Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 14 Entries. Saturday, February 3 View Page I have been growing these things called giant pumpkins with my family for 7 years now (got 1000 lbs. in the first year), and just about every year I say I am going to take a year off… but it never happens. Here is the patch covered in a mulch of last year’s vines. On the left is the new asparagus bed where we grew the 1183 Hochstetler DMG last year.   Wednesday, March 6 View Page I started a couple field pumpkins in the winter just for fun. The butternut won 1st place at a local show last year and is still intact.   Saturday, March 23 View Page In my main patch I have a bit of a cover crop going with some broad beans and the odd rye plant.   Tuesday, March 26 View Page Here, the field pumpkin plant has gotten bigger and the butternut has gotten smaller. The latter was delicious.   Saturday, March 30 View Page My kids have new respect for my carpentry skills after they saw my new hoop house.   Sunday, March 31 View Page Here is the finished article. The whole thing is made from reclaimed materials including the skin which I pulled out of a dumpster/skip.   Tuesday, April 2 View Page Seed starting day for my early batch. I am really excited to be growing the Cinderella-AG hybrid: 162 Toboyek. Thanks to Jim Ford for the seeds and to Pete Caspers and Ian Paton for relaying them to me.   Tuesday, April 9 View Page Here are my AG's for the year; an all-star line up in my opinion. Clockwise: 2037 Crews, 2020 Paton (1885 x 2907), 2319 Stoeckl, and 2045 Daho. Many thanks to these 4 amazing growers from 4 different countries.   Monday, April 29 View Page All plants are in the ground and doing well despite fairly wet and cloudy days. Here are the seedlings before they got planted out. Only the 2037 Crews looks a bit deformed.   Friday, May 10 View Page All plants are doing well. The 162 Toboyek is maybe a little less vigorous than the the pure bred AG's but that is to be expected.   Thursday, May 16 View Page All hoops are off (our last frost was a month or more ago). Most plants are down and running.   Monday, May 20 View Page Here a 1403 Leach and 1716 Leach do battle. They are the reverse cross of each other (1490 x 951 Leach) with epic seeds like the 1501, 2183 Mendi, 2261 Schmit, and 1938 Sperry in their ancestry. I plan to cross some 1885 and/or 2365 into this line.   Monday, June 24 View Page I haven't done very well at keeping up my diary. I've got a few pollinations done including both of my 162 Toboyeks.   Monday, July 1 View Page 2319 Stoeckl x 2045 Daho; that is a selfed 2365 Wolf crossed with a selfed 1885 Werner. Got to grow this seed next year.