We began our pumpkin growing adventure in March, 2001. We thought we would just get some giant pumpkin seed, plant them in our vegetable garden, and off we would go. Well, there is a lot more to growing competitive giant pumpkins than that. We had a great time growing, displaying, and competing in a pumpkin festival with 'Earl', the 193 pound giant we grew this (our first) year. We can't wait until next year!
Here we are with 'Earl' at the 10th Annual Great Pumpkin Festival in Allardt, TN.
The winning pumpkin at the festival weighed 566 pounds. Earl wasn't close to first, but he wasn't last either!
I first became interested in growing giant pumpkins after watching a special on the Travel Channel about the Barnesville Ohio pumpkin festival. The project started with just my dad and I growing the gentle giants, but by the end of the summer, all of our talk about pumpkins had the rest of our family hooked.
