Review My Pumpkin Notes

In the last blog post I was talked about reviewing what I had on hand.

In this blog post I am talking about reviewing the notes I / you took last year during the growing season so I can work out by seed starting plan, which I lay out below.

Lets get into it.

Take Notes

This is your friendly reminder. Take notes.

If you are new to giant pumpkin growing make sure you take notes during the growing season.

Here’s some things you could take note of:

• Seed starting dates
• Products you used
• Dates of milestones
• Estimated weights during the season
• Where you got products from
• Notes on what could of made your season easier or better

Whenever you need to refer to these notes, you will be glad you have them guaranteed.

So no matter if you grow the following season, or have a break and get back into growing giant pumpkins at a later stage these notes will be super useful.

They can also be handy when talking to other growers. Especially ones nearby as you can compare what you did. Don’t rely on your memory. Take notes.

Use the Note Taking Option that Works for You

There’s physical note taking or taking notes digitally. Here’s some different options:

• Notepad / book / diary
• Scraps of paper
• Spreadsheet
• Text document
• Some other document type system

They all have positives and negatives going for them. Just make sure to use the method you prefer. Keep your notes where you can find them again.

Use what works for you. Remember that physical notes can easily be turned digital by taking a photo of them. This gives you a second option to store and back them up.

If you want a good starting point for taking physical notes, grab a free copy of my growing season sheet here.

My Note Taking Process

Over the years I’ve varied from being really good at taking notes, to being really crap at taking them.

I wish I was the former more often. But here we are.

The Website

Part of the reason of building the website was to help me document what I’ve been doing to both share knowledge and to create a record for me to look back on in the future.

This worked great. If I posted blog posts.

With other things popping up over the years, it wasn’t always the easiest thing to create a post. It can be time consuming, and might not be capturing all the information and data I would like.

Physical Notes

I find these work really well when I need to write something down in the pumpkin patch. Usually this is measurement information of the pumpkin which I can then put into the pumpkin weight calculator.

I have also used my own season tracking sheet.

Sometimes I might misplace the paper and have to write on something else. Other times it might get wet and be of no use.

To combat this I got me some waterproof notebooks. These are small, handy and pretty indestructible. I use these for my measurements.

Digital Notes

These too have gone through different iterations.

First off I used a couple of online tools to record notes. They worked ok, but I always worried about losing my data.

From there I spent way too many hours setting up a fancy spreadsheet. This sheet was supposed to be used for everything. From blog post planning, to recording data and notes, it just didn’t work out like I thought it would.

Even though it looked amazing, there was just enough friction for me not to use it fully.

Finally I found something I liked to use. In fact I use it for any notes for any project or anything to do with my life.

It’s called Obsidian.

It’s a private and flexible notetaking app. It works really well and here’s the main reasons I use it.

• All the files are stored as Markdown files which are basically text files on my computer and can be opened with any notepad tools if needed. Great for future proofing.
• There are a lot of plugins to make it work how you want it to and themes to make it look how you’d like.
• It syncs with my mobile instantly. I can update and access my notes anytime. In fact I’m writing this bit right now in bed. (I pay a yearly fee for this, I don’t like paying subscriptions, but I do for this)
• I can easily add photos or PDFs if I need

It does a bunch more things, but you get the idea.

This is what works for me.

Last Years Notes

The biggest benefit I find from comparing notes is working out when I should start my seeds this season.

Did last years dates and backup plan work well? Or could I tweak things?

How did things grow and was my transplanting plan too early or too late when it comes to the weather?

Looking at what I had. I started on the 12th of October, plus backups shortly after that. I think that worked well and I am going to repeat that timeline this year.

The 2025 Season Seed Starting Plan

When it comes to seed starting this is my plan:

• 12th-13th Oct – I am going to prep the Tiny Patch 2.0 some more. Dig up part of it and add in the mushroom compost and the insect frass. This is a bit later than I would have liked, but this is the plan.
• 12th Oct – I am going to start 2 of the giant pumpkin seeds.
• 17th Oct – Start 2 more backup seeds
• 22nd Oct – Assess if I need more back up seeds started

Last season looking at my notes I staggered the backups with 3 days gaps. I’m going to increase that to 5. I think that will be OK.

I’m also going to be using bigger pots. I think the seedling needed to stay in the pot a bit longer, while also allowing for any delays in bad weather.

Couple of things to note:

I need to do better at mentioning the exact seed in my note so I can track which one went where or what failed.

The other thing I need to be mindful of is if I plant too early then the plant could be stunted with cold weather. So I need to plant out a bit later and or have really good early protection.

I don’t really track the weather conditions or temps and I really should.

Wrap Up

In conclusion taking notes in a way that works for you is important. It can help you any other time you decide to grow.

Make a habit of it during your growing season. A few seconds noting something down in the moment can really help out later when you are trying to rely on your memory.

How do you like to take notes? Do you review them? Let me know by leaving a comment below.