Winter sucks, there is no denying that not being out in the sun is a bummer. And waiting for the growing season to start here in NZ and the Southern Hemisphere can sometimes feel like ages.
But the Northern Hemisphere growers are growing, their season is happening RIGHT NOW.
Find out what they are up to
From new growers to the seasoned pros, following along with what is happening during their season can be one of the most beneficial things you can be doing right now.
From finding out what seeds are growing well, to new techniques or just answers to questions you never knew you needed the answer to, keeping an eye on all the growing action makes a lot of sense.
But how do you do it?
If you’ve been hanging around here for any period of time, or are subscribed to The Pumpkin Post this will be old news, but for new growers, there is a website you really should check out.
BigPumpkins.Com
I mention this website so much I really should be getting some kind of commission from Ken who runs it, but the reason I mention it a lot is because it is the number 1 one website that giant pumpkin growers from all around the world go and check out.
The heart of the website is the message board, it’s broken down into different categories and there is even on for growers in NZ. It’s an old-school type of message board with the website being in existence since 1999 and not really changing at all.
Creating a login for the site is free and I recommend it when you check out the message board it will tell you if there is something new since you last visited, but it won’t let you know if someone has replied to you, no threaded conversations, and no formatting just plain text. It pays to check in at least once a day if you can, new messages and replies can build up really fast and if you leave it too long you might miss out on something useful.
How to keep track of interesting topics?
It’s taken me a while to work out a system that works best for me, I’ve tried all sorts of different ways to keep track of interesting info over the years and the best way I’ve found is one of the simplest.
I have a Word document, in it, I create headings for each message board post I want to be able to look back at later, either for information or to see if there have been replies made to it. I then post the link to the message board post underneath. I also created an index page at the top of the document. If your keen on utilising this, but aren’t
Don’t forget about chat
Once you have your login sorted, you can check out the chat room, people are in there at different times so you might see lots of people or not many at all. This is a great way to talk to other growers from around the world, either about pumpkins or just to say hi. This is also the place a lot of seed auctions are held every year, so getting familiar with how this chat room works now will help later on.
In Conclusion
If your wanting to step up your pumpkin game, get more knowledge and see what other growers are up to then check out BigPumpkins.com
Feel free to say hi, my name on there is Giant Pumpkins NZ.
