Things to remember

For those of us who live with four seasons with winter being the longest, there is an interesting phenomenon that happens each year. At the end of the growing season your mind is focused on all of the things that didn't go as planned and more importantly, a list of items to improve for the coming season. Then, we have winter. Four or five or six months of winter, depending on how you want to measure it. And when spring finally arrives, you're so excited to finally get started that you have forgotten all of the things that you were going to fix.

So, here's a list for giant pumpkin freaks like me. And, if you're just into gardening I'll bet you can find parallels in what you do.

Number one, you WILL have a double-vining freak plant. If you have five or more plants, you could have two. Plan for it by double planting each site, and leaving enough space between the two plants so that each can get to the vining stage before needing to cull one of them.

Number two, you WILL have cold weather and wind challenges! Hoophouses are essential in southeast Idaho. It's impossible to be competitive without them. Consider also, if your local area is like mine, you need a hoophouse and also a fortress around it built from wood pallets to slow the wind around the HH.

Three, get in the habit of checking the weather closely each evening. Whatever they say the temp will be, subtract X to be pessimistic. For me near Pocatello, I subtract 7 from whatever number they say. So if they say the low will be 37, plan on it being 30. It isn't always so extreme, but just one freeze can end your season before it gets going. I don't want to be the only one at the fair this fall. Watch your plants carefully and don't let them freeze!

Having said that, it's amazing how close I came last year to loosing them. One night a few years ago, I woke up at 2am and realized that I had forgot. I went out at 2am and covered, and saved the season.

Well, that's just the quick fundamentals. I'll be back with other tips. Please use this page to post your own in the comment section.