Pump it up!

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Since seeing my first radishes emerge from the ground a few weeks ago, I have started to become obsessed with growing round, globular vegetables that swell to enormous proportions. Today I came across a picture of a giant pumpkin growing contest in the States. It looked amazing! Pumpkins are a lovely shape anyway (especially some of the more knobbly ‘heirloom’ varieties which are not necessarily meant for eating), and to see a pumpkin on such a humungous scale was almost too much to take. To think that all it takes is to put one small seed into the ground, water it, and 130 days later you could end up with such a giant! And the lovely gnarled and twisted foliage just finished the pumpkin king off so beautifully.

I want one! But I live in Scotland – where the sun shines on average for ten days during the summer, and gales are not unheard of. And pumpkins – especially giant ones I’ve read – like their summers hot and scorching, with plenty of watering. Maybe I’m being too pessimistic about the Scottish weather. We have had some nice days recently, and the garden has responded with vigorous growth. And to be sure, I would be happy with a 100 ib pumpkin (happy? – Exstatic!), so 1/7th of what the King of giant pumpkins Howard Dill can achieve in the US (which is about 7 times hotter than Scotland in the summer). Maybe I’m in with a good chance after all. Might leave it till the year after next though. Once I have decided on the general layout of the garden a bit more, I will know exactly where I could fit my 100ib giant cucurbit in comfortably. Watch this space – maybe I’ll even initiate the first Scottish Giant Pumpkin Growing Festival. Anyone else for Autumn 2011?

• 14 Jun, 2009
• 6 likes

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