The Great Pumpkin Growing Contest

I saw these giant pumpkin seeds in the store and couldn't resist. Wouldn't it be fun to try and grow huge pumpkins? I posed the challenge to our local 4-H club. Who would like to participate in a pumpkin growing contest?

Desert Girl eagerly accepted. Perhaps it was because we had just listened to an audiobook, Sweet Home Alaska, that included a pumpkin-growing contest. She named her two pumpkins Laura and Almonzo, the same as the heroine in the story. Almonzo was also the name of the pumpkin in Farmer Boy.

 It didn't take long for the pumpkins to sprout. And a volunteer bean plant, too.


Then it came time to move them to the garden.


Unfortunately the insects haven't been kind. Would the pumpkin plants even make it? We weren't sure.

Fast forward a week or so, and they are growing well. We're looking forward to flowers next!