Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 218 Entries. Sunday, January 17 View Page We have had a couple of cold weeks here in Cornwall, last week there was snow on the ground for about 5 or 6 days. The daytime temperature didn't get much above 2 degrees C. My cabbage were safely tucked away in the greenhouse with the heater going, I picked out the best looking ones today and have potted them up.   Sunday, February 7 View Page My giant cabbage are growing well, I have had a good day in the garden today, the sun has come out and the ground has started to dry. I started cleaning up my pumpkin and cabbage patch and spreading some manure on it, this is the first time all winter that I have been able to get on the ground.   Sunday, February 14 View Page I have started a new Giant Veg patch, it's 100' x 40', last December my brother in law kindly spread a bit of FYM on for me, probably about 6 tonne.   Sunday, February 14 View Page Today the ground has dried up fairly well so my father came down to help me dig over the new patch, after each run with the plough I spread a little more dung on top then when the patch was all ploughed I have lightly rotavated it all in. I am planning on growing Tall corn around the edge as a wind break then in the main patch I will grow Cabbage, Marows, Swedes, may be the odd Pumpkin and a few other bits and peices. My old marrow patch will now be grassed out.   Sunday, February 14 View Page Here is father ploughing the last run, I will still use the same tunnel in the background for my Pumpkins and Squash. I have a space in the greenhouse ready to grow the 206.5 Wursten marrow. We are still getting frost by night at the moment, but summer is getting closer!   Sunday, February 21 View Page This is a very Cornish sight, as part of my job I am lucky enough to travel around the county. I have seen St Michaels Mount for many years now but never from this angle, I took this earlier in the week.   Sunday, February 21 View Page The day after being down at Marazion I was up near Padstow, it was a still morning and the mist was low, I could not resist stopping and taking this picture.   Sunday, February 21 View Page Anyway back to giant veg, I have picked out the best looking plants and spaced them out to stop them going to leggy, I still have them in the same pots but may move them up soon.   Sunday, February 28 View Page I have moved my giant cabbage up into 5 litre pots today and moved them to a cooler tunnel to keep them growing slowly, the weather is getting better at the moment with no frost for the last week.   Sunday, March 14 View Page I have planted out my giant cabbage today, a week earlier than usual but the forcast is rain for next weekend.   Sunday, March 14 View Page I have also planted some cabbage in my new patch.   Sunday, March 21 View Page Not a lot going on this week, we have had rain as forecast so I am pleased to have planted my cabbage last week, they look like they have grown a bit already. I have planted my giant potatoes on Wednesday this week before the rain started. Only 2 weeks now before I start my pumpkins (can't wait).   Sunday, March 21 View Page Here is a picture of my other cabbage patch, looking greener than last week.   Sunday, April 4 View Page Well here we go! I have started off my Pumpkin and Squash seed off today, I am hoping to grow 4 out of 1689 Jutras, 1457 Paton, 1343 Lyons, 1611 Daho, 1330.5 Johnston-Butler, and I am going to grow my own Squash 555 Thomas* (824 Brunst* x 1055 Pitura*) 592 Thomas* (1055 Pitura x 824 Brunst*) I am also growing Pumpkin plants for my freinds George, Simon, William, Jimmy and Barry. I have picked out some good looking crosses from the EGVGA and the GVGO seed packages.   Sunday, April 4 View Page My cabbage are looking very well, the picture in the bottom right corner was taken on the 19th April 2009, so far the cabbage are greener and slightly bigger than last year. Long way to go yet!   Sunday, April 4 View Page I forgot to mention the 1062 Stelts in the above post, this one is also a contender. I am starting my seed in the same way as last year, I have taken off the shells and they are in zip lock bags on a damp piece of kitchen towel above the cooker where the temperature is a constant 85 deg F.   Monday, April 5 View Page The ground dried up today with more rain forcast tonight so I have planted out my parsnips this evening.   Sunday, April 11 View Page Well I started 31 seeds last Sunday and I managed to germinate 30 of them, I have just got a few more to break through the compost. The cotyledons are a bit curly but no one seems to think that this is a problem.   Sunday, April 11 View Page With the pumpkin seed going so well I thought it was about time to get my tunnel sheet on, I have spent some money this year and bought a propper tunnel sheet, if I don't do well this year I think I will be sleeping in the shed!!   Sunday, April 11 View Page Thanks to my wife and daughter again for helping to put the sheet on, it took 3 of us half an hour, we used Maddy as a weight but it worked well.   Sunday, April 11 View Page Another shot of my pumpkin tunnel just taken by Maddy.   Thursday, April 15 View Page I have planted my pumpkins, this one is the 1611 Daho which was planted yesterday and this evening I have planted 1457 Paton, 1330.5 Johnston-Butler, 1343.5 Lyons, 555 Thomas* and 592 Thomas*.   Sunday, April 18 View Page I have started my marrow seed today, I am really hoping the 206.5 Wursten germinates, I have a bit of tunnel space saved up for that one. I have started the seed in the photo plus 3 of my crosses and some Stott Yellow 08.   Sunday, April 18 View Page The weather at the moment is hot by day and we are getting some light frost by night, here is my 1611 Daho, the plant is looking very well.   Sunday, April 18 View Page My 1457 Paton has grown well since I planted it also.   Sunday, April 18 View Page 592 Thomas* 09.   Sunday, April 18 View Page 555 Thomas* looking well.   Sunday, April 18 View Page 1343.5 Lyons.   Sunday, April 18 View Page And finally 1330.5 Johnston-Butler also looking good.   Sunday, April 25 View Page The weather this week has been hot by day and cold by night with light frosts in the mornings, I planted out some giant carrots on Tuesday and yesterday I planted out some swedes, they have all gone into frames to give them some protection.   Sunday, April 25 View Page I have gone and spent some more money yesterday and bought some scaffold boards for walking on, I found them on the Cornwall allotments website http://www.cornwallallotments.com/page6.htm They are good boards and should last quite a few years. I sprayed the weeds in the tunnel yesterday with roundup.   Sunday, April 25 View Page Every of my marrow seed have germinated, I started all of these last Sunday. There are also cucumbers and cantalope melons in this lot.   Sunday, April 25 View Page I am especially pleased with this marrow the 206.5 Wursten WR, I bought 2 lots from the EGVGA auction, this one will go into a tunnel to grow.   Sunday, April 25 View Page My giant cabbage are now growing out of their frames, they are ahead of last year so far.   Sunday, April 25 View Page My pumpkins are doing very well, it looks like the new tunnel sheet is paying off already, this is the 1611 Daho.   Sunday, April 25 View Page 1457 Paton, not far behind the 1611.   Sunday, April 25 View Page 592 Thomas*.   Sunday, April 25 View Page The 555 Thomas* is slightly bigger than the 592.   Sunday, April 25 View Page 1343.5 Lyons looking very well.   Sunday, April 25 View Page And finally this week the 1330.5 Johnston - Butler.   Tuesday, April 27 View Page I couldn't wait any longer, I have planted my first marrow, it's the 206.5 Wursten. I covered the ground at the weekend and now the soil is up to 24C. I spent the rest of the evening planting tall corn around my new patch for a windbreak.   Sunday, May 2 View Page My plants have grown a lot this week, I can see a big difference on them every day. This is the 1611 Daho.   Sunday, May 2 View Page 1457 Paton.   Sunday, May 2 View Page My squash seem to be growing just as fast as the pumpkins, this is the 592 Thomas*.   Sunday, May 2 View Page And my 555 Thomas*.   Sunday, May 2 View Page 1343.5 Lyons.   Sunday, May 2 View Page 1330.5 Johnston - Butler.   Sunday, May 2 View Page The weeds have nearly all died after last weeks roundup, after having a chat with Ian Paton this week I have put up some umbrellas to protect the new leaves from direct sunlight.   Sunday, May 2 View Page 206.5 Wursten marrow is looking good, I also planted Tomatoes, Cucumbers and Cantalope melons in this tunnel on Thursday.   Sunday, May 2 View Page I have moved my other marrow plants into bigger pots as I think it is a bit cold to plant outside yet, I should have waited another week before starting them off.   Sunday, May 9 View Page The forcast is good for the next few days so I have planted out my giant marrows today, I also planted some long runner beans yesterday.   Sunday, May 9 View Page My Pumpkins and squash have grown very well this week, here is my 1611 Daho.   Sunday, May 9 View Page 1457 Paton begining to vine.   Sunday, May 9 View Page My squash are growing the fastest, here is my 592 Thomas*, I had a bit of a misshap yesterday and managed to put a hole in a leaf with a bamboo.   Sunday, May 9 View Page My 555 Thomas* is going up straight at the moment.   Sunday, May 9 View Page 1343.5 Lyons is looking healthy but a bit smaller, I think this end of the tunnel may be a bit cooler.   Sunday, May 9 View Page And my 1330.5 Johnstn - Butler is along side the 1343.5 so is also a bit slower.   Sunday, May 9 View Page Overall view of the tunnel, starting from the front - 1611, 1457, 592*, 555*, 1343.5 and at the back of the photo is the 1330.5   Sunday, May 9 View Page My giant cabbage are growing well, we had rain this week and they have got a lot of new growth.   Sunday, May 16 View Page Lets start with the bad news, Wednesday morning we woke up to frost, it was only a white air frost but....   Sunday, May 16 View Page ....it scorched my potatoes, lucky it didn't cut them right off, the row in the middle is for giant potatoes, they are 'Kondor' I am also growing 2 rows of 'Premiere' (early variety) and 1 row of 'Caesar' and a row of 'Rooster' all for eating.   Sunday, May 16 View Page 1611 Daho has nearly hit the floor, probably between 3 and 4 foot.   Sunday, May 16 View Page 1457 Paton is also nearly down at about 3 to 4 foot.   Sunday, May 16 View Page 592 Thomas* is growing very well.   Sunday, May 16 View Page The 555 Thomas* is a bigger plant than the 592 but it dosen't want to go where I want it to, when it hits the ground properly I will bring it around a bit gradually.   Sunday, May 16 View Page The 1343.5 Lyons is going well at about 3 foot.   Sunday, May 16 View Page And the 1330.5 Johnston - Butler is still slower at about 2 foot but looking good.   Sunday, May 16 View Page Here is my 206.5 Wursten Marrow.   Sunday, May 16 View Page Other Giants that I have going are these Cantalope melons.   Sunday, May 16 View Page Heavy and Long cucumbers, though when I read the Shepton Mallet schedule I see that there is no class for heavy cucumbers this year, it's a shame as the class is always well supported.   Sunday, May 16 View Page Giant Tomatoes.   Sunday, May 16 View Page Parsnip.   Sunday, May 16 View Page Carrots.   Sunday, May 16 View Page Beetroot.   Sunday, May 16 View Page And Swedes, don't know if they will all get to the show but I am going to give it a good go!   Sunday, May 16 View Page We also grow a lot of veg and salads for the kitchen, we have pulled our first carrots this evening, we have been eating new potatoes for about 3 weeks and salad leaves have been cropping for about 4 weeks so it's not all giant veg!   Sunday, May 23 View Page The weather this week has been very good with hot sunshine days and mild nights so thing have really moved on. (This is probably our summer and winter will start again in June!!)   Sunday, May 23 View Page 1611 Daho this week is 6.5 feet long and the secondaries are nearly hitting the floor. The big leaves on this one have been flagging in the heat of the day.   Sunday, May 23 View Page The 1457 Paton is 7 feet long.   Sunday, May 23 View Page And this is what we all wait for! the 1457 has a female flower bud in the growing tip.   Sunday, May 23 View Page My 592 Thomas is making a cracking plant at 7 feet long. It also has a female bud.   Sunday, May 23 View Page My 555 Thomas* also going well with a female bud, the plant is 7 feet long.   Sunday, May 23 View Page Over in the cool end of the tunnel things are also progressing, here is the 1343.5 Lyons at 6.5 feet long and female in growing tip.   Sunday, May 23 View Page And the 1330.5 Johnston - Butler has taken off at 5 feet long, no female yet.   Sunday, May 23 View Page My 206.5 Wursten marrow is growing well but is going straight up at the moment.   Sunday, May 23 View Page Talking of Brad, here is a picture for him because I think his beetroot are bigger than mine!   Sunday, May 23 View Page I had a bit of pigeon damage on my giant cabbage this week so have made a quick temorary job to keep them off with some silage bale netting.   Sunday, May 30 View Page Ian Stott is getting married so we had a stag do for him yesterday, we started off up at Mark Raymont's near Padstow for a patch tour. We then drove back To Hayle and visited George Rogers patch, Simon Goldsworthy's, William Ilife's and ended up at my patch, after a good feed we went down to St Ives for the evening, a good time was had by all!!   Sunday, May 30 View Page Here is Ian, Mark and myself in recovery the morning after.   Sunday, May 30 View Page 1611 Daho is about 10 feet long with a female which should open this week.   Sunday, May 30 View Page 1611 Bud.   Sunday, May 30 View Page 1457 Paton is nearly at 10 foot.   Sunday, May 30 View Page I think the 1457 bud will open on Tuesday, I have no male flowers as yet but they are not far off, I am hoping to pollinate this with the 1611 Daho.   Sunday, May 30 View Page My 592 Thomas* is about 10 feet now.   Sunday, May 30 View Page 592* Bud should open early in the week and be pollinated with the 555*.   Sunday, May 30 View Page My 555 Thomas* is at about 10 feet and the female is about the same size as the female on the 592*.   Sunday, May 30 View Page 1343.5 is about 8 feet with a female to pollinate later in the week.   Sunday, May 30 View Page 1330.5 Johnston - Butler is about 8 feet and the first female will be open at the end of the week. In all I am very pleased with all of my plants, I have never had them looking like this.   Sunday, June 6 View Page First up this week is my 1611 Daho, I thought that the female would be open by now but I think it will take another couple of days, I haven't measured this week but the plant has got to be at least 14 feet long.   Sunday, June 6 View Page 1611 bud.   Sunday, June 6 View Page My first 1457 Paton had seeds outside of the pumpkin so I didn't bother to pollinate it, there is another flower that should be ready later this week.   Sunday, June 6 View Page Here is the 1457 plant which is also about 14 feet long.   Sunday, June 6 View Page 592 Thomas*, my two squashes are the biggest plants, I pollinated the 592 yesterday with a 555 Thomas*.   Sunday, June 6 View Page And here is the pollinated 592 squash, well hopefully it's pollinated.   Sunday, June 6 View Page I pollinated the 555 Thomas* on Friday morning with a 592 Thomas*.   Sunday, June 6 View Page First pollinated 555.   Sunday, June 6 View Page I have pollinated the first 1343.5 Lyons this morning with a 1611 Daho.   Sunday, June 6 View Page The 1330.5 Johnston - Butler has put on a lot of growth this week and is about 12 feet long, I am hoping to pollinate the first female this week.   Sunday, June 6 View Page Cabbage are ahead of last year.   Sunday, June 6 View Page My new patch is looking fairly well.   Sunday, June 6 View Page Swedes are growing well.   Sunday, June 6 View Page Parsnips.   Sunday, June 6 View Page Carrots.   Sunday, June 6 View Page Beetroot.   Sunday, June 6 View Page And finally this week here are my cucumbers and tomatoes, I have a bit of work to do here stringing them all up.   Wednesday, June 9 View Page This morning I have pollinated the second 592 Thomas* x 555 Thomas*, the second 555 Thomas* x 592 Thomas and the first 1330.5 Johnston - Butler x 1343.5 Lyons.   Friday, June 11 View Page Pollinated my first 1611 Daho this morning with a 1457 Paton, I have picked off my first 592 Thomas* as it had started to shrivel, the first 555 Thomas* that I pollinated is growing well so far.   Sunday, June 13 View Page My plants look a bit untidy today as I have been burying, moving and removing vines this afternoon, my 1611 Daho plant is nearly filling it's space.   Sunday, June 13 View Page Here is the first 1611 Daho x 1457 Paton pollinated on Friday, it looks to be growing so hopefully it has taken.   Sunday, June 13 View Page Here is my 1457 Paton plant, it hasn't got far to grow and fill it's space now, I have a female opening in the morning and hope to pollinate it with a 1611.   Sunday, June 13 View Page 592 Thomas* also near filling it's space, I think the second 592 has pollinated ok as it has grown already.   Sunday, June 13 View Page Here is the pollinated 592*, it's a nice long sort of shape so far.   Sunday, June 13 View Page 555 Thomas* Plant is as big as the 592.   Sunday, June 13 View Page And here is the 555 Thomas* x 592 Thomas*, pollinated on the 4th June so 9 days old so far, may even get the tape on this one next week!   Sunday, June 13 View Page My 1343.4 Lyons and 1330.5 Johnson - Butler are still smaller plants than the rest but they are catching up fast.   Sunday, June 13 View Page Here is the 1343.5, I have cut the plant into a horse shoe shape around this one as it is right in the middle of the tunnel.   Sunday, June 13 View Page And here is the 1330.5.   Sunday, June 13 View Page My cantalopes are begining to take off now.   Sunday, June 13 View Page I have now tied up my cucumbers and tomatoes, the tomatoes have flowers about to open.   Sunday, June 13 View Page I am quite exited about this marrow, it is a 54.7 Wild (90.6 Wursten x 74 Joynson), it is a lot longer than the other females that I have on my other plants, I don't know whether to self pollinate this one to keep the type or cross th 206.5 Wursten into it.   Monday, June 14 View Page Pollinated a 1457 Paton x 1611 Daho this morning, the 1457 is looking to be a good flower. All plants have now got at least one fruit pollinated.   Tuesday, June 15 View Page Pollinated my first marrow this morning, 54.7 Wild x self.   Wednesday, June 16 View Page Pollinated 592* x 555* No.3, 555* x 592* No.3, 1330.5 x 1343.5 No.2 and another 54.7 Wild x self.   Thursday, June 17 View Page Pollinated No.2 1457 x 1611.   Wednesday, June 23 View Page No diary last Sunday as I was at Ian Stott's wedding, how about this for a cake?   Wednesday, June 23 View Page My plants are now filling the tunnel and have no further to go. I am not going to let the plants grow outside the tunnel this year.   Sunday, June 27 View Page The weather over the past couple of weeks has been ideal with a lot of sunshine, later in this week it may go cooler with some showers. 1611 Daho day 16 30.9lbs   Sunday, June 27 View Page 1457 Paton 80" ott so not quite on the chart yet but it is only day 13.   Sunday, June 27 View Page This is my 592 Thomas*, a bit of a funny shape but I am going to have to go with it as they all look funny, it will probably split. Day 18 42.7lbs.   Sunday, June 27 View Page It's a different story with my 555 Thomas*, a perfect shape and growing well, day 23 118lbs which is a gain of 89.3lb since last Sunday.   Sunday, June 27 View Page 1343.5 Lyons on day 22 is 56.1 lbs.   Sunday, June 27 View Page Only dat 11 for my 1330.5 Johnston - Butler so not worth taping yet.   Sunday, June 27 View Page Pollinated 2 x 206.5 Wursten's x self this morning.   Wednesday, June 30 View Page Pollinated outside 555 Thomas* x sib this morning.   Sunday, July 4 View Page First off this week is my 1611 Daho, it's going a bit ugly and seems to be doing a nose dive, hopefully it will hold together,estimating at 104lbs which is a gain of 73.1lbs for the week. The plant is very healthy with big leaves.   Sunday, July 4 View Page 1457 Paton is taping at 46.6lbs and a good shape.   Sunday, July 4 View Page My 592 Thomas* is plodding along, it has put on 63.3lbs this week and is now taping at 111lbs.   Sunday, July 4 View Page My 555 Thomas* is doing very well, it's taping at 252lbs which is a gain of 134lbs for the week.   Sunday, July 4 View Page 1343.5 Lyons has put on 107.9 lbs to end up at 164lbs.   Sunday, July 4 View Page My 1330.5 Johnston/Butler is now taping at 30.1lbs but has developed 1 high rib, I have one more pumpkin on this plant which is further down the vine but open pollinated but I may cut this one off and go with the open one.   Sunday, July 4 View Page Here is the picture of the high ribbed one.   Sunday, July 4 View Page And here is the open pollinated one.   Sunday, July 4 View Page Other veg in the garden are going well, here are the pair of 206.5 Wurstens pollinated earlier this week, I am liking the one on the left so far.   Sunday, July 4 View Page This one is a 54.7 Wild, it had a little mark in the end early on but it is growing long and fast so I am going with it at the moment, it's the longest marrow I have seen in my patch at this stage.   Sunday, July 4 View Page 70.1 Thomas, going to be yellow I think.   Sunday, July 4 View Page 74.5 Wursten also growing long.   Sunday, July 4 View Page Swede.   Sunday, July 4 View Page Cantalope melons still have no females but looking good.   Sunday, July 4 View Page I have cucumbers on all plants.   Sunday, July 4 View Page And here is one of my beetroot, there is a lot of top but so far not much underneath.   Sunday, July 4 View Page Earlier this week my father needed somewhere to park his vintage John Deeres while he cleaned out the shed.   Sunday, July 4 View Page This one is a 4520 hiding behind my tall corn!   Sunday, July 4 View Page But the swedes are not big enough yet to hide his JD R, may be give it a coulple of weeks!   Sunday, July 11 View Page 1611 Daho still doing a nose dive but has put on 124lb this week to finish at 228lb.   Sunday, July 11 View Page 1457 Paton taping at 111lb.   Sunday, July 11 View Page 592 Thomas* still plodding along at 216lb.   Sunday, July 11 View Page 555 Thomas* up by 142lb at 394lbs.   Sunday, July 11 View Page 1343.5 Lyons is doing well, up by 158lbs at 322lbs this week.   Sunday, July 11 View Page I decided to go with the open pollinated 1330.5 Johnston Butler, first measurement at 60.7lb   Monday, July 19 View Page I didn't get to doing my diary yesterday but I did manage to take the photos, I was going to start my diary this week with a picture of my best swede which rotted in the neck.....   Monday, July 19 View Page ..........then I thought I might mention some of my cabbage bolting.......   Monday, July 19 View Page .....but I decided that this is the big news, it's a marrow grown from my own 70.1, it was taping yesterday at 105lb (using Brad's estimation chart on the EGVGA website). We had some heavy rain late last week and I suppose it was too much for it and the stem end opened right up. If I was a fisherman then this would have been the one that got away!   Monday, July 19 View Page Anyway thats most of the bad news out of the way, my 1611 Daho has put on 125lbs this week to end up at 353lbs.   Monday, July 19 View Page The last of the bad news is my 1457 Paton, it has split it's stem open without going into the cavity and has slowed down, I don't think it's going to last. 181lbs.   Monday, July 19 View Page All of my pumpkins/squash have slowed this week as we have hardly seen the sun down here in Cornwall, I had a chat with Ian Stott in Somerset earlier this week and he was just the opposite with hot sun and dry ground. Here is my 592 Thomas* at 318lbs this week.   Monday, July 19 View Page My 555 Thomas* put on 98lbs this week to end up at 492lbs.   Monday, July 19 View Page My 1343.5 Lyons has done the best this week a gain of 141lbs to end up at 463lbs.   Monday, July 19 View Page And here is my 1330.5 Johnston - Butler, I don't know how heavy it is as I forgot to measure it, looks nice though.   Monday, July 19 View Page Just to finish here is my 206.5 Wursten marrow, it looks to be a stripy one. I also had a call this week to say hello to Victoria Primary School Wellingborough who are watching my diary, so hello and good luck with the beans!   Sunday, July 25 View Page Everything has slowed down this week because again we have hardly seen the sun, my 1611 Daho has put on 100lbs to end at 453lbs.   Sunday, July 25 View Page My 1457 Paton gave up and split this week so I have a pumpkin on a secondary going just to fill the space!   Sunday, July 25 View Page 592 Thomas* still plodding along at 394lbs.   Sunday, July 25 View Page My 555 Thomas* has put on 80 lbs this week, 28 of those lbs have gone on in the last 2 days when the sun came out so hopefully it will gain speed if it warms up. The rest of the country has got some high temps at the moment.   Sunday, July 25 View Page My 1343.5 has put on 114lbs this week to end at 577lbs. I have a fan on the stump end as there was some weeping going on, after one night with the fan the back was dry again.   Sunday, July 25 View Page And my 1330.5 Johnston - Butler tapes at 234lbs, don't know how much it has increased in the last 7 days but looks ok.   Sunday, August 1 View Page With the show coming up in 4 weeks I think it's time to keep a bit of mystery, it's not much fun if we all know what is going to turn up so here is just a picture of my 1611 Daho. It started off looking ugly but is now turning into a nice shape.   Sunday, August 1 View Page My 592 Thomas* is still plodding along.   Sunday, August 1 View Page I am very pleased with my 555 Thomas*, all I'm going to say is that it's the biggest squash I have ever grown. I will be planting this one again next year.   Sunday, August 1 View Page And my 1343.5 Lyons is the biggest pumpkin that I have ever grown, thanks Lonnie for the seed.   Sunday, August 1 View Page And my 1330.5 Johnston - Butler is still chugging along.   Sunday, August 1 View Page My swedes are just about hanging in there. The squash in the background is a spare 555 Thomas* that I couldn't resist planting.   Sunday, August 1 View Page I have finally got some cantalope females but none pollinated yet.   Sunday, August 8 View Page We have had a very good afternoon here, Andreas Wild and his family have been to visit, here he is with my 1343 Lyons.   Sunday, August 8 View Page Growth has slowed this week but the weather has now warmed up again so hopefully my pumpkins will continue to grow, the show is now less than 4 weeks away.   Monday, August 30 View Page It's Shepton Mallet week! I still have some cabbage in one piece, and some other bits to take. I have a feeling that we are going to see an impressive bench of pumpkins this year. I will start to dig things up and load pumpkins etc. on Wednesday.   Thursday, September 2 View Page We are all loaded and ready to set off to the show, I had a full day getting ready yesterday with plenty of help.   Friday, September 3 View Page Just a quick update from Shepton Mallet, this is the best bench of pumpkins the show has ever seen. Mark and Frank Baggs have won, Ian and Stuart Paton second, Simon Goldsworthy third and I have 4th place. I haven't had a chance to write down all of the weights yet but I think the Dorset Farmers pumpkin is just over 1200lbs.   Monday, September 6 View Page I have had a good weekend at Shepton Mallet, this is my parsnip which won the class, it weighed in at 11.9lbs.   Monday, September 6 View Page I also won the swede class with the one at the back weighing in at 62.83lbs.   Monday, September 6 View Page I got a PB with my squash and second place at 706.5lb. This was grown from my own 555 Thomas*.   Monday, September 6 View Page I had second in the cabbage class this year with 83.7lbs, George Rogers won the cabbage class with a show best of 101.4lbs which was a well deserved win after all the seed he has given out over the past few years.   Monday, September 6 View Page I had two third places with a personal best marrow which weighed in at 111lbs (the one on the right).   Monday, September 6 View Page And 3rd potato at 3.31lbs, Peter Glazebrook broke the WR with a potato weighing 8.29lb   Monday, September 6 View Page I had another PB with my pumpkin grown from a 1343.5 Lyons x 1611 Daho and now known as a 761 Thomas.   Monday, September 6 View Page Last of all I had 5th for my carrot at 6.5lb and 5th for long cucumber at 26.85 inches.   Friday, October 8 View Page Southampton XPG show tomorrow so we have loaded this afternoon, this is my 1611 Daho.   Friday, October 8 View Page My 592 Thomas*.   Friday, October 8 View Page And here they are all loaded, the squash on the front is George Rogers's. Early start in the morning so I have also loaded up my last cabbage. Will pick George up on the way at 6am. We are all hoping that Ian and Stuart's pumpkin goes heavy tomorrow!   Sunday, October 10 View Page We had a good day at Southampton yesterday, here is Ian and Stuart's 1504 on the scales. What a pumpkin! and they had 2 more there also one at 1307 and the other weighed 1366.   Sunday, October 10 View Page I took 3rd place with my new PB of 798lb, it was grown from the 1611 Daho x 1457 Paton, it taped 330ott 756lb so if my maths are correct 5.5% heavy.   Sunday, October 10 View Page I also had a PB cabbage of 109lb.   Friday, October 29 View Page I was asked to do a veg display in Truro for work this week, so the first thought I had was my pumpkin with a Halloween face, it took 4 of us 4 hours to build this.   Friday, October 29 View Page The display needed a Cornish theme so one side of the pumpkin we built a Cornish Shield.   Friday, October 29 View Page And on the other side a Cornish Flag.   Friday, October 29 View Page Around the pumpkin are some more unusual veg to give it a haloween look, there are locally grown sweet potatoes, purple cauli and right in front of the pumpkin are some romanesco.   Sunday, November 14 View Page I have started my giant cabbage seed today.   Monday, November 29 View Page We have had snow in west cornwall today which is early in the year for us.   Monday, November 29 View Page The first photo was St. Michaels Mount on the south coast and this one is Godrevey lighthouse, it isn't often we see snow on the beach!