My Giant Record Breaking Giant Pumpkin Growing Attempt.

This year, for a change I'm going to have a go at growing a Giant Pumpkin.  

I have tried before but only managed to grow a couple just over 125 pounds in weight : pictured above.

So this year's target is to grow a 200+ pounder.

I've kindly been given some seed from a 250 lb + specemin grown by Smithyveg (middle photo) which Itself was grown from seed taken from the previous European Record holding Pumpkin which was well over 1000 lb !!

So the seed should have the desired "Giant Gene" , we'll just have to see how they go.

Nov 30th.

Well,It all starts here.

First of all I have to create my Pumpkin Patch bytransforming part ouf our grazing field into decent growing soil.

Me thinks this is going to be hard work !!!.

First I decided to make the plot about 60'x25' so I'll have around 1500 sq ft of area.

Then the hard work of hammering in 20 fence posts with a 30lb rubber post hammer.

I'll fence it off using stock fence and chichen wire to keep both the sheep and rabbits out after I've finished digging it all over.

Next is the really tough job of double digging the whole area by hand in time for the Winter weather to hopefully break it down later.

Dec 2nd

Well,as there was a decent weather window I decided to skive off work and get to grips with the digging.

First was to dig out a row of sods and remove, and then dig the soil underneath and remove some.

Then on all the following rows,dig the sods and turn upside down on top of the previously dug trench,then dig a bit of further soil from the trench and chuck this on top of the upturned sods.

But don't go too deep,notinto the subsoil layer.

Then when you get to the end put the 1st sods into the final trench.

Hard work but worth it.

On and on.Finally the 1st one done.I decided to make 2 separate beds rather than 1 big plot.

Thats the 2nd one done,so I now have 2: 35ftx6ft beds.

This kind of digging is my variation of Double digging or what used to be called "Bastard Trenching" for good reason !!

Jan 27th.

Well,now that all the snow's gone I decided it was time to finally finish off the patch.

The 1st thing to do was to erect the sheep fence,I tied a winch to my van to get it as tight as possible.

So that's done,now to put down the weed suppressing fabric.

And then to fix the wind break netting and chicken wire to keep out the rabbits.

And finally to construct the raised beds from treated timber,

So there it is,ready to go,rabbit proof,sheep proof and weed proof.

Cost me an absolute fortune but at least I've now got an extra 2  35x6 ft beds to go at.

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That's it for this week folks........ Don't forget to have a click or two below.

It's what keeps the site going.

Thanks a lot.

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