The Mad Gardener of Bowlus

Last year's largest pumpkin weighed in around 137 pounds, which was just about the same size of the year before. This year the biggest one reached 162 pounds! The second largest was 137 pounds and the third largest was 133.8 pounds! I had a total of six pumpkins that weighed in over 100 pounds! Also, it froze early this year so the pumpkins did not do near as much growing as they did the last two years!

Every year I grow large pumpkins! I keep the seeds from the previous years two biggest pumpkins in my attempt to improve the "genetics" and every year I am improving the soil!

Why? Its fun!

Tomorrow I weigh some of the biggest ones! Trust me, they are heavy, I had to roll them onto a sled and drag them!

Not actually the full harvest as I have already been eating squash for the last couple weeks! Also have giving some of it away!

A double rainbow.
Above the gardens did appear.
Twenty twenty a bountiful harvest did bring.
Twenty twenty, a bridge of hope.

Two years ago the soil, that is now the South East garden barely supported weeds. Last year I barely got any produce from this garden even though I had added plenty of organic matter. This year I went all in. Two trailer loads of compost from the city compost and then an additional 3-4 inches of compost that I created and layered on the surface of compost mulch.

Took several days, this spring, to do all of that but barely had to do anything to the garden for the remainder of the summer other than pulling some weeds. Definitely happy with the results!

Looks like the pumpkins will be a nice size and there will be plenty of popcorn for movie nights!

Over the last few weeks I have started two compost piles. I will create an article, probably later in the winter, on more details but my goal is to use the compost as a mulch for weed control. I do not chop up the compost "ingredients" rather I just throw fully intact plants (often weeds), last years hay from the bale gardens, grass clippings, and any other organic matter I can get my hands on. In the initial stages I go for more greens than what are required as my goal is to kill as many weed seeds as possible.

Another new project this year is grain sorghum! Looks like I will have a nice crop but I will need to figure out how to best harvest, clean, and dry it. Then it will be time to grind into flour! Time to learn how to cook with another gluten free grain!

Looks like I will have plenty of sugar beets! First time I have ever grown them and also first time I will be making my own sugar! Will be a few weeks but rest assured I will be sharing!