Another Pumpkin Update

Time for the pumpkin update! They have lost their little tents this week, and they have also had visits from dozens of children who's teachers have walked them down the street to ooh and aah over them.

Today the gardener, Dale, was out working, and I was able to glean a little more information about the care and feeding of the pumpkins. He said that he will soon set up scaffolding around them and use winches to lift them onto pallets. When it's time to remove them from the garden, he will push the pallets along over sheets of plywood. I was wrong about the forklift idea- I guess I leapt to that conclusion because they were on pallets. Dale said the forklift would be too heavy and sink into the soil.

He also told me that this is not going to be his best year as far as competition. For whatever reason, they are not quite as big as last year's. Also, if he takes the two that are not orange, they will probably be counted as squash, not pumpkins. The distinction is made based on color. They are still really impressive, though. See for yourself:

The cultivar Dale grows is called "Atlantic Giant". He said that that is the one you would use if you wanted to grow for competition, so all of you that have gardens, if you want to try your hand at this, or just get some king-sized jack-o-lanterns, try to find that kind to grow. I may never grow any for myself, but I sure do feel like I've learned a lot about them!