Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 77 Entries. Tuesday, January 5 View Page Happy New year to you all! Hope everyone had a good christmas aswell. Heres my first post of the year. Thought I had seen the last of the snow but I awoke to find another covering.   Sunday, March 7 View Page This year I have managed to get hold of a brand new allotment. It use to be an old football pitch so should have good drainage. Managed to dig and rotavate a quarter of the plot today whilst also creating the paths. I'll use the allotment to grow the veg for the pot which should give me more space at home to concentrate on pumpkin and show veg. I'll also be growing some different varieties of pumpkin on the allotment for 3D carving come Halloween time.   Sunday, March 14 View Page 'Poly' has had a makeover for this season. Last year I had to rush everything as I was still building the poly when the seed was sown. I’m trying out quite a few vegs other than the pumpkin this year. I have some long carrot/ parsnip drums, stump carrot bed made out of half an IBC tank. The main growing area will be left for the pumpkin to sprawl out under the poly into the adjacent veg plot as it did last year. I'm also having ago at giant tomatoes this year and will try my best to squeeze some plants into the poly. I'm sure I'll be squeezing too much in but still want to try it out. Outside I'll have a go at the egvgas giant beetroot, 2-3 giant cabbage, a giant Marrow and a few giant sunflowers. If I have any more room then I have a few other things I would like to try but I think I'll have my hands full as it is! I'll start off by trying to grow some early veg for the pot before the poly becomes more like a jungle.   Thursday, April 1 View Page I'm having a really tough time trying to resist the temptation of sowing too many seeds that I fancy trying out. I'm going to stick with only sowing what I think I can fit into the 'poly', garden and allotment. Too many to choose from but I'll sow one of each from the following. I may get last minute jitters and sow a few 'stowaways'! ;) I would really love to plant my own 675 so I'll use it as a backup. Thanks very much to all who gave me seed both this year and last year. Also a big thank you to those who donated to the EGVGA bubble and all organisers associated with it.   Friday, April 9 View Page I bought a grow lamp this year to try and help grow some strong young seedlings. In order of appearance we have the 1457 Paton, 1224 Van Rompaey, 675 McMinnis and 1380 Lilja.   Saturday, April 10 View Page Since I was using the mixer to make a compost mix for the stump and long carrots I thought I may as well mix the soil for the pumpkin pit whilst I was at it. Blended the native soil with 'homegrown' compost, a little manure and vermiculite and fertiliser. It made a nice fluffy mix!   Sunday, April 11 View Page Top left we have the 1224 Van Rompaey. Top right 1380 Lilja. In the middle we have the 675 McMinnis and at the bottom we have the 1457 Paton. Both the 1224 and 1457 are measuring at 7inch from tip to tip across and still growing. Much larger than what I had last year.   Monday, April 12 View Page I decided the 1457 would take prime spot in the poly whilst potting up the 1224 Van Rompaey as backup for a while. If all is clear then the 1224 will go into my allotment patch.   Tuesday, April 13 View Page I decided to plant out the giant cabbage today. First time growing a cabbage let a lone a giant one! I haven’t been able to source any metal frames so I mackled some basic wooden frames together out of a fence that was being thrown away at work. The internal width is 18inch to give a scale of the plant.   Tuesday, April 13 View Page Planted 2 giant cabbage in the patch outside the poly at home. Will plant a 3rd one down the allotment, but it will have to cope on its own as it won't receive as much attention.   Thursday, April 15 View Page Well, I have learnt my first lesson of the season today. All the young plants have suffered a bit of 'frazzling' from the sun to the very young shoots. We have had glorious sunshine for a while now and last year I didn't have to protect any of the new growth but then again I grew the plants to a more established state last year so I guess they may have been a bit more tolerant possibly? Fingers crossed it hasn't caused too much upset. I'll put some screening over them to help them through any more early hot days.   Tuesday, April 27 View Page The 1457 Paton in the picture seems to be picking up speed now. The early leaves damaged by the intense sun are some what malformed, but it doesn't seem to have had much effect on the plants growth rate so far. The 1224 Van Rompaey will be going down to the allotment very soon on a 400ft2 plot as it's far too big for the 10inch pot it's in at the moment. Currently waiting upon some materials to make a set of hoop houses with ventilation. Superb looking plant. A 675 McMinnis will also join the 1224 but I'll only grow it on 100ft2 for 3D carving. Hmmm....that’s if I manage to grow a pumpkin of course!   Saturday, May 1 View Page Finally gathered all the materials I needed for the allotment hoop house. Spent the day assembling it so that the 1224 can be planted out. As its not my main plant it will have to look after itself a bit hence the mesh on the ridge for ventilation and self watering.   Sunday, May 2 View Page My plan is to enter some giant veg at a small local summer show. There is a catagory for heavy potato so I'm trying my best with regular seed potato. Don't have a clue which variety would more likely grow a giant but these will have to do.   Sunday, May 2 View Page Heavy marrow is another class at the local show so I hope to grow one for that. Can't say I've grown these before so any Marrow will be a good marrow for me. I sowed 1 seed from all my available marrow seeds. The 80.7 Baggs and the 70.1 Thomas were the only seeds I managed to germinate. One will receive a 'luxury pad' at home, the runner up will get the 'windy nook' down at the allotment.   Wednesday, May 19 View Page I had been an eager beaver on planting the 1224 Van Rompaey down the allotment. We had a very cold wind a couple of weeks ago which chilled off all the leaves (Lesson 2 of the the season learnt!!) Today I planted the 675 McMinnis in the same spot. Looks like I will get the chance to grow a pumpkin from my own 675 seed. As long as I get a fruit set of course!   Wednesday, May 19 View Page The poly is starting to look rather full and the pumpkin has only just started to get going! Growing as much veg for the pot and show as I can so there are 3 rows of early peas, kohl rabi, heavy potatoes, first early potatoes, stump carrots, long carrots and parsnips(for show not giant), an onion bed for small classes, strawberries from the crop bars and 2 grapevines. Oh..... and a pumpkin!   Wednesday, May 19 View Page Here is the 1457 Paton. Doing ok but it has a tendancy to day dream and look at the sky. It needs to put its head down and concentrate on speeding down the poly closer to the ground!   Wednesday, May 19 View Page Never grown giant beetroot before and don't have a clue as to the best way of doing it but these seem to be happy so far. I need to pot them up very soon as they are already full of roots. Picture taken a week ago.   Wednesday, June 16 View Page Not updated my diary for a while as I have had no internet access but the 1457 is now about 14ft long. Side vines are now starting t grow out under the poly tunnel sides.   Wednesday, June 16 View Page Need to get out and weed!!!! Anyway, first pollination of the season with this 5 lober out at 11ft on the main.   Wednesday, June 16 View Page I should be able to make a couple more pollinations in the next few weeks which should land at 13 and 14ft on the main.   Wednesday, June 16 View Page I was given a little helper for my birthday the other week. Put him to use straight away!   Wednesday, June 16 View Page Bit more weeding to do too!!!! Nevermind. Here's the couple of giant cabbages. The one in the foreground is by far the larger of the 2 and has always shown it from the start. I'm sure these are not huge but I'm very pleased with them for my first year.   Wednesday, June 16 View Page Here is the largest of my giant beetroot. Looks to be a lot of foliage compare to the size of the beet.   Wednesday, June 16 View Page Jam packed in the greenhouse with lots of growing still to be done! Here are 2 of my largest giant carrots. Pleased so far but I'm sure I'll be in stitches at the end of the season when I pull the root out and find.......a couple of baby carrots!   Monday, June 21 View Page I pollinated the 2nd female flower today. A 6 lober this time. There had been a another pumpkin in between the 1st pollination and todays pollination but decided it was too acute an angle to the stem and practically under the vine. I have a further 2 more females apearing around 16ft and probably 17ft.   Monday, June 28 View Page Pollinated pumpkin 3 today. Chopped a further pumpkin rather than pollinate as the location was in an awkward spot. A couple of dimples have appeared on the 1st pollination and the growth rate is below last years 675. Pollination 2 on the other hand is a longer shaped pumpkin and currently above last years growth rate so I have decided to cull pumpkin 1.   Tuesday, June 29 View Page Pollinated (Hopefully) my first ever Marrow on the 80.7 Baggs from the 70.1 Thomas. Close to the stump, but it'll do for my small local show. Don't think it needs to get too big to be in with a chance of the top places :) Thats if it doesnt split! Does anyone know the duration from pollination to maturity for marrows? I would be very grateful. Many thanks.   Wednesday, June 30 View Page Really chuffed with the sunflower!!!! Its huge!!!!!! Almost level with the roof!   Wednesday, June 30 View Page Lol, then again maybe it does have a way to go yet! Measuring 5ft tall at the moment. I figure that if it hits the guttering then it'll be 15ft 10". Hmm...I'll be happy if it will grow to any height before the wind gets it.   Wednesday, June 30 View Page The polytunnel is almost filled out now. About another 5ft of main and it will emerge outside.   Wednesday, June 30 View Page Side vines buried under neath the base rails of the polytunnel and growing into the adjacent patch.   Wednesday, June 30 View Page My first ever attempt at growing a heavy onion. I've seen bigger onions grown on the allotment!!! lol. It'll do for my small local show though. Atleast I'll be more familiar with what to do for next years efforts. Lack of space has been one problem. Hopefully I will be able to resolve that by next year.   Wednesday, June 30 View Page These are the potatoes that are going in for the heavy class at my local show. I'm sure they are all tops and no spuds! 5ft high so I'm sure thats way too much wasted energy that could have gone into the potatoes themselves. Well, I suppose I will find out soon enough. Good thing with the plastic bags is I can feel the spuds growing. Bad side of the bags is I can feel the spuds! Not very big at all! lol!!!!   Wednesday, June 30 View Page The giant cabbage are looking nice.....I think. The largest of the pair is measuring 5ft from leaf tip to tip. The one in the distant seems to have a different growth habit to the larger one. Its much paler and flatter leaves than the larger of the 2 and almost looks like a different variety, but I guess that could be put down to different soil conditions maybe?   Wednesday, June 30 View Page At the start I was really pleased with this beetroot. I suffered from a large amount of leaf loss due to leaf miner. That’s under control now but I would imagine it will have set the plant back a bit from where it could have been. Found some leaves being forced down by new growth and snapping off so had to mackle a ring to support them a little. Just coming up to a foot in circumference.   Wednesday, June 30 View Page Here's my attempt at growing a big parsnip. It took a long time to get going but is now starting to throw out some foliage. It won't be a giant but It will give me a personal target to beat for next year. The barrel segments are 2ft across for scale.   Thursday, July 8 View Page Day 17 - I had been temporarily covering the pumpkin with a plastic chair and draping a sheet over the top. I didn't get back home till gone 10.30pm at night so left it till the morning to check on the pumpkin. Come the morning the chair was leaning to one side as the pumpkin had grown more than I had expected! Shame though because it now has 2 scars where it lifted the chair.   Thursday, July 8 View Page Reducing the amount of light that reaches the pumpkin and likewise reducing my chances of growing a big one but the grapes are coming on well.   Thursday, July 8 View Page Lost the sunflower :( We had some strong wind on Sunday and I didnt manage to secure it well enough in time. It now stands 2ft tall, the 3ft down to the ground then a further 1ft vertically again! Oh well. Theres always next year.   Tuesday, July 20 View Page I have finally got my camera phone sorted with the computer so here is the current situation with the pumpkin. Has a nice looking face but it does however have an ugly butt! Day 29 today and measured in at 220 lbs.   Tuesday, July 20 View Page Actually, the pic doesn't make it look quite as bad, lol. Still, it has a heavy bulge at the top which I don't think the OTT is taking into account. Anyways, I'm pleased so far. This date last year the pumpkin was only at 24 lbs. The 675 last year stopped growing once PM caught a hold in mid August. This year I am taking a few preventative measures to help stop it from happening. Fingers crossed I can keep it together this year to gain a new PB.   Tuesday, July 20 View Page We entered some of the show veg into the small local show down the road at the weekend. We won 2 first places in the carrot and cucumber class. We won a further 2nd place and 3 thirds. Very pleased with our first year efforts. The bigger show with some giant veg is coming up in 3 weeks time. Here are the 3 carrots we won with.   Saturday, July 24 View Page Well, I am now down to 1 giant cabbage at home as the smaller of the 2 is going to seed. I still have a smaller one on the allotment but it is not going to be very big I don't think.   Saturday, July 24 View Page You can see the difference in the 2 cabbages clearly in this pic. They are from the same seed though. The larger of the 2 is in the foreground and is just starting to heart up to my delight. The post is 3ft tall. The widest point is 5ft 6inch.   Saturday, July 24 View Page I took the opportunity to take a pic of the front whilst I still could with out damaging the leaves. It will get a little more difficult soon I think. Measuring at 283lb but it is a funny shape round the back so maybe smaller than that.   Tuesday, July 27 View Page This pumpkin is proving to be awkward to tape. Not sure where to take the circumference measurements from as the bulge on top is increasingly becoming an overhang and a worry. I have taken the circumference underneath the over hang at the blossom-stem to stay consistent. Day 36 and the 1457 Paton tapes out at 344 Lb with an increase of 124 Lb in the week.   Tuesday, July 27 View Page A view of the patch inside the poly. After all the nice Summer weather in Spring with 3 months of no rain we have had day after day after day.... of rain since the hosepipe ban was put in place!!!!! Typical!   Sunday, August 1 View Page Pic of my beetroot. As it grows upwards the finer roots are becoming exposed. Do I cover them up? or leave it alone?   Sunday, August 1 View Page I'm posting this pic to help with my question on the forum. As you can see the bulge on top is creeping out further and further. Has anyone got any ideas of what I can do to prevent it loosing its balance. I’d hate to come out one morning to find it crashed out on the floor split in 2? It’s currently around 425lbs and I didn't really want to start moving it as I'm sure there are enough stresses on the crease that is developing, but then that might be the only solution. Or should I leave it be and hope for the best or is there something I should have already done or could still do? Next photo from a different angle. Many thanks   Sunday, August 1 View Page Side view of the pumpkin with the bulge growing. You can soon see the pumpkin will probably want to fall away from the vine.   Sunday, August 8 View Page Pumpkin is very slow at the moment but all the local show veg has been taken out for the show yesterday so plenty of ventilation back in the patch. As you can see the right hand side is making a go for the ground. Fingers crossed it makes it ok. Someone suggested putting a sand bag to prop the pumpkin up. I have decided to place a half bag of compost underneath the bulge instead just incase it lurches backwards during the night. It's currently rocking away merrily! I'm hoping the compost will act more of a cushion if it does go. That way I can take small amounts of compost out gradually to ease the pumpkin down safely.   Sunday, August 8 View Page A few photos to find but I emptied my experiment to grow some large potatoes from the regular potatoes for the local show. These 2 came from one plant. Totally didn't expect to get them this big! I know they wouldn't be in the same league for a big competition but they served me well in the local show. The one on the left weighed 1 lb 7oz and the right hand one came 1st with a weight of 1 lb 9oz. On the whole we had a great day and managed to win 4 3rd places, 8 2nd places and 3 1st places.   Sunday, August 8 View Page We managed to get 1st and 3rd for the heavy tomato. Only 0.97 lb for 1st place so no records there but chuffed with my our first heavy tom plus we had to pick it early for this show. See whether we can beat it later in the season.   Monday, August 9 View Page Side view of the overhang. Where to measure from???!!   Monday, August 9 View Page Here is the lone remaining giant cabbage. It seems to have loved the recent rain as it is now measuring 6ft 4inch from leaf tip to tip. I’m having to push the marrows out of the way to make room. As the smaller cabbage went to seed I was interested to know how heavy the headless cabbage would weigh. It came in at 32 lb without the root or a heart. Now it's chopped up and ready for the worms.   Monday, August 9 View Page The cabbage is hearting up. Having never grown a cabbage before I don't know how long you usually have before they go to seed. Especially a giant one.   Sunday, August 22 View Page Things have been a little hectic of late as I only have 2 more sleeps till I become a married man. Will take a pic of the pumpkin after the wedding when I have time.   Friday, September 10 View Page Well a lot has happened since I last posted to my diary. Been hectic with the wedding etc. but now getting back into the swing of things. I managed to grab some spare time to go down to see the Shepton Mallet show. Plus I had made a promise to enter the giant cabbage in the show. It was a great experience with some amazing exhibits. Sadly most of the things I entered were dwarfed in comparison but I already expected that. It was more for me to grasp how large these monsters get to. The cabbage below was my last remaining cabbage which I took to the show. In hind sight I think I should have left it to carry on growing as it was still throwing leaves out. It weighed in at 67 lbs at the show. The red lifting tarp underneath it is a 7ft x 7ft sheet for scale. Loved growing it and there will certainly be more of these grown next year in the patch.   Friday, September 10 View Page The 3 other categories I was able to enter in was a 2lb carrot, 23 inch long runner bean and a 17.38 lb Beetroot from the EGVGA seed bubble. Sadly the beetroot had to go on as exhibition only as Malvern didn't except this variety for the beetroot class.   Friday, September 10 View Page I didn't enter into the long veg classes other than the runner bean as I didn't intend to enter anything other than the cabbage. I did however get the itch to try out the long rooted veg. I tried long parsnips just in a barrel this year for showing at my small local show and managed to grow this 130.8cm(51.5inch)parsnip. Not great in comparison to what won but the 'cogs' are turning now.   Friday, September 10 View Page Back on to the pumpkin front, the PM has been delayed a lot more than last year. Whether that has anything to do with my precautions or not I don't know as It probably has more to do with the weather. The down side is I went on holiday for a week to come back to total spider mite infestation. I must not have noticed it before hand but within a week after the holiday it was severe. All the leaves outside are fine though. As you can see in the photo the pumpkin decided it wanted to come back down to ground and the use of a half bag of compost really worked well. Managed to bring it down nice and slowly into position by taking out small amounts of compost every day. Luckily I put a big curve in the main vine as it is now on top of the pumpkin.   Friday, September 10 View Page It is such a weird shape underneath that I don't know what it will do come weighing time. I don't really mind what weight it ends up with though because my main goal was to have a sound pumpkin at the end of the season. Last years 675 couldn't go to a weigh off because of the hole. Now that it is safely down on the ground I can relax a bit as I think it would have split by now if it was going to.   Friday, September 10 View Page Now that it is sitting on its ugly butt, the pumpkin actually looks a nice shape, lol. My next problem is how I get this thing out of the 4ft wide polytunnel door!!! Considering the pumpkin is over 4ft wide!! Then I will have to get it over the garage again. That’s for another day though.   Friday, September 10 View Page Meant to say Shepton Mallet didn't accept the beetroot variety. Doh!   Monday, September 27 View Page My new personal best for heavy tomato 1.75 lb. It rapidly ripened on me though so it will not get to a competition. I still have 2 more on the plants but its getting very cold at nights lately.   Monday, September 27 View Page The 2 marrow plants have been totally wiped out now by Powdery Mildew. Decided to pick the remaining 2 marrows. The best here was 53.4 lbs. Again, a new PB but then again this is my first year at growing them so that was bound to happen!   Friday, October 22 View Page My computer has been playing up lately. To be honest its on its last legs so I've not been able to update my diary. Anyway, I picked the Pumpkin on the 9th of October and took it down to the East of England Show at Peterborough along with a few other veg. Managed to gain a 1st place with the pumpkin with a weigh-in of 763 lbs.   Friday, October 22 View Page I also took my last tomato with me and it weighed in at 2.64 lbs becoming my new PB. It also came joint 3rd which was pleasing to see.   Friday, October 22 View Page I grew 1 lone parsnip outside this year to try and grow for the heavy categories. This was my seasons efforts - a 6.6 lb parsnip. It had a nice 23 inch circumference on top but lacked the length of roots. Very pleased though to get a 3rd place   Friday, October 22 View Page There seemed to be quite a collection of exhibits too so I was very pleased with a 3rd place in this class. As you can see the carrot section looked good too but alas, I managed to come last in this section with a carrot just short of 3 lbs.   Friday, October 22 View Page My favourite surprise was to win the long runner bean class. I was amazed! I knew the bean was going to be good as it edged over 30 inch but didn't think I would win! Very chuffed. I must say a big thankyou to David Thomas for the seed that grew it.   Friday, October 22 View Page Unfortunately, there must have been a mistake by someone as my bean and place card had disappeared at the end of the show. I was gutted but I have learnt my lesson for next time to keep a closer eye on them. As I only grew one plant I could have done with the seed for next year but I still have a 31 inch bean drying on the vine as we speak so hopefully they will help me out for next year.   Thursday, November 4 View Page Here is this years pumpkin carving entry. Took half the time of last years 8 hour carving so I must be getter faster. Carving based on green goblin from wychwoods line of Character beers/cider. Carving on a 100 lb AG that I had growing down the allotment, but only after it had all ready been used as a punch bowl for haloween by family. Time will tell if it does any good in the competition. It's all good practice for when I do a public carving on my 763 at a local garden centre in a weeks time. I think it'll take a long time!!!   Thursday, November 4 View Page Same carving but with the lights on inside.   Monday, December 13 View Page Just received word that I won the Wychwood Pumpkin Carving Competition 2010 for the 2nd year running! hehe. Prize is a years supply of Hobgoblin! 365 Bottles!