h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I seem to have rather overdone it with the Pumpkins.

Earlier this year I thought that I'd try to grow something different in the way of vegetables. One of the choices was the giant Pumpkin. Having never tried that type of veggie before and that I use a lot of rather expensive Pumpkin seeds in breadmaking, it seemed a good choice.

I originally planted ten seeds in individual pots, of which seven germinated. I discarded the two weakest looking ones and in June planted out two in the back garden veggie plot and the other three at the allotment, with the intention of culling the weakest to leave one plant at each location.

In July and August I stood back in amazement as all five plants went ballistic covering yards of ground with giant leaves and tendrils. In the back garden the two plants had soon taken over almost the complete veggie plot. But I didn’t have the heart to choose between them as they both headed for the lawn. Eventually though it was either them or me, so one had to go. I reprieved the one with the largest fruit nearest the root and regretfully upped the other. Back at the allotment all three were heading for the neighbouring plot, so I pulled out the shortest one and trained the other two around in a square. Eventually I had to cut off one after the first fruit but let the other go where it may.

The upshot of all this is that now I have six giant Pumpkins. The largest (from the allotment) weighs in at 34 lbs while four, of various sizes, came from the other allotment plant. The second largest, weighing 31lbs comes from the home patch.

I’ve just hollowed the largest one out for the front doorstep (Trick or Treat night tonight) and have just found that the seeds are also ’giant’ and unusable for breadmaking, so I now need to find some recipes for about 50lbs of Pumpkin flesh.


http://www.flickr.com/photos/63531735@N05/10594303486/
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Bloody hell Were you feeding them Pro-Plus?

Nah... Just like Topsy, it just growed and growed. All by itself