks.

This was going to be a year off for me to give me and the soil a break but somehow I found a way to grow one pumpkin along with Phil and Jane Hunt. This was the only way I could be involved in this since I injured my left shoulder back in December and I am limited in my abilities to do things that I would normally have no problem with. Saturday was the best day so far this year and I was able to take advantage of It. I added all the soil amendments to the growing site including compost, peat moss, bio-char, K-mag, sulfur, kelp, humic, 46-0-0 and some 19-19-19. After that was done Phil tilled up entire patch and I installed the heater cable and got a 8' x 9' hoop house built. I really hope that this was the hardest day for me this season. There will be two plants started in hoop house which is large enough to walk into. Aiming for a planting date of May 9th. Would be sooner but the pumpkins won't be ready until then. The fodder beets and kohlrabi plants have to go into the ground sooner. I started them in January which was too early but I was off work for two months and I had lots of time on my hands. The ones that I transplanted into large pots are all larger and more robust than the plants in the 6" pots. Getting them out of here will give me room to start some tomato plants soon.

Well, here it is again. another growing season is just around the corner so I thought that I would put up a diary for 2019. This season will be different for me in a few ways with only two giant pumpkins planned at this time and some changes in what and how I will be growing as well. I had decided to grow my last giant fodder beet seeds this year but no rutabagas or Kohlrabi this year but I am now the proud owner of a bouncing baby kohlrabi that I got from John Butler at the GVGO seminar. I was not going to grow giant carrots this year as well, but when I saw that it was the veggie of the year for the EGVGA my competitive side kicked in and I started some as well. Like my beets they are far behind of where I was last year but they are all doing well Checked out the garden today as it was probably the warmest day today since last October and things did not look too bad but could be better. The soil is only thawed down a few inches and there is still ice in the far corners of the garden. With the forecast not really showing a significant warm up and lots of cool wet days ahead I double covered the hoop house sites with plastic. It looks like it will be a repeat of 2018 with me only getting the hoop houses ready for planting in May.

Well it is getting close to the 2018 season so I thought that I would run a full diary from start to finish. My season started at the beginning of February with the planting of carrots which were followed by Parsnips and then Kohlrabies and finally fodder beets. Parsnips are the feature vegetable for the Royal Winter Fair this year so I am going to give them a try. They all start out so slow unlike AG's which are ready to go in just a few weeks after germination. I start three or four plants in each pot and then remove the lesser plants and keep the most aggressive plant.