Click on a thumbnail picture below to see the full size version. 58 Entries. Friday, May 8 View Page Flatnorm knows there is a 25 pound matter hiding in there somewhere.   Sunday, May 17 View Page After 9 days they don't look much different especially when you put them in bigger pots. These are the first 6 of 8 with the other 2 still to small.   Monday, June 1 View Page 2 weeks later and we have 6 real matter plants watered in and off to the races. 2 more are still in pots waiting another week or two before they lose their pots and join the original 6.   Wednesday, June 3 View Page Now what is Flatnorm growing outside his matter greenhouse?   Tuesday, June 9 View Page Whatever it is seems to be growing well.   Tuesday, June 9 View Page Finally all 8 plants are in the ground. Let the fun begin.   Monday, June 15 View Page ...and now it's flowering ?   Tuesday, June 16 View Page Flatnorm has been very quiet this season, not his normal self. Perhaps it’s all this Covid stuff that has him off his game. It was recently discovered that he has been sneaking around at odd hours of the day so we know he is up to something but what. All the secrecy is unusual for him. Finally we caught him on camera all decked out in his finest Covid protection gear but he wouldn’t tell us what he was up to simply get back and stay far away.   Monday, June 22 View Page Whatever they are they are in full bloom now.   Monday, June 22 View Page Hi John.   Monday, June 22 View Page Trimmed off a lot of low hanging growth.   Monday, June 22 View Page We knew Flatnorm was up to something because he has been very secretive of late. The cat is out of the bag...he pollinated a perfect 5 lobe female today but he won't tell anyone the cross only shared this picture......   Monday, June 22 View Page hmmm, for some unknown reason the picture didn't make it, try again   Monday, June 29 View Page looks good but what happened to the flowers   Tuesday, June 30 View Page tomatoes are doing well in the greenhouse.   Tuesday, June 30 View Page Flatnorm had trouble with his camera exposure last week but he has consulted the book and took a picture of his 8 day old pumpkin. Looks like the pollination took and she is starting to swell. Needless to say Flatnorm is really excited about this one. He has never had a pumpkin set out as far as this one at 22 feet and take off so well. Big plant to push with.   Monday, July 6 View Page Another week and Flatnorm is worried about these plants. Seems they have stopped flowering but looking pale/yellow and leggy. Some are starting to get tall and fall over. Is a crop failure eminent?   Monday, July 6 View Page Flatnorm spent a lot of time this week inspecting his plants looking to learn what is wrong. In spite of the plants looking so bad a few have produced these little 'fruit' ? Not every plant has them and the ones that do don't have many. A lot of time and energy was invested in these plants for a mere handful of unknown fruit.   Monday, July 6 View Page We know everyone is holing their breath waiting to see a good picture of Flatnorms pumpkin. He tells me it growing like gangbusters. Doesn't have an explanation for why its doing so well, better than anything he has grown before. Unfortunately he spent so much time with the 'sick' plants that he didn't have time to take pumpkin pictures for the diary.   Monday, July 13 View Page The pig in Flatnorm's garden has been looking at these plants for weeks and they don't seem to look any better this week.   Monday, July 13 View Page Inside his greenhouse is a very different story. While the pictures from week to week don't look much different , closer inspection shows another story.   Monday, July 13 View Page small green orbs are starting to appear everywhere.   Monday, July 13 View Page Flatnorm is delighted to find these among the leaves   Monday, July 13 View Page Obviously Flatnorm still needs to work on his photography skills so the colors look better   Monday, July 13 View Page each has it's own character   Monday, July 13 View Page some are not as easy to spot   Monday, July 13 View Page almost missed this one looking into the sun   Monday, July 13 View Page Flatnorm sends his apologies this week for not having a pumpkin picture. He was so excited about the tiny green orbs that he forgot to take a pumpkin picture. He did say its growing well and is better than 20% above the curve. Best he has ever grown this way.   Wednesday, July 15 View Page First Loser.....   Monday, July 20 View Page Flatnorm checked off another one today....   Tuesday, July 21 View Page Pig is trying to find a bit of shade among the dying plants   Monday, July 27 View Page To hot for anything to grow well so there is no shade for pig to find some among his dying plants. Flatnorms pumpkin is ripping in this heat, seems to like now that all the vines are terminated.   Monday, July 27 View Page just another cull.....   Monday, August 3 View Page Pig has raised his white flag, everything in his garden is dead for sure except for the weeds. He has decided to take some time off before cleaning his garden and starting preparations for next year which has to be better than this one.   Monday, August 3 View Page On a brighter note it looks like pig will be eating a big tomato tomorrow. It to has run it's course.   Tuesday, August 4 View Page The greenhouse doesn't have a good track record in high winds so this one came off for the scale. 2 pounds 5.4 oz isn't much to talk about but it's better than gone with the wind.   Sunday, August 9 View Page ...gone with the wind is an understatement. The greenhouse cover didn't survive in spite of all the pre-storm preparations. The frame is held in place by several hurricane rated building anchors, lol As you can see it is pulled apart in places and much of the tubing is bent. Will not be going back up this year and maybe not next.   Sunday, August 9 View Page The plants used to be as tall as the poles   Sunday, August 9 View Page I'd say that one like all the others is a little bent over   Sunday, August 9 View Page After the storm Pig was tired of looking at all his dead plants and destroyed greenhouse so he decided to pull everything out.   Sunday, August 9 View Page Surprise ! Pig discovered buried treasure. This is a nice ending to what looked like a disappointing season for Pig.   Sunday, August 9 View Page Pig learned there were 2 types of treasure. These were a round medium size and as you can see 3 pounds hiding under this plant.   Sunday, August 9 View Page This type had fewer but they are longer and bigger and still about 3 pounds. Pig can already taste this feast. All in all there are 94 pounds of yummy tatters, not to bad for watching plants die.   Friday, August 14 View Page This is Flatnorms 1.35 pound not so giant matter grown on the Lambchop 5.71 For the record his 2 pound 5.4 oz matter above is 2.34 pounds and was grown on the 6.55 Porkchop   Friday, August 14 View Page Next up id Flatnorms 1.5 pound tomato grown on the Pockchop 5.29   Monday, August 17 View Page Last for this round in Flatnorm's 1.781 pound big matter again grown on the 5.29 Porkchop. Lucky for Flatnorm there are still a few to be weighed so there is hope........but not much after all the disasters this year.   Thursday, August 20 View Page Flatnorm puts another one on the scale. 2 pounds and six tenths of an oz this time but he says he has bigger ones waiting their turn.   Tuesday, August 25 View Page Even Flatnorm has friends he can count on. So while Flatnorm was away his ex-pumpkin watcher and neighbor took care of the giant matters for him. This 2.44 pound specimen was grown on the 9.65 porkchop and measured 18 1/8 inch around.   Thursday, August 27 View Page 2 days later and there were more matters to weigh. This one warmed the scale at only 1.12 pounds. It was 13 5/8 inches around and grown on a 5.29   Thursday, August 27 View Page Thursday was a busy day for matters in the Flatnorm garden. Jack (the previously mentioned neighbor)got to weigh the biggest matter of the season from Flatnorm's garden. This one tipped the scale at 3.16 pounds and measured 22 1/4 inches around. Looks like the 5.71 lambchop is going to out do porkchop plants here.   Friday, August 28 View Page Friday brings yet another matter to the scale(Jack has been busy). Not much to talk about but every matter counts as does this 1.54 pound specimen grown on the 5.29 porkchop. For those who may be interested in such things it was 16 1/8 inches around.   Tuesday, September 1 View Page Flatnorm is back to tending for his own plants. 1.31 pounds is a let down from the bigger ones he missed while away. This one was grown on the 9.65 porkchop....will make a nice lunch   Tuesday, September 1 View Page Perhaps Flatnorm needs another road trip. Seems to be stuck on the same weight so here is another 1.31 matter. This one was on the 5.29 porkchop. (Can't eat them both for lunch)   Friday, September 18 View Page So all of Flatnorms plants are done for the season and he needed something else to keep himself busy. After considerable thought he concluded that a rock hunt would be fun. 'Lets see if we can find some rocks!' With that as a goal he set off on his task and dug up a large patch of lawn. He examined every square inch.   Friday, September 18 View Page After all his efforts he was he was pleasantly rewarded with this huge trove of buried treasure. He is so lucky to find this many. Who would have expected they had been hiding there all this time !   Friday, September 25 View Page After Flatnorm got the rock field reseeded some critter thought it would tunnel in there and see if it could find any missing rocks. Flatnorm's do not tunnel here sign mus have been missed by it but the body crushing trap didn't miss. This was the first of 2 critters. The other one didn't fair to well either and now everyone is happy in the rock field.   Saturday, October 17 View Page Finally one month after searching for rocks the pie maker is happy to see grass again.   Saturday, November 14 View Page Time flies