This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Who's Out There

Hello everyone!

My name is Janis Schole and I live on a farm near Busby, Alberta, Canada.
This is about an hour's drive northwest of Edmonton. My husband and I
operate a 115 head beef cow herd and I am a freelance writer, doing features
on interesting people but specializing in agricultural stories. We have
three children, ages 4, 3, and 9 months.

I came across the various Giant Pumpkin websites while surfing the net and
decided it would be fun to try growing a big one, especially since this past
Halloween was the first year my kids really "got into" it. We carved the
three "ordinary" pumpkins I had grown in my garden and it was really
satisfying to see how much they enjoyed the whole process of growing, and
then making the finished product with them. Besides, if I could grow a
"pretty big one," it would be fun to show it off to our friends and
relatives! I don't know how much time and effort I will be able to devote to
being a "serious" grower with intentions of trying to reach a competitive
weight, but I'm going to play it by ear for now. It's great to learn what
everyone else is doing on this mailing list so I can try to avoid too many
mistakes.

I've been on the mailing list for just over a month and received my Atlantic
Giant 500 - 700 pound seeds in the mail just a few days ago. Since I don't
want to devote most or all of my garden patch to pumpkins, I'd be interested
in knowing more about how it works to let the vines spread out onto the lawn
(as some people have recently mentioned they do). How can you keep your
grass cut this way (can you move them out of the way and then back again?),
and does the vine's laying on the grass instead of the dirt hurt the
pumpkin's growth in any way?

Next year, I will probably have a much bigger garden area, so I hope to have
a lot more freedom with this pumpkin-growing-thing. I haven't even planted
this year's seeds yet and I'm already thinking about next year -- does that
mean I've got "the sickness?"

Anyway, good luck to everyone and thanks for all your input!

Janis

P.S. I only know of one other person in Alberta who grows giant pumpkins (in
southern Alberta at Medicine Hat) and would really be interested in finding
out if there is anyone else on this mailing list from my province. I know
there is a weigh-off at Smokey Lake (and that is only about 1.5 hours from
me) but I don't know of any growers in my region.

P.P.S. Note to Jim Kunde: Sorry I've copied your cute signature "guy" at the
bottom of your e-mails. I thought it was quite original, which I am not for
stealing it. Actually, I would rather have an animal or some farm-type
picture, but have not had time to try to design my own (plus I don't know if
I would have any success.) I saw someone else on this list had a motorcycle,
so obviously there are some pretty creative people out there. Do any of you
know how to do the kind of pictures I'm after, or where I could find out how
(eg. book of patterns or something)? Thanks!
                                                        /'^'\
                                                       ( o o )
-----------------------FROM:----------------------oOOOO--(_)--o0000---------
JANIS SCHOLE
Freelance Writer/Photographer

jschole@west-teq.net                              .ooo0
                                                  (   )     0ooo.
                                                   \ (      (   )
----------------------------------------------------\_)------) /------------
                                                            (_/
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index