I started growing pumpkins when the Rose and Crown pub at Old Romney gave me a pumpkin to grow for their heaviest pumpkin competition. I won with one weighing nearly a hundred pounds. The Rose and Crown stopped having a competition when it came under new ownership.
The Green Owl at Camber also had a pumpkin competition which I entered . To my surprise I won that as well with a pumpkin weighing one hundred and ten pounds. Carl Bagwell the then Rye Harbour master came a close second with one weighing just on a hundred pounds. For many years there was rivalry between us with one of us growing the heaviest pumpkin but one year we both lost to Shoey Bennett.
For the last three years my pumpkins have been on sale at Salts farm shop at East Guldeford. This year although the yield has been down, the ones that have grown have been bigger than most years. When growing them I let nature take its course. This year I grew four different varieties of pumpkins, Atlantic Giant, Racer, Charmant and Mammoth.
Some growers put lot of time and effort in trying to grow giant pumpkins. Twins Stuart and Ian Paton from Pennington, Hants have this year set a British record with one weighing 161stone ( 2,554lbs) being 4ft tall and 18ft around they gave it 100 gallons of water a day.
Photos: Dennis Leeds-George
