Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 338 Entries. Wednesday, January 1 View Page The 12.36 lb tomato !!!   Thursday, January 2 View Page How much wood could a wood truck, truck if a wood truck could truck wood ???   Monday, January 13 View Page Well do to my plant eating kitten i had to put my overgrown house plants in the bacement because they are poisonous to my cat. I bought this new high efficiency quantum board LED lamp. It uses 240 watts witch is down from my 300 watt halide lamp with the big umbrella cover on it. The halide lamp has a flowering spectrum on it while the LED lamp has a 4,000k vegitative spectrum on it.   Monday, January 13 View Page Here is a picture of what it looks like. Its measurements are 8"x 24" x 1" and it appears to be about 50% stronger than my 300 watt halide lamp.   Monday, January 13 View Page Their is information for two different lamps here i have the smaller one DDXV1   Monday, January 13 View Page Here are the cautions and warranty   Monday, January 13 View Page Sorry for the last 2 pictures. They were upright in my ?? and this is how i hung my balast it get about 120° i felt a little to hot to me to mount it directly on the floor joist. Were as the light itself feels like a medium hot cup of coffee.   Thursday, January 16 View Page Enough said !!!   Thursday, January 16 View Page Enough said !!!   Friday, January 17 View Page I ain't no dummy !!! :-)   Friday, January 17 View Page Anyone ever try this ???   Monday, January 20 View Page He is always watching !!!   Tuesday, January 21 View Page I don't think anyone will notice this missing ???   Wednesday, January 22 View Page This is how i remove the snow !!!   Saturday, February 1 View Page Bnot just seen how much his latest electric bill is for his winter grow !!! Lol.....just kidding bnot !!! :-)   Saturday, February 1 View Page More police violence !   Saturday, February 1 View Page Dam trump saw his shadow !!!   Saturday, February 1 View Page Dam trump seen his shadow !   Sunday, February 2 View Page i now predict an early spring !!!   Sunday, February 2 View Page I made it in a superbowl comercial !!! Lol...:-)   Monday, February 3 View Page The difference between men and women !!!   Friday, February 7 View Page I still have faith !!!   Sunday, February 9 View Page Yeah i know people like this !!!   Sunday, February 9 View Page Tree trimmers in the old days !!!   Wednesday, February 12 View Page My cat has been getting into my house plants again !!!   Wednesday, February 12 View Page You don't won't to piss off my cat !!!   Saturday, February 15 View Page Found it !!!   Sunday, February 16 View Page It's all in the technique !!!   Sunday, February 16 View Page Here fishy fishy fishy !!!   Wednesday, February 19 View Page Ughh.......its been a long week !!!   Thursday, February 20 View Page Society Today !!!   Tuesday, March 3 View Page It's that time of year again !!!   Tuesday, March 3 View Page Spring is almost here now, its time tome come out of hibernation !!!   Friday, March 6 View Page Ron Wallace is the guest speaker this year at our michigan spring seminar ! Just what i needed to grow the first 10 lb tomato !!! :-)   Saturday, March 7 View Page Here is my home made mouse trap , FRY BABY !!!   Saturday, March 7 View Page This is my secret !!!   Monday, March 9 View Page The panic room is now complete !!!   Tuesday, March 10 View Page Technology today is just mind boggling !!!   Tuesday, March 10 View Page I know i will grow a 10 lb tomato !!!   Thursday, March 12 View Page Hey Bob here is my 2015 winter grow witch i think was the first winter grow. Caton Domke didn't even start a diary till may 1. I remember Caton for growing crystals in a generator and raising giant grubs the size of your hand and hatching them into giant horned beatles !   Thursday, March 12 View Page This was the final result 1lb.   Thursday, March 12 View Page This is what i remembered caton for was his insects. I found that caton started the tomato challenge later that October of 2015 and into 2016   Thursday, March 12 View Page This is what his grubs would turn into.   Thursday, March 12 View Page This is what his grubs would turn into.   Thursday, March 12 View Page These were the crystals that caton would grow. So what ever happened to caton he always had a great diary to follow !!!   Tuesday, March 17 View Page This might not be funny next week !!!   Wednesday, March 25 View Page Well i like to think outside the box ! Why pay $12 to buy 10 slips or cuttings of Sweet potato plants when you can grow your own sweet potato plants by using toothpicks and a jar of water ????   Wednesday, March 25 View Page So i used this same idea elseware ? I'll be dammed it works !!!   Wednesday, March 25 View Page It's time to start the garden !   Thursday, March 26 View Page Lambchop is looking for her Tomato !!!   Friday, March 27 View Page In 2016 i grew this 3.80 lb tomato in a 20 gallon pot.   Friday, March 27 View Page I didn't take good care of it as you can see but i think i could have probably grown this in a 5 gallon pot. This pot rarely dried out. I had to be more careful of over watering it.   Friday, March 27 View Page This was its actual weight.   Friday, March 27 View Page And this was its finnal measurement   Friday, March 27 View Page Here is a picture of mark clementz tomato growing in a small raised bed that he made last year. Yes it is much bigger than a 5 gallon bucket but mark was having problems with blosom end rot witch he believed was caused by the lack of drainage at the bottom ? I think tjese pictures show that if you monitor your plant right that it is possible to grow a 4 to 5 pound tomato.   Friday, March 27 View Page CORONA VIRUS UPDATE IN MY AREA I am living in one of the worst areas outside of new York. Most of the 3657 cases and 92 deaths in Michigan is in the tri county area around Detroit. Here are the numbers in the 3 counties and Detroit. Detroit 851 cases 15 deaths Wayne 538 cases 11 deaths Oakland 668 cases 15 deaths Macomb 347 cases 11 deaths Total 2404 cases 52 deaths just in the Detroit tri-county area   Sunday, March 29 View Page I started my peppers back on march 1 and now it's time to transplant them   Sunday, March 29 View Page Time to seperate them !   Sunday, March 29 View Page I have seperated them into 4"x4" pots so 15 -18 pots per flat   Sunday, March 29 View Page I also had some eggplant too. I filled 3 flats so far and i have about 1.5 flats to go.   Sunday, March 29 View Page I did a practice plant under my new light and it seemed to do prety good under it. This is only a betterboy tomato but i think i will keep it around and see if i can get some early tomatoes this year   Sunday, March 29 View Page Tried a sunflower too ? Not sure how long i will keep this around ???   Sunday, March 29 View Page I see that this protective gardening suit i made in 2015 may be comming back in style this summer !!! Im thinking of starting my New Garden line soon !!! Lol.... :-)   Tuesday, March 31 View Page The side effects of a 3 month quarantine ???   Tuesday, March 31 View Page I think Marv should use this 12.36 lb tomato picture for the cover of his New Book !!!   Thursday, April 2 View Page Here are a couple of my late blooming orchids i have along with an African violet, klanchoe and 2 cactus plants.   Thursday, April 2 View Page Another orchid plant that is ready to bloom soon.   Thursday, April 2 View Page Here is a cut leaf coleous plant that is 3 years old now this one replaced my 7 year old plant that just got to bloken up to keep. Although this is an annual plant this freek of a plant never grows flowers and i believe this might have something to do with it surviving so well so long. It grows excellent from clippings   Thursday, April 2 View Page Here are some cipping that i left in the water to long. Its so intangled that its not worth seperaring them so i planted them like this   Thursday, April 2 View Page Well i must yak to much or it's a slow season. I noticed that i just past bnot for the most diary posts....? I planted this sunflower to see how my new LED lamp work. Im happy with it so far. This plant is 25" tall the leaves are a nice green and its not too legy. Im glad it now has a flower bud on it, that was expected growing in a one gallon pot. Sunflowers get stunted when growing in pots.   Thursday, April 2 View Page Im growing one competion carrott this year. I think bnots carrott is about 10 days ahead of mine. Not sure though. They look prety close   Thursday, April 2 View Page My peppers are looking prety good right now. I have close to 70 pepper plants going now   Thursday, April 2 View Page My eating tomatoes are comming up nicely too. I will be seperating them into individual pots probably next week   Tuesday, April 7 View Page YEAH, it's going to take a lot more whiskey for that to work !!!   Tuesday, April 7 View Page Hmmm.... This has been in the freezer for a long time ???   Wednesday, April 8 View Page Im doing the 4" pot competition this year ! I can't believe this squash plant can grow a squash on it in a 4" pot ???   Wednesday, April 8 View Page This was just a practice pepper plant. Im just curious what it can do in a 4" pot ?   Wednesday, April 8 View Page I transplanted my eating tomatoes yesterday into 4" pots. They should be ready to go into 1 gallon pots in a few weeks.   Wednesday, April 8 View Page Wow ! My tulips look more like hosta plants now. 4 years ago when i planted them i only put 5 bulbs at each spot. They have sure multiplyed since thenn   Friday, April 17 View Page Ahh.... Yes spring time in michigan !!!   Friday, April 17 View Page Yes its time to plant the garden !!!   Friday, April 17 View Page Weird wint these are the original Megamut crosses that i made in 2016 then i think bnot grew a 6.32 dmg from the larger of these 2 tomatoes but im not sure of that ? Bnot can fill you in on everything he did with them.   Sunday, April 19 View Page These are my eating tomatoes growing under a 40 year old florescent lamp. I will be putting these plants in a cold frame soon.   Sunday, April 19 View Page This sunflower plant is now 40" tall and still in a 1 gallon pot !!! This was only suposed to be a test to see how my new light would work then i never had the heart to throw it away when it got bigger. Now i can't wait to see it flower. I hate to see what would have happened if i had this in a 5 gallon pot ?   Sunday, April 19 View Page Again i planted this better boy tomato plant in a 1 gallon pot to see how my new lamp would work. I have been satisfied with it so far.   Sunday, April 19 View Page I even have some tomatoes on it !!!   Sunday, April 19 View Page And i decided to try 1 giant carrot too. I probably should have had it in a larger pot ? I thought that a 1 gallon pot would have been big enough but i think that i was wrong ?   Monday, April 20 View Page My sunflower should be blooming any day now !!!   Saturday, April 25 View Page Here is my indoor sunflower plant in a 1 gallon pot and 4 feet tall   Saturday, April 25 View Page I like these Hyacinth flowers. This is the first time that i ever planted them and now i plan on planting many more around the back yard next year   Saturday, April 25 View Page I moved my eating tomatoes outside into my cold frame were they will probably stay till may 20 and it now gives me room in my bacement to start more garden plants.   Saturday, April 25 View Page This is a geranium kiss tomato plant. Its supposed to be a heavy producing shrub form cherry tomato that im going to grow in a 10 gallon pot   Saturday, April 25 View Page It's time to transplant my broccoli and cauliflower plants into their own pots now.   Saturday, April 25 View Page Now i have 12 broccoli and 12 cauliflower plants in their separate pots now.   Monday, April 27 View Page This cecropia moth made a cocoon on my house plant and hatch today   Tuesday, April 28 View Page Some of my early tulips are in bloom today. I have some later verieties that will bloom in about 10 more days   Wednesday, April 29 View Page These tulips are a larger and later blooming veriety. 5 years ago i started each cluster with 5 bulbs. Now some clusters will have over 20 blooms this year   Wednesday, April 29 View Page Here is a picture of my landscape that i installed in 1991 i always liked a lot of color and weeping tree's.   Wednesday, April 29 View Page This was my first year of growing at were my garden is today. It started just for fun growing pumpkins and squash on dirt mounds in a field of small brush plants. It was like an easter egg hunt digging through a field of tall grass and small brush to find all the pumpkins and squash. This was around 1997   Wednesday, April 29 View Page Here is a picture of my garden from Google maps last year. Its like gilligans island, its as primitive as can be !!!   Wednesday, April 29 View Page Here is another picture of my spings flowers   Wednesday, April 29 View Page Here is a picture of our atlas moth we raised a few years back it's the worlds largest moth species.   Thursday, April 30 View Page This was my very first diary post back in September of 2014 loading up for a weighoff !!!   Thursday, April 30 View Page I think that i am the only one growing bananas in Michigan too !   Thursday, April 30 View Page It won't be long before the next round of tulips start blooming   Friday, May 1 View Page I transplanted my eating tomatoes into 1 gallon pot today and they are doing pretty good in the cold frame so far.   Friday, May 1 View Page Here are a couple of the nicer looking plants. Yes im growing a Domingo for my uncle as an eating tomato. He did grow one to 4 lbs. Last year with many other tomatoes on the plant at the same time. I thought that was pretty impressive.   Monday, May 4 View Page My late tulips are blooming now.   Thursday, May 7 View Page Throwback Thursday yes i grew a watermelon in 2014 before i grew tomatoes.   Saturday, May 9 View Page Ugh.... !!!!!!! I am sooooo pissssed this morning. It got so cold so early last night that i over ride the timer on my cold frame to turn it on much earlier but the extention cord conection was aparently not tight enough. I heard the heater running when i went in for the night but apparently the conection wasn't good enough and the heater turned off when i went in and all my eating tomatoes froze last night. The stems on the biggest plant may still be alive but will be severely dammaged and the smaller plants look to be a total loss.   Sunday, May 10 View Page Well here is the full extent of my frozen plants ?   Sunday, May 10 View Page As you can see most if not all the leaves and tops were destroyed but the stems look to still be alive and these are the good plants   Sunday, May 10 View Page And this what they now look like after i pruned off all the dead parts. Half of these plants also belong to my uncle !!! I just haven't had the heart to tell him yet ??? I hope that they can branch out ok i should know more in a week ? I would normally just throw these out and buy new plants from a nursery but i can't buy these verieties at a nursery and i will loose 6 weeks if i started over ? That would be to short of a tomato season.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page My competition tomatoes came up ok 39 up and 5 no shows. All 5 were Domingo seeds.   Tuesday, May 12 View Page Hmmm. Some of my spaziani plants are leaning far to the left ? I wouldn't have expected to see that ? Lol....   Thursday, May 14 View Page This was the first big pumpkin i ever grew in 1998 and it was a 149 lb prize winner pumpkin. I learned about the Atlantic Giants later that summer   Thursday, May 14 View Page Another throw back picture of a fire breathing Dragon i carved into this 202 lb prize winner pumpkin that i bought in 1997   Thursday, May 21 View Page Throw back Thursday i think this was 1998 ? Back when i was young and stupid i tied 2 ladders together so i could reach the 16 foot sunflower just so i could get a picture ??? My feet are 8 feet off the ground and i am 6 feet tall with my arms stretched as far as they can go. Yeah its safe to say i won't be doing that anymore.   Thursday, May 21 View Page Here is my mom who is now 83 standing by the ladders for scale.   Thursday, May 21 View Page A little better picture. The flower head is pretty big to i think it was 18"?   Monday, May 25 View Page I got started on planting my garden yesterday with peppers eggplant broccoli cauliflower and my competition tomatoes along the fence   Monday, May 25 View Page My smallest competition tomato plant   Monday, May 25 View Page Average size of my competition tomatoes   Monday, May 25 View Page Yup my megabloom is looking prety good !!! :-)   Thursday, May 28 View Page Throwback Thursday This was my first long gourd that i grew i think in 2015   Thursday, May 28 View Page Well my eating tomatoes are making a comeback after going through a 28° FREEZE 2 and half weeks ago. They still look scrawny but they will be OK.   Saturday, May 30 View Page Last weekend i planted my only pumpkin plant a 1947 clementz.   Saturday, May 30 View Page This is only 2 days after planting my 1947 clementz. The cucumber beatles just tear them up out hear if you forget to put seven powder on the leaves as soon as you plant them.   Thursday, June 4 View Page Throwback Thursday. These are my first two 6 lbs tomatoes grown on 30" tall plants with only 10 to 12 leaves per plant   Friday, June 5 View Page I had a family of swans come check out the brick paver patio that i was putting in.   Friday, June 5 View Page After the swans insisted on following me everywere i was going i decided to lead them back to the lake so i could get back to my work   Saturday, June 6 View Page This is one of my eating tomatoes that barely survived the BIG FREEZE 3 weeks ago. You can see the tip was frozen off.   Saturday, June 6 View Page I put down my leaf mulch today this helps to keep the weeds down and it cools the soil and holds the moisture during the hot days   Saturday, June 6 View Page Big mistake last week i lost only 7 competition tomatoes to a serious mistake i made. 2 weeks ago i planted my competition tomatoes but i did not have time to fertilize them so last weekend the first thing i did when i got out to my garden was to first fertilize my competition tomatoes and then i spent 4 more hours planting squash eating tomatoes a pumpkin and 2 watermelon and when i was done i fertalize everything including my competition tomatoes again !!! I forgot that i allready fertilized them with dry fertilizer 4 hours earlier so i way over fertilized all my competition tomatoes !!!!!!!!!! I about crapped my pants when i realized what i had done ??? Luck i only lost 7 of 32 plants and fortunately i still had 7 leftover plants to replace them !!! I hope that i Dodged a bullet ???   Thursday, June 11 View Page Throwback Thursday. I still have to trim this Norway spruce with a cherry picker every 2 to 3 years. W hen i was 30 this was fun to do. Now im getting afraid of heights in my old age and its becomming unnerving to go 25 to 30 feet in a rocking cage ????   Sunday, June 21 View Page I started my 1947 clementz on May 10 because i have no way to protect my plant from frost were my garden is at. It may be a late start but its looking prety good so far.   Sunday, June 21 View Page Im growing some of john Buttlers 26'-8" sunflowers this year. I started these june 1   Sunday, June 21 View Page Starting to get some megablooms on my competition tomatoes. I think this is on my 7.73 menting ( Megazac)   Sunday, June 21 View Page This is a Big Wixom megabloom   Sunday, June 21 View Page Summer squash is starting show squash now.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page I found someone to help me weed the garden now !!!   Tuesday, June 23 View Page My garden is looking prety clean this year !!!   Tuesday, June 23 View Page Here is a megabloom on one of my Big Wixom plants.   Tuesday, June 23 View Page This is a typical Megazac plant with a first truss megabloom   Tuesday, June 23 View Page This is another Megazac megabloom comming up   Tuesday, June 23 View Page This was my 1947 clementz 2 days after i planted it on may 28   Tuesday, June 23 View Page This is the same 1947 clementz plant 23 days later. These things can sure grow fast !!!   Friday, June 26 View Page My 1947 clementz and john buttler 26'-8" sunflowers share this open area   Friday, June 26 View Page Here i have swisschard cauliflower peppers and many different kinds of squash in this area   Friday, June 26 View Page Leaf mulch and walking boards make it easy to keep clean and no weeds. Yes i do have a critter eating my broccoli and cauliflower ? I think its a baby groundhog but im not sure ?   Saturday, June 27 View Page Here is a megabloom starting on the 9.65 porkchop and my other porkchop is identical   Saturday, June 27 View Page This one is on my 6.23 DMG Domingo it looks the bud looks exactly the same as the 9.65 porkchop   Saturday, June 27 View Page Now this one is on a 7.73 Menting Megazac. Notice the megabloom is huskyier and has a knuckle in the stem were my domingos don't have this knuckle   Wednesday, July 1 View Page Finnaly caught the little Bastard that has been eating all my broccoli for the last month   Friday, July 3 View Page It's going to be a HOTTT summer this year the last 2 days were 90+ and the nent 7 days will be in the 90s. The record for the month of July is 17 days of 90° i think we might have a chance this year   Saturday, July 4 View Page I planted these 26'-8" buttler sunflowers by seed june 1 now these things are 4 feet tall. I cant believe how fast they grow.   Saturday, July 4 View Page Many of my first megablooms only half took. Im not sure why but i have many more still comming   Saturday, July 4 View Page I like this plant look closely i am getting nice megablooms on the first and second truss I never had this happen before !!!   Saturday, July 4 View Page Here are some later megablooms   Saturday, July 4 View Page Another one   Saturday, July 4 View Page #3   Saturday, July 4 View Page #4   Saturday, July 4 View Page Its good to see porkchop is back posting in his diary again Keep up the good work !!!   Monday, July 6 View Page My 1947 clementz is doing pretty good now i started my seed may 10 and transplanted in into my garden may 28 with only 2 true leaves now its about 10 feet long   Monday, July 6 View Page I see my first female flower now showing at the tip. Probably another week before it blooms   Monday, July 6 View Page Now picking swiss chard and yellow squash now. The garden is now beginning to produce   Wednesday, July 8 View Page Well this was yesterday when i was starting to get a little excited about my pumpkin this year   Wednesday, July 8 View Page Well this is today after a groundhog tore into the main stem with my first female bud ! This is why i don't put much into my pumpkin plants. 75% of the time i will loose my pumpkin season to either groundhog or heavy rains causing sever plant decline do to my shallow soil.   Wednesday, July 8 View Page My garden overall is doing ok.   Wednesday, July 8 View Page I havebeen having a hard time getting my megablooms to take this year ? Here is another nice one hope this one can take ?   Wednesday, July 8 View Page Growing a couple of giant watermelon off to a late start but the plants are starting to move now   Wednesday, July 8 View Page Ok i have never grown a summer squash like this before ?   Wednesday, July 8 View Page My winter squash patch has filled in all the open space allready. I have like 5 different kinds of squash in that mess   Thursday, July 9 View Page Well my competition tomatoes aren't going as planned yet so i joined the cucumber board !!!   Thursday, July 9 View Page An isolated storm hit my garden yesterday and dropped about 1" of rain. This is not storm dammage its just the sunflower plants twisting on their own a surge of growth !!! This my become a big problem because i had no intention on staking these plants !!! These plants are allready 6 feet tall ?   Thursday, July 9 View Page I may be in trouble with my pumpkin this year. Im not sure if this is groundhog or racoons ? It looks more shreaded witch makes me think its a racoon and my problem is racoons can climb my fence and this makes it much much harder for me to trap were as a groundhog makes a hole in the fence were i can trap them easily !!!   Thursday, July 9 View Page another look at my sunflowers   Friday, July 10 View Page O.k. i didn't wont to stake my sunflowers because i thought that it would make them stretch to much and make the stems to thin to support themselves ? Well i suppose that this tall strain is just tall and thin because i can't thicken them up so now that they are 6 feet tall flopping around and twisting like pretzels i am forced to do. Some staking with 10 foot steel conduit pipes !!! My skid steer loader can only lift me 10 feet high and with a 7 foot reach i may be able to stake them up tp 17 feet ???   Friday, July 10 View Page O.k. i may have made a mistake today ? Something has been slowly eating about 2 tips to my pumpkin plant and i was thinking that it was probably a racoon because of the sharp pointed teeth marks on my vines and kind of shredded ? I never thought it could be a squirrel so i let it go ????? After i let it go i started to realize that it probably is that squirrel eating my vines ? With all this hot weather those thick vines are full of water and the shredded dammage im getting looks like something a squirrel might do ??? I won't be letting anything go from now on !!!   Friday, July 10 View Page Since my main stem is gone and several secondaries also topped off i think that i will let 3 or 4. Pumpkins grow on the plant now ? Maybe grow 3 or 4. Pumpkins to about 300 to 400 lbs nice porch sized pumpkins   Friday, July 10 View Page Thia dog knows how to cool off !!!   Sunday, July 12 View Page Well i caught the little bastard again and this time he went on the relocation plan !!!   Sunday, July 12 View Page This is my best chance at a pumpkin this year. The squirrel go the main stem and about all the tips on my secondaries too now i will have to settle for something on a tirchiary vine ???? I see very small pumpkins this year ???   Thursday, July 16 View Page Here is another picture of Dan Sutherlands 10.79 lb world record tomato   Thursday, July 16 View Page Here is a picture of Cindy Tobek on a security camera trying to steal dans Sutherlands tomato when he wasn't looking !!! Lol... :-)   Thursday, July 16 View Page Here are a few more pictures of dans tomato   Thursday, July 16 View Page The measurement picture is not to clear   Thursday, July 16 View Page And a close up of the weight on the scale   Saturday, July 18 View Page Here is a tomato on a Big Wixom   Saturday, July 18 View Page This one is on my 6.23 Domingo   Saturday, July 18 View Page I believe this is on a Megazac   Saturday, July 18 View Page My sunflowers are now 8 to 9 feet tall !!! The conduit pipe that is suporting them are 10 foot long pipes with 1 foot in the ground   Sunday, July 19 View Page Ok now i know why i can't catch anything in my cage lately i keep finding my cage triggered and no food in the cage ???   Tuesday, July 21 View Page I added another 10 foot pipe to suport my sunflowers. The pipes are about 18 feet tall now   Tuesday, July 21 View Page I had no trellis for my long gourd so in using this 15 foot ladder as a trellis im using the force to hold it in place !!!   Tuesday, July 21 View Page 2 days ago i saw lighting strke in my backyard but i could never find any dammage till today. I hit my neighbors tree at our property line. It doesn't look like much dammage but when i tap the bark i can tell that the bark pulled off the wood of the tree half way around the tree. So this tree may actually not survive !!!   Tuesday, July 21 View Page I have had a lot of megablooms not develop like this, this year !!! Im not sure if its because of the heat this year or if im doing something wrong ?   Tuesday, July 21 View Page Another angle of the conduit pipes i set up for my sunflowers about 18 feet now   Thursday, July 23 View Page Well this is my first pumpkin to make it to flower and its on a chewed off tirchiary vine. Unfortunately for the last 2 weeks a combination of squirrels and chipmunk have pluned off all the tips and pumpkins on the main and secondarys so now i have to set my pumpkins on tirchiary vines ???   Thursday, July 23 View Page This is what my pumpkin plant looks like after all the tips were chewed off by critters i finnaly have a flowering pumpkin under that 20 gallon pot and more tirshiarys are growing out from the canopy. Not sure what im going to do yet i may just let the plant grow like 5 pumpkins on it maybe 200-300 lb or one hope to get 500 lb ?   Friday, July 24 View Page Now that i fine tuned my cage to catch chipmunks i caught these 2 while i was changing a water pump on my truck. I also caught one yesterday so that makes 3 chipmunks in 2 days   Friday, July 24 View Page Ok until i see a tomato growing 6 lb or more i am on the cucumber board and will be showing you my cucumber pictures !!! Lol... :-)   Saturday, July 25 View Page I picked 10 green peppers today planning on having stuffed peppers this week   Saturday, July 25 View Page I picked a few tomatoes this week but i missed one ! The critters will not give me a break   Saturday, July 25 View Page The Yellow beans are now coming in too.   Saturday, July 25 View Page The leaf mulch and walking boards has kept much of my garden weed free this year.   Tuesday, July 28 View Page This is how my sunflowers look to me now !   Tuesday, July 28 View Page Some how a deer hopped over my fence and started eating my sunflower leaves. Lucky they are 11 to 12 feet now !!!   Tuesday, July 28 View Page I have so many chipmunks that this is the second time that i caught 2 at once. This make #6and #7 in one week !   Tuesday, July 28 View Page I had a hungry hungry tomato worm eat this tomato !!!   Wednesday, July 29 View Page Now here is a nice tomato !!!   Wednesday, July 29 View Page This looks even better !!!   Wednesday, July 29 View Page Hmmmm !!!!! It looks like someone might be pulling a fast one ??? Just saying !!!   Wednesday, July 29 View Page OMG its a 12.78 spaziani !!!   Friday, July 31 View Page Ok now that i got my live trap tuned In to catch these chipmunks i have caught 12 chipmunks in the last 8 days !!! But he did chew on this pumpkin tip before he was caught.   Friday, July 31 View Page Over all my garden is doing pretty good but i wish my competition stuff was doing better.   Saturday, August 1 View Page This is the first watermelon i have tried to grow in about 6 years. It is 10 Dap and 29" cir. Not to bad i guess   Saturday, August 1 View Page I need to tie up my sunflowers again as they like to twist like pretzels when given a chance. The tallest one is now 13'-4" tall and the shortest one is 11-6"   Saturday, August 1 View Page This is the tip of my 13'-4" plant. It looks like that it might just be starting a little bud but im not sure ?   Saturday, August 1 View Page Here is a sunflower view of my garden at 13 feet up !!!   Saturday, August 1 View Page Here is my garden when you drive up to it. !   Saturday, August 1 View Page This is the entry into my garden   Saturday, August 1 View Page Well since i don't have any 6 pound tomatoes yet im still posting from the cucumber board   Tuesday, August 4 View Page Yes it's August and i finnaly got my first pumpkin on a tirchiary vine. I have caught 15 chipmunks in the last 11 days and still more to catch.   Tuesday, August 4 View Page Here is a second pumpkin i have set on the same plant. I plan on trying to grow 4 or 5 pumpkins on this plant now since it is so late to grow a big one. So i hope to grow five 300 pound pumpkins instead i hope i can keep the critters off of them now ??   Tuesday, August 4 View Page Im even starting to run out of tirtiary vines to grow new pumpkins ???   Tuesday, August 4 View Page I now have both of my pumpkins under these 20 gallon pots. I hope this keeps the critters off of them till they get big enough ?the plant seems big enough and strong enough to grow alot of 300 pounders !!!   Tuesday, August 4 View Page I still don't have a 6 pounder on my plants yet so here is my cucumber board picture instead. 6 foot long cucumbers from a 5 gallon pot   Tuesday, August 4 View Page My watermelon is coming along now   Tuesday, August 4 View Page Also polinated my first long gourd today   Thursday, August 6 View Page Im not sure what my neighbors are thinking ?   Thursday, August 6 View Page Luck for me that the old lady never goes out to the garden !!!   Thursday, August 6 View Page First i cought a sparrow in my cage !!!   Thursday, August 6 View Page Today i caught a weasel !!! I didn't even know we had weasels around here ?   Thursday, August 6 View Page My watermelons are coming along nicely !!!   Thursday, August 6 View Page This is the best rebloom i have ever had with an orchid plant with a total of 17 new flowers   Saturday, August 8 View Page My sunflowers are on average 15 feet tall now   Saturday, August 8 View Page Another angle from my view   Saturday, August 8 View Page My competition tomatoes were pretty much wiped out by the flooding rains that we had this summer. Almost all the megablooms fell off and the plants basicaly drown in the wet mud   Monday, August 10 View Page Ok i now have 3 pumpkins on my 1947 clementz plant and i may try to set 2 more on the back side of the plant. The biggest one is 9 DAP and is 27 " i seems to be on a nice pace   Thursday, August 13 View Page My sunflowers are now reaching the top of the 17 foot suports that i made for them ? Im not sure what i can do after this ? I guess i will wait and see what happens !!!   Tuesday, August 18 View Page Well these sunflower trees are now a little over. 19 feet tall !!! My personal best in 1997 was 16'-2" so i think i can say i beat that already. I think it is safe to say that i will get the 20 foot mark in a few days !!! That is a nice bench mark to have !!!   Tuesday, August 18 View Page Ok this is the 2nd possum that i have caught in the last 2 days ? Yes i am still having a lot of critter problems this year !   Tuesday, August 18 View Page Well this will be the only survivor this year. First i started my plant a month later than everyone and then in mid July critters chewed off the main and all the secondaries tips off so i had to set this one on a tirchiary vine on August 1 today 17 Dap. It is 66 lbs gaining 10 pounds today.   Tuesday, August 18 View Page Here is a tomato i picked the other day weighing at 3.18 lb. This is what happened to most of my megablooms in the july heat. The flower would bloom and just sit their for a week doing nothing. Then half of it would start growing and a week later the other half would start growing ? I never had this problem before so needless to say all my first megablooms were junk !   Tuesday, August 18 View Page I do have this big marley tomato measuring at 22" right now but it is real close to the ground ? I have to wrap it in a towel to protect it from the critters around here. They get about 5 of my eating tomatoes every week this year !!!   Tuesday, August 18 View Page Here is the weight to that half green tomato   Wednesday, August 19 View Page Cauliflower is comming in now ! I love cauliflower !!!   Friday, August 21 View Page My shortest sunflower is starting to bloom at 16'- 6"   Friday, August 21 View Page These are my 2 shortest plants but also giving me the most problems with twisting like a pretzel ??? The real twisted plant is probably over 18 feet too !!!   Friday, August 21 View Page Here is a zoomed in picture of the flower on my short plant. It looks like it will get to a nice sized flower as long as i can keek the squirrels off of it ? Im having a bad critter problem right now ???   Friday, August 21 View Page Either squirrels or groundhogs have been giving me a lot of problems for the last 2 weeks ? Im loosing a lot of tomatoes and squash lately ???   Friday, August 21 View Page Yes i finnaly caught this little bastard !!! I hope he is the only one but im sure there be more !!!   Saturday, August 22 View Page I finally found the timer setting on my cell phone for taking pictures so i can take pictures with myself in them now !!! So hear is a prospective of my 20 foot tall sunflower now. Im 6 feet tall myself.   Saturday, August 22 View Page Lets try this again   Saturday, August 22 View Page It started late and its on a tirchiary vine but its comming along now at 100 lbs at day 21   Saturday, August 22 View Page Im still having critter problems so i have too keek setting my traps   Saturday, August 22 View Page Well this is my 2nd tomato so far comming in at 4.82 lbs. I hope to get some bigger tomatoes later this month.   Saturday, August 22 View Page Another angle to my tomato.   Sunday, August 23 View Page Well i picked another one today at 3.96 lbs. So this will replace my 3.18 tomato   Wednesday, August 26 View Page 6 of these sunflowers are now 20 foot or more. The tallest one is now 22 feet and the shortest 16'-6"   Wednesday, August 26 View Page These 2 are 21 and 22 feet tall   Friday, August 28 View Page I just found out gkins had a zucchini contest. I had this bad boy sitting in my bacement for 2 weeks allready. Its about 20" long weighing 10 pounds 5.4 oz.   Saturday, August 29 View Page I have a new leader now at 22.5 feet ! I think it will stretch to 23 feet still !!!   Saturday, August 29 View Page This is my measuring pole you can see the tape marks are one foot apart so this plant is between the 22 and 23 mark. The flowering plant is about 22 feet tall.   Monday, September 7 View Page Well all my plants have bloomed out and i had 6 plants reached 20 feet or more with 2 plants about 22 feet tall. I wont know the exact height untill i pull them up and measure them on the ground i hope then i may get a little more height !!!   Monday, September 7 View Page Another picture with me further back   Monday, September 7 View Page I found this one hidding in the weeds !!!   Monday, September 7 View Page Its near the 4 lb mark right now not sure how old it is. ??? Im hopping it has some time left to grow with these cooler days now !   Monday, September 7 View Page This how i protect it from the sun and heat   Monday, September 7 View Page Trying sweet potatos this year. They are looking good so far and they have about a month to grow yet !!!   Monday, September 7 View Page If you have never seen sweet potato plants before they grow like a vining ground cover   Monday, September 7 View Page Sweet potato also gets a pretty flower like a morning glory   Monday, September 7 View Page I have another orchid blooming in my bacement.now   Monday, September 7 View Page Here is another orchid with 3 flower spikes comming up !!! Unfortunately i can never remember what the flowers will look like untill they bloom again so its always a suprize !!!   Wednesday, September 9 View Page Does anyone think that my 6 foot tall madagascar palms need a bigger pot ???   Saturday, September 12 View Page Eggs lives matter too !!!   Monday, September 21 View Page I still have improvements to make this 4 pounder will qualify to replace my 3.96 lb tomato in the tomato contest. I hope that i can get a few more weeks with these cooler temperatures.   Monday, September 21 View Page Here is another one with some promice ? Probably a little under 4 lbs right now.   Monday, September 21 View Page Here is one that might be ready around November 1 ? I may have to put up a hoop house to warm up the temperature a bit to give it a chance ?   Monday, September 21 View Page My sunflowers are still hanging in their. Im shocked that no squirrels or birds have touched any of the seeds yet !!! I should have a good supply of seeds soon !   Monday, September 21 View Page The flowers are not a bad size !   Monday, September 21 View Page Here is the picture for the other post !   Thursday, September 24 View Page A new strain of Christmas tree !!!   Thursday, September 24 View Page So true !!! Lol....   Saturday, September 26 View Page Here is my biggest Big Wixom for this year this will improve our team score a little !!!   Saturday, September 26 View Page Here is the top view of the same tomato 4.41 lb.   Saturday, September 26 View Page Here is the picture for that last post   Saturday, September 26 View Page This one is measuring 23" so its about 4.25 lb right now. I still hope to get 5 lb with this one ?   Saturday, September 26 View Page I will probably try bringing these sunflowers down this week to measure them. I was unsuccessful on my first try as the plant snapped in half after i cut it loose from the suport pole.   Saturday, September 26 View Page Ha i just noticed that i forgot to cut off the stem on my tomato when weighing it. Lucky the conversion comes out the same at 4.41 so no harm ?   Tuesday, September 29 View Page Today i took down my sunflowers to measure them and collect the seeds   Tuesday, September 29 View Page Well this is my list on how tall each sunflower plant was and the size of their flowers too !!!   Wednesday, September 30 View Page My 2 nicest plants both had black seeds   Thursday, October 1 View Page Well this was my little sweet potato experiment this year. I started by buying this sweet potato from the store and putting 4 toothpicks in its sides and putting it in a jar of water and growing sprout from it. I started a little later than i thought in late april.   Thursday, October 1 View Page Well unfortunately i didn't have plant clippings ready to plant untill the 4th of july ? Better late than never ?   Thursday, October 1 View Page Well by September 4 the vines had grown to about 5 feet around and did quite well for only 2 months of growth   Thursday, October 1 View Page Interesting to see that sweet potatoes do flower nd Also they are related to the morning glory flower too !!!   Thursday, October 1 View Page Well do to the cold weather i figured that they were prety much done so i decided to dig them up ! Wow i was suprized how many potatoes i was getting from some plants they are a little small but still ok to eat !   Thursday, October 1 View Page Well like i said they are a little small but i did get alot of them !!! I hear to speed up their growth that they will grow faster in pots because they like very warm dirt !!! So next year i will start by june 1 and grow them in 10 gallon and 20 gallon pots and also see if i can find a veriety that is more suitable for growing in Michigan   Thursday, October 1 View Page Another favorite vegetable i like cauliflower !!!   Sunday, October 4 View Page Due to my plant eating cat i have to take all my house plants into the bacement for the winter. I replaced my halide lamp with a second 240 watt LED lamp these lamps put out much more light than the old 300 watt halide lamp.   Sunday, October 4 View Page Im expanding my african violet verieties. They due well under these LED lamps   Sunday, October 4 View Page Its time to start turning my poinsettia Red !!! I started a few weeks earlier this year.   Sunday, October 4 View Page Its starting to show some color change allready !!!   Sunday, October 4 View Page Many of my house plants are over 3 feet tall like this jade plant !   Sunday, October 4 View Page I really like This verigated schefflera plant !   Sunday, October 4 View Page I also like this stick plant !   Sunday, October 4 View Page These Madagascar palms are over 6 feet tall and only in a 10" pot ?   Monday, October 5 View Page Another angle of my indoor jungle !!!   Monday, October 5 View Page Now im ready to grow that 10 lb tomato !!!   Monday, October 5 View Page Enough said !   Saturday, October 10 View Page My ladt 2 cauliflowers are the size of bowling balls right now and still growing   Saturday, October 10 View Page Here is a late season attempt to increase our team score   Saturday, October 10 View Page And here was another attempt but it also fell a little short at increasing our team score ! I think that im done for the year but my teamates still have some chances.   Saturday, October 10 View Page I decided to start turning my poinsettia early this year. Maybe be ready for Halloween ???   Monday, October 19 View Page Here is an update on my poinsettia. Their isn't much to do this time of the year so i decided to turn my poinsettia plant a month earlier than i usually do ! :-)   Monday, October 19 View Page Have to love this time of year !!!   Wednesday, October 21 View Page This is how my cat looks to the chipmunks in my yard !!!   Wednesday, October 21 View Page Traffic lights are getting more confusing these days !!!   Wednesday, October 21 View Page Can you find my apartment ?   Sunday, October 25 View Page My holloween poinsettia is comming along real good so far !!!   Tuesday, October 27 View Page Yes it's time for change !!!   Thursday, October 29 View Page Christmas in October !!!   Sunday, November 8 View Page Last year on November 11 we had 9.5" of snow on the ground today we are in the 70s. It looks weird to have a poinsettia this early without snow on the ground !   Monday, November 9 View Page My Thanksgiving cactus is starting to bloom now too !!!   Friday, November 13 View Page Well this is my indoor bacement garden that i was forced to make last winter because of my plant eating cat leo !!! It keeps me buisy waiting for my summer time garden !!!   Tuesday, November 17 View Page We both my poinsettia and Thanksgiving cactus are now in full bloom. They are both about 3 feet wide   Tuesday, November 17 View Page I got mine !!!   Sunday, November 22 View Page Come to stores near you !   Sunday, November 22 View Page Shhhh........!!!!!   Wednesday, November 25 View Page Our local news in Detroit was wondering what was causing these new lights in the sky over in Canada ??? It turned out to be LED lights being used in greenhouses !!!   Wednesday, November 25 View Page Another picture of a greenhouse at night   Wednesday, November 25 View Page A closer look   Tuesday, December 8 View Page Any one else have this problem ???   Saturday, December 12 View Page Im sure im not the only person who has been accused of this ???   Sunday, December 13 View Page Damn she must be good !!!   Monday, December 14 View Page I know i will never eat Doritos again !!!