Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 45 Entries. Wednesday, May 21 View Page Bought a pack of "Dills Atlantic Giants" online and put them in professional seed starter mix around the second week of March. I got 10 seeds and 7 took root. I put them all in a cold frame the first week of May. I used one bucket load (from the backhoe) of "black gold" horse, chicken,duck,and rabbit manure combined, mostly horse manure. May 18th I put three in the ground, I have not thought of any names yet but I am sure I will come up with something clever real soon. :) A few cold nights in the 40's since I put them in and they all seem to be doing very well so far. I plan on giving a dose of miracle grow all purpose soon if the rain would stop! Wednesday, May 21 View Page oops wrong picture, these are my strawberries. Wednesday, May 21 View Page My biggest baby Wednesday, May 21 View Page Trellis went up last night, and 11 of our pole bean plants (6th generation) went in today. Saturday, May 24 View Page So far so good,# 1 "biggie" Looking great, and perfect weather predicted for this holiday weekend. I also got 20 cucumber plants in today, my back is feeling it now! Monday, May 26 View Page Wow! What an exhausting weekend!! I have just a few more veggies to plant and my garden will be complete. I am concerned about #1 biggest baby, anyone know what the heck is happening to my leaves?? This spotsy affect is not pretty! I hope it is just a little sunburn! I also have come up with my "giants" names the #1 biggie is now called "Flower" along with Mozart, Shakespear,yosarrian, and Zafod. I still have one more that has to go in the ground and I have picked the new spot, just need to till and add the compost. I have given one of my magnificent 7 to a close friend and I believe it will be happy in its new home, just around the corner too, I do have visitation rights. Monday, May 26 View Page Happy Memorial Day!! And almost Happy Birthday to my beautiful little girl, Hailey Anne! May 29th, 2006 she was born on Memorial Day. :) Still feels like it was yesterday!! Sunday, June 8 View Page June 2nd pic- all was well in the patch until striped cucumber beetles arrived. Tried to treat them organically for 2 days (no success) before going chemical. Ortho treatment worked, but damage could prove fatal. Sunday, June 8 View Page June 7th pic of same plant. Damage is easily seen on the leaves. Hoping for the best. Any suggestions/advise would be greatly appreciated. Monday, June 16 View Page This is our #1 plant "Flower", musta been some wind tipped her over, but she is already buried a bit more. Was thinking about a wind fence, real soon. Monday, June 16 View Page "Shakespear" or #2 plant, looking good but headed down a rock wall. Dan put a few bucket loads of manure/dirt to make a pathway for this one to grow down safely. :) Thursday, June 19 View Page This is "Dorothy" my daughters goldfish, we only had her a few short days. I will offer her body up to the pumpkin gods Thursday, June 19 View Page Our # 1 "Flower" Dill AG is doing really well, looks like we have won the battle with the cuke beetles, but the war may not be over. I saw a few more yesterday hiding inside the flowers. Wednesday, June 25 View Page They all had to go, way too close to the stumps! Wednesday, June 25 View Page This is from our #1 plant "Flower"...Now that is a good looking leaf !! Wednesday, June 25 View Page This is our 2nd biggest plant "Shakespear" It wants to grow down the rock wall, so I will let it go and see what happens. (Probably not a good idea) Sunday, June 29 View Page Correction/update. This is actually our biggest plant now. "Mozart" now has a soft landing for the side vine after several loads of compost. Hope she appreciates it! Monday, June 30 View Page Promises to be another hot, hazey, and humid day! Monday, June 30 View Page The place is crawling with them!! :) Monday, June 30 View Page They are everywhere! Monday, June 30 View Page This is our CT Field Pumpkin, It was an accident, it just grew by itself off to the side of our manure pile, must be from last years pile of guts. :) Thursday, July 3 View Page "Flower" 15'main, largest leaves. Thursday, July 3 View Page "Shakespeare" 14' main, 10' sides-has most fruit set (6) of any plant Thursday, July 3 View Page "Mozart" 16' main, has 5 fruit + a date with state record holder B.Toftness 1171 on Friday!! Thursday, July 3 View Page "Youssarian" 5' main, smallest plant but 2 perfect 5 lobe fruit set at 3 and 4 feet. Thursday, July 3 View Page "Zaphod" 9' main, no sides, 3 fruit. Thursday, July 3 View Page "Zaphod" 9' main, no sides. 3 fruit set. Monday, July 14 View Page Last one planted but not the least....Rocket Dog Monday, July 14 View Page Took a break tonight and went fishin Monday, July 14 View Page Big old cup of worms = $0.00 Monday, July 14 View Page short walk down to the pond price of gas = $0.00 Monday, July 14 View Page Catchin' your first fish with Dad ....... "Priceless" Wednesday, July 16 View Page This is our nicest fruit so far On "Mozart" 13.5 feet out, 34.5 on day 12 ........... grow baby, grow! Wednesday, July 16 View Page "John Henry" On Patrol ........ Good boy :) Monday, July 21 View Page My OTT is 140 3/4 on day 20 Wednesday, July 30 View Page LOOK at this mess! Dan had to cut two dead trees down that were too close to the patch, and this is the result of a falling limb, it also killed the vine it was growing on. This believe it or not this is ok, we have 12 more growing and the "Big One" was spared and has no damage. It had a huge thick wall and I hope the others are the same. I got about 100 seeds out of it too. Wednesday, July 30 View Page Another crashing limb made it all the way over to my veggie garden and took out half of my Jack-B-Littles, But the main vine on these seems to be in tact and hopefully will recover. Friday, August 15 View Page We have a new "Biggest one" This one is located on the Shakespear plant, it has a new nickname "Bartzilla" It's getting ugly too! This fruit is 40 days old and weighs approx. 145 pounds. Saturday, August 16 View Page This is one of the two females pollinated 7/4 with males generously donated to us by "the champ". Of course the beautiful symmetrical 5 lober didn't take, while this "ugly girl" has developed into our largest fruit. Just praying now that she keeps growing for 39 more days 'til weigh-off. Friday, September 12 View Page This Is still our personal best, doing really well only 2 weeks until Durham Hopefully it will go heavy and hit the 300 pound mark Friday, September 12 View Page This is our pumpkin named "Jupiter". It is complete with the "eye" and rings just like the red planet! Wednesday, September 24 View Page Our biggest tapes at approximately 215 #'s. We will see what the scale says at Durham in just a few hours..... Wednesday, September 24 View Page Our first growing season is over ...what an excellent summer it has been, lots of fun and lots more to learn. With very special thanks to our friend and "mentor" Bart for all his time and patience with us. RESULTS= 14% heavy ....we are happy. Can't wait until next year!! Tuesday, October 14 View Page Our patch princess :) Tuesday, October 14 View Page "Auburn Sky Farm" 2008