COMPOST'S GIANTS - The Great Pumpkin Growing Contest

Pumpkin Stories

A Note from Rod Fry / Envirem Technologies

A funny story for you about my Giant Pumpkin.

I was very excited to take part in your pumpkin growing contest, even though I had never grown so much as a flower before this contest. I was going to apply all my engineering knowledge towards this contest.

Things got started off very well, and after several weeks of nurturing 4 pumpkin plants in my office, I decided it would be best to bring the plants home to grow in my yard. Like all things brought home, I first received approval from the "better half" on a location next to my storage shed. ..... All was going well !

However, after four weeks, the pumpkin plants began to take over my entire yard, one crawled up over top of the hedge, one was creeping mysteriously towards the pool for a dip, and the others took off across my lawn and covered part of my driveway? At this point I was receiving many threats from the "better half" on how the pumpkins were growing out of control. We decided it would be best if I would buy a new fridge and stove for the kitchen, somehow this seemed to calm things down temporarily. I was able to cull the weak pumpkins from the stems and focus all my energy toward the one great hope (the pumpkin on plant #3).

Then, just when I thought I had things under control, I receive a strange phone-call from the "better half" in the middle of a work day, she is panicked and out-of-breath, she proclaims "the pumpkin has abandon its stem......pause........no explanation". My project was dead!

In the days to follow, I was able to uncover the mystery.............in her frustration with these messy pumpkin vines all over the lawn, she had mowed across the stem, shredding the very life-line that my champion pumpkin needed. My giant pumpkin cut-off in its infancy, only a puny 75lbs, and now retired next to a bail of straw in the "better half's" quaint Halloween display.

Maybe next year, Rod, there's always a next year.......

Sincerely,

Rod Fry

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