Giant Pumpkin About To Take Over The Neighborhood!

[Alan Lee]

My grand daughter sent away for some special giant pumpkin seeds and asked if she could plant them in my garden. Can never refuse that sweet smiling face and besides I had a 10' X 15' area I wasn't planning on using so I added some composted manure and planted em. Yeah that wasn't enough room. Can I pinch this thing back? There are already 3 pumpkins about the size of beach balls so we don't need any more. Any help on the care, feeding and restraining of giant pumpkins would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.

~Al~

[The Helpful Gardener]

Beach balls? What are you doing wrong Al? I talked to a fellah up in Maine this past year that hollowed out a Russian Giant and put an outboard on it...

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UB2MSisjnmU]You think I'm kiddin...[/url] We interviewed the winner of this race on the radio show this past winter...

Now we New Englandahs know all about the best punkins, and we know the wuld champs are all from around heah. We also know that the secret fa every wuld champ punkin is awganics. All the contendahs around here use the same stuff, [url=https://www.neptunesharvest.com/testimonials.html]Neptune's Hahvest[/url], just like the Helpful Gahdnah uses in his gahden. That Joe Jutras fella is from right ovah the bawdah from me, in Vrode Island (that's how they say it theah, they talk kinda funny).

[url=https://www.bigpumpkins.com/]Heah's a site[/url] for folks as likes to grow big punkins. See what they tell yah. Might not tell yah much; some of 'em is tight lipped about that stuff.

But the awganics is a sure bet... and prune 'em now... befoah they eat yah backyahd... eyuh....

HG

[rainbowgardener]

I think HG meant yes, cut them back . And they are "only" beach ball sized, because you have months left in the season. The people who are really in to growing record breaking pumpkins only leave ONE on the vine, so all the energy from that whole huge vine goes into making ONE (gigantic) pumpkin.

[kgall]

OK HG...I was born in CT and have resided mostly in NH...Not all of us sound like that! Mainers.....Yes, Eastern Mass...Yes, and Ri...yes. Give the rest of us a break!

[The Helpful Gardener]

I know I am perpetuating stereotypes, but it's good for the tourist industry...

And the folks from Damariscotta shuah do sound like that!

HG

[kgall]

Yes, yes they do.
My sister and I went on a road trip and were asked by many people where we were from...A shocking number of people have NO clue where NH is...We would have to then tell them we were from New England. They would look at us like we didn't know what we were talking about and would say...You don't sound like it. Towards the end of the trip we decided we would do fake accents. Our Mom was from Maine so it wasn't too far a stretch...People knew just hearing us talk that we were from Boston. Ha!

[The Helpful Gardener]

Yeah, Connecticut is that same thing, so homogenized that people can't tell. Someone in Californa once told me they knew I was from the East Coast, but they couldn't tell where. When I asked how they knew I was East coast, they said "You talk fast."

Guess they've nevah been way down east in Maine...

Eyuh...

HG

[Alan Lee]

Holey Moley! Who knew they could get that big! I think she wants a large jack-o-lantern not a play house. What would you carve one of those things with? A chainsaw?

Thanks guys. Gonna go tame the monster. BTW HG Loved the dialect. Do you do others?

~Al~

[The Helpful Gardener]

Vocally I can do a lot, but it is hard to get it right spelling phonetically.

Like T'Chicago. How do you kapcher that clippt thing they do wit with wordz?

And a real Suthron drawl, wellll, do yu just stahht adding lettahhs to distinguish it from the Maine drawl? And how to split Lowland Chaahlstun/ Savannah from Tarheel Highlands or Bayou Cajun? Too many nuances for twenty six letters, and I am not versed enough in local dialects to have parlance that confirms regionality... but I am a reasonably gifted mimic, give me a little while and I will pick it apart, and am often able to suprise folks by guessing where they are from, pretty close. I still can't do the western states; not enough experience to tell Colorado from Wyoming from Idaho, although I bet it's there...

Maine is my favorite, because I've spent some some time there and know some folks, but being an Arcadian by birth (French Canuck) I do love the Cajun twang, I gwarantee...

HG

[kgall]

My ex is a lobstah fishahman, and clammah from down east....(which is North East from here.) Whenever my daughter talks to him on the phone she comes downstairs after talking like she has lived there all her life. It's a riot! I have to remind her that she has lived in NH all her life and should talk like it. It's like flipping a switch with her...I think it's in the blood!

[lorax]

Och, I'm originally frrrom Canada (which does have wee regional accents), but me gran was Scottish. If ye wan' summat muckle hard to type in, trrry Glaswegian brrrogue.

Alan - if you've got cold storeagability (like a root cellar), you can harvest a couple of your giant pumpkins before they get too too big. The largest Atlantic Giant I ever grew was about 500 lbs, and I used a bit of hacksaw blade with duct tape wrapped around it for a handle to carve it.

[sheeshshe]

OK HG...I was born in CT and have resided mostly in NH...Not all of us sound like that! Mainers.....Yes, Eastern Mass...Yes, and Ri...yes. Give the rest of us a break!

eh hem.... I do NOT talk like that. I have no accent at all... born and raised here LOL! now the people today at my family reunion? yes.

[The Helpful Gardener]

No accent at all...I think we all think we have no accent at all...

I was stationed in Chahlston SC as a much yunngah man, and was always awayuh of how polite everyone was. I was in a store checking out and the lady at the registah asked me how I was finden SC, and I told her I liked the people a lot but sometimes had trouble with the accent and just as sweet as tea she asked me, "And whut aggscent would that be, Yangkee?".

Point taken...


HG

[sheeshshe]

haha. well I "think" I sound like the news people on tv, you know the ones that don't have an accent? but to a southerner they prob would find anything other than a southern accent to be an accent right? etc etc etc... so yeah. I guess it all makes sense.

point being, I don't talk like a typical Mainah. its just not my thing LOL!

[kgall]

Of course you don't sound like everyone else in Mains! It's just a stereotype we are perpetuating! As long as you can admit that A LOT of people from Maine talk funny it's OK!
It is certainly a regional thing! My mother was from Bath...They have an accent. My college roommate is from 'the county...eh. I know a bunch of fisherman from Eastport...They almost speak a foreign language they have such a thick accent.
The one commonality....I think there are only 25 letters in their alphabet.

[The Helpful Gardener]

All of us New Englandahs have a habit of dropping owah Ahs; it's just more pronounced in some places, like Skowhegan, or Bahstan... even there the difference between Cambridge and and Southie is noticeable...

HG

[LindsayArthurRTR]

Haha! Oh lowad! I ayam thinkin thayat yoo hayav got thee suhthuhn acceyent dayon. You hayav just got to pronunciate evahree single siluhble iyun the words verah slowlee! Then suh, you hayav gaht it

I hayav nevah knowen anaone to dis liiiike sweeyat teah!

EDIT: That is the way my daddy and grandmother spoke. The docs in the OR have nicknamed me pothole cause I sound exactly like this...

[url]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjMUfIKktWU[/url]

Sooooooooooo... K BYE!

[applestar]

GREAT! My morning has been made very merry!

Just to add -- I HAVE noticed that people talk FASTER as you travel up the coast and SLOWER as you travel down the coast along the Eastern seaboard. Even in tiny NJ. Is it that Manhattan is the nexus -- fastest? -- and verbal tempo radiates out from there?

East coast (sourthern NJ) vs. West coast (Bay Area, CA) is definitely there too. I remember drumming my fingers and biting my tongue when making calls to the West coast office....

BTW, in my Front Yard Fence Row, the Giant Pumpkin is struggling, one plant has bit the dust from all the splitting (not, I think, SVB) but the Bushel Gourd is taking over nearly the ENTIRE row -- we're talking over 30' at this point and still growing.

[LindsayArthurRTR]

I HAVE noticed that people talk FASTER as you travel up the coast and SLOWER as you travel down the coast along the Eastern seaboard.

Hehe! Except in florida! (The southern accent ends in Gahwguh!) They have no accent. Wellll, I mean they don't have a northern or southern accent!

[The Helpful Gardener]

I can offer the exception to the rule; the deepest southern accent I have ever heard was on a a fellah I knew in the Navy... from the Florida Panhandle near the Louisiana border. Nearly another language...

But this doesn't have much to do with pumpkins; sorry about hijacking the thread...

I'm supposed to be stopping stuff like this, not starting it...

HG

[kgall]

I am sorry too...I did egg you on!

[garden5]

Y'all jest simmer down, now, an heve eh look 't [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5b90tspJCo]dis ol' veedio[/url]. Purdy good stuff.

[Alan Lee]

Hey I enjoyed the hijacking! Funny stuff. We got our regional dialects out here in the wild west to. Never really noticed til I worked with a guy who could mimic them. Anyway the beast is tamed for now and I'm reading about the care and feeding of said beast. Man there is sure more to this gardening stuff than I remember. Seems like all I did way back then was plant the seeds, water, pull a few weeds and enjoy the harvest. Course I'm enjoying every minute of it and am actually kinda worried about what happens to me when the season ends? Will I have withdrawal symptoms?

~Al~

[applestar]

Nah! Do what I did last year -- and you live in the right area for it -- take up indoor (and outdoor in your case) mushroom growing until the end of the year and a little beyond, then after the new years, seed catalogs will start pouring in, and you'll be pouring over them planning your spring garden. Pretty soon, it'll be time to start some seeds like tomatoes and peppers.

Mushroom growing thread I posted last year:
https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20130

You could also start vermicomposting -- keeping worms indoors and feed them kitchen scraps -- through the winter months. That'll keep you in touch with the soil.

Also, consider planting fall crops and winter crops. Here's a thread about that which you might find interesting: https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=27513

[kgall]

What happens to gardeners when the season is over? Well I know that I turn into kind of a nut. I collect all of the catalogs I can, read all kinds of gardening books and spend the whole winter planning the next years garden...over and over and over. Then I order seeds and then before I know it it's time to start seeds indoors!
My husband thinks I am crazy! So I sleep with my gardening catalogs..I am sure I am not the only one!