summer and winter pics

Here are some photos of the garden in the summer and now in the winter. Hard to believe..

garden in summer 09

winter-Ugh!

titans in the winter garden 2010

Ah! Looking at those previous pictures of some of my garden last year lifts my spirits as the reality is that we are in the dead of winter. It does a soul good to see such big and beautiful plants-reminds me of what is to come this year! Here is the same picture of what’s left of the titan sunflowers (top pic) in the garden and the bottom pic is of the whole garden as of today!

Chinese red noodle beans

Here’s a picture of my Chinese red noodle beans that took first place at the New Mexico State Fair last year in 2009. They got to about 18″ long. They were a really beautiful purple color and were tasty too! I plan on growing some kind of longbean this year because they are so fun to watch but not sure of which variety.

striped german tomatoes

Striped German TomatoHere is a picture from August 17th of last year of one of my giant tomatoes-an unriped Striped German tomato that was approximately 18″ circumference and weighed 2.5 lbs at this stage. It got to 3 lbs-but way before the State Fair here in New Mexico so we had to eat it! I did take first place for largest tomato at the NM State Fair but it was only 2.5 lbs at its ripest.

titan sunflowers

I just realize it looks like from the photos so far that I only grow giant pumpkins so I want to show you some titan sunflowers which got 10 feet tall last year. Really beautiful. Can’t wait to grow them again this year. The birds love them too. I call them the guardian angels of the garden.

titan sunflower

guardian angels of the garden

Snow!

The gardens are under 8″ of new snow since I last wrote. It hasn’t melted yet and another storm is on the way. Ugh! I was done with winter even before winter solstice happened. Cold wet winter so far. Wet is good but being so cold gets to me. So for now I am getting ready for the next season by making a new garden shed out of my tack room in the barn, building storage shelves in it, ordering seeds, and dreaming of spring! I still must put in a second door in the shed so I have two entrances from both the new pumpkin patch and the regular veggie garden as they are on opposite sides of the barn. That way I can access the shed easily from either garden. The new pumpkin patch which will reside in my old corral, will be named ‘Bri’s Pumpkin Patch’ in honor of my horse that passed to the other side in October. A wonderful horse lost way too early in her life. A loss to all..

2010 Giant Pumpkin and Giant Veggies List

Here is a list of Giant Pumpkins and Giant veggies I am thinking of growing.

2010 GIANT PUMPKINS & VEGGIE LIST

2010 GIANT PUMPKINS

895 Grande (1016 Daletas x 1385 Jutras)

1166 Mohr (1385 Jutras x 1055 Jutras)

949 Harp (1689 Jutras 06)

1184 Barker (1631.5 McKie x 1689 Jutras)

GIANT MARROW

206.5 Wursten 09

75.4 Wursten 09

GIANT TOMATOES

7.18 N. Harp 09n (5.58 Timm x open)

5.416 N, Harp 09(5.58 Harp x open)

Big Zac (fr Totally Tomato)

Church

GIANT SUNFLOWERS

Titans

2010 veggie list

Here is my list of veggies I will grow this year for food.

2010 VEGGIE LIST

BEANS-Rattlesnake and Tavera

PEPPER-Shishito

SUMMER SQUASH-ZUCCHINI-Costata Romanesco and Lungo Bianco

SUMMER SQUASH-SCALLOPED-Yellow Custard and Bennings Green Tint

WINTER SQUASH-Marina di Chioggia and Galeux d’Eyesines

EGGPLANT-Little Fairys

CUCUMBERS-Parisian, Boothsby Blonde, Poona Kera, and Parade

CORN-not sure of variety yet

LETTUCES-FR COOK’S GARDEN-Provencal Mix, Mesclun Mix, Buttercrunch, Yugoslavian Red, Santoro Lettuce, and Little Gem

SPINACH-FR COOK’S GARDEN-Indian Summer and Double Choice

CARROTS-FR COOK’S GARDEN-Kaleidoscope (mix of red, purple, orange and yellow)

BROCOLLI-Brocolli Romanesco

ARUGULA-Apollo

BOK CHOY-Extra Dwarf Pak Choy

CHARD-5 Color Silverbeet

PEAS-DWARF SUGAR, OREGON SPRING II

Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers (RMGVG)

I am rejoining Rocky Mountain Giant Vegetable Growers (RMGVG) today. They are an organization that promotes growing giant veggies especially giant pumpkins and squash. If you join in the beginning of the year, they will send you a bunch of giant pumpkin seeds from their growers. They are located in Colorado. For those of us who want to try to grow giant pumpkins, they are the only group in the Southwest that have official weigh-offs at the end of the year that are part of the GPC (Great Pumpkin Commonwealth). The GPC is a worldwide organization for giant pumpkin growers. If you want to get in the official world record books you must go to a GPC sanctioned weigh-off.

2010 tomato list

Here is my list of tomatoes I want to grow this year. I grow tomatoes for either excellent flavor, or gourmet or for size (competition). I try to pick some new ones I haven’t tried.

2010 TOMATOES

HEIRLOOMS

San Marzano-red plum/80 days/AFN

Striped German-bicolor-SFGH

Black Cherry-black/75 days-AFN

Paul Robeson-black/75-85 days-AFN

Cherokee Purple/80 days-AFN

Cherokee Chocolate/80 days-AFN

Prudens Purple-purple/70 days-BH,TOMFEST

Black Krim-black-69 daysAFN

Pantano Romanesco-red/70-80 days-BH,TOMFEST

Great White/80-85 days-BH,TOMGROWERS

Costoluto Genovese-red/78 daysTOMGROWERS

Goldsman Italian American-red-BH

Aunt Ruby’s German Green-85 days-BH

Gold Medal-bicolor-75-80 days-BH

HYBRIDS

Lemon Boy-AFN

Park’s Beefy Boy-red-70 days-AFB

Big Beef-red/73 days-TOT TOMATO

Bella Rosa-red/75 days-TOT TOMATO

COMPETITION (biggest)

Big Zac-red/80 days-TOT TOMATO/AFN

Church-red/85 days-TOMFEST

Timms-red/80 days-dif growers

Getting beds ready

I started getting the beds ready in the fall by adding some amendments but couldn’t get to all of them because of the weather changing to snow. So yesterday as the weather was beautiful-50 degrees and the ground wasn’t frozen,  In my future giant pumpkin patch particulary where I will put the plants, I mixed up some compost, mushroom compost (small amount), horse manure (somewhat composted), Winterizer Yum Yum Mix, and pelleted gypsum which helps break up the soil and adds calcium which pumpkins so love and need. I still need to put some composted horse manure all over the patch but that will be another day.

Hello fellow gardeners!

Welcome to a new year and to my first blog on growing vegetables and particularly giant vegetables! I wish to share with you what I have learned during my attempts and trials of growing many veggies through 25 years and to share this year’s season as it unfolds.

First I am an organic grower. So I will be sharing my knowledge from that point of view. I don’t believe in spraying for bugs with poisons or fertilizing with chemicals that kill the soil. I don’t believe in GMO seeds and try to grow heirloom varieties as much as possible but do also grow some hybrids.

So enuf! Let’s get down to talking about growing stuff! What can you or I do in winter? Prepare for the next season! Get catalogs, order seeds, prepare the soil just to name a few things. So far I went on line and got my catalogs. Ah, they feed my soul while it is cold and snowing outside. I love going over them by the fireplace, dreaming of what I might try to grow this year…