Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 38 Entries. Thursday, January 1 View Page Happy 2026 everyone! Man where has time gone? I've got some decisions to make for the 2026 growing season Saturday, March 7 View Page Happy March everyone! My 2026 giant pumpkin lineup has been chosen! I'll be growing the 2670 Thompson with the 2731 stelts for my 11th season! Time flies. 1 month to go! Friday, March 13 View Page This is my planned patch setup for the 2026 season. For those that have followed along in the past, my patch gets limited amount of sun especially the area closest to the woods. I get about 7-8 hours during peak summer and only about 4 hours on the side closest to the woods. My layout this year gives both of the plants the same amount of sun especially towards the stumps through mid way down. The plants will be close to each other but I will have a narrow area I can walk down in the middle. The secondaries will have 10 feet on each side before I have to turn them back. The patch is about 42 feet wide and about 55 feet long. I believe that growing the plants this way will benefit me with maximizing the sun on the plants. I will throw a butternut in there at the end! Wednesday, March 18 View Page Got my soil test back from western labs. Pretty happy with it! Some things to work on but not a bad test to start the season Wednesday, March 18 View Page Hoop house frames have been built today! I'm going back to the smaller hoop houses as I feel they are much easier at keeping heat in and the green plastic on the larger hoop houses in the past have too much shade. Back to old school method which I've had a lot of luck with Wednesday, March 18 View Page Wednesday, March 18 View Page Monday, March 23 View Page Got a delivery today from Bootstrap Farmer out of Texas! Monday, March 23 View Page Greenhouse plastic for my hoop houses! This stuff is incredible and the first time I've actually invested in greenhouse plastic instead of the stuff you can get at Home Depot. This stuff definitely feels like it will last and is thicker but still clear 6 mil plastic Monday, March 23 View Page My test plants from my 1349 are looking pretty good! A little yellow but I haven't been feeding them at all as they are only tests. I've also noticed in the past that any yellow indoors just greens right up when they go outside and get the sunshine. I use pro mix to start all my seeds. Overall pretty happy with them and should be good to go for my real ones in a few weeks! Monday, March 23 View Page This 1349 is 11 days old from when it emerged. Huge leaves and stalky for 11 days old Tuesday, March 24 View Page An oxidate drench was done today where the hoop houses are. Will eventually do the entire patch. Hoping to get the heating cables in and plastic on soon once it dries out a bit Wednesday, March 25 View Page Well this is not good! Found a massive boulder in the patch right where I'll be planting. I have a friend with an excavator that will be coming next week to remove it. Just ordered a delivery of loam for next week to fill this back in. Lots of clay when you get about a foot and a half deep! Wednesday, March 25 View Page Well this is not good! Found a massive boulder in the patch right where I'll be planting. I have a friend with an excavator that will be coming next week to remove it. Just ordered a delivery of loam for next week to fill this back in. Lots of clay when you get about a foot and a half deep! Wednesday, March 25 View Page This thing probably weighs 800 pounds. I haven't even been able to get around all of it yet and it goes pretty deep! Lots of other small sized rocks in this area Wednesday, March 25 View Page Yeah this thing is big... Wednesday, March 25 View Page Yeah this thing is big and I'm not even done digging around it yet Wednesday, March 25 View Page Yeah that's a ton of clay about 2 feet down. Dug out a bunch that I'll be getting rid of. Once this thing is out I'll be filling in with loam Wednesday, March 25 View Page Now we wait till the excavator gets here next week Wednesday, March 25 View Page Now we wait till the excavator gets here next week Thursday, March 26 View Page Today's project. Working on hoop house number 1 with putting in the heating cables and the good stuff! Hoop house number two will have to wait till that big boulder gets out next week! I had some folks suggest that while the excavator is here next week, that I should have them dig up the entire patch to loosen the soil. I agree with the thinking but the problem is the tons of clay about a foot and a half down. I'd rather keep the clay down there rather than have it lifted up towards the top of the soil. Probably the best idea to keep it deeper in my option. If I didn't have the clay I'd definitely do that. I appreciate everyone's comments about the boulder! Lots of humor lol Thursday, March 26 View Page Heating cables buried! Soil is looking nice!! Thursday, March 26 View Page A significant amount of progress today. It's all starting to come together. Just need to get this boulder out! Thursday, March 26 View Page Some of you are probably wondering if there will be enough room for an excavator to get in here with the hoop house. Plenty of room coming behind the back of the patch! Thursday, March 26 View Page A drone shot before I put the plastic on the hoop house without the big boulder. Definitely a huge difference with this greenhouse plastic! Friday, March 27 View Page Pretty dang happy with how my practice plants are doing! These are all from my 1349s and more popping to really feel confident with my germination setup. Little yellow on some, not sure why but not too worried. They always seem to green up once they hit the patch Friday, March 27 View Page One of my 1349s is really going crazy. Very stalky plant at 12 days old Friday, March 27 View Page Crazy stalky! Hopefully my lineup for this season ends up like this! Monday, March 30 View Page Woody and I tried using a Feathers and Wedges method yesterday to try and split the boulder! Monday, March 30 View Page We tried! This thing is solid! It didn't want to split and we didn't want to get the wedges stuck! Monday, March 30 View Page Yeah this thing is solid Monday, March 30 View Page An excavator is coming Tuesday to get the boulder out! Hopefully my lawn doesn't get ripped up! Tuesday, March 31 View Page Here we go!! Let's get this boulder out! Tuesday, March 31 View Page Here we go!! Let's get this boulder out! Tuesday, March 31 View Page WOW! This mini excavator is a TANK. 1 shot and this thing is lifted up Tuesday, March 31 View Page Goodbye! Tuesday, March 31 View Page Not bad! The grass was pushed down a few inches so I filled in with dirt and planted grass seed. Should look back to normal in a few weeks! Tuesday, March 31 View Page That's a lot of clay! I'm removing the most I can from the 3 foot hole. Will fill back in with loam and pro mix. This is where the 2731 stelts will be going! Those roots will have a big advantage compared to the other hoop. Deep hole with loose soil!