Grow a Pumpkin

I wanted to grow a large pumpkin, and being an inexperienced gardener, I was not expecting to produce a giant prize-winning champion, just the best I could do.

I planted 3 seeds in small pots - one grew 4 leaves then died. The other two seemed healthy enough, so when they got big enough, I set them in a grow-bag. They were different varieties, to hedge my bets.

I looked after them every day, carefully checking their condition, watering and feeding them regularly, and was rewarded by the plants growing and growing. I put out sticks for them to attach themselves on, and cleared enough room for them to spread along the garden. One plant gave a yellow fruit, the other gave green fruit during the growing stage. Yellow was smooth and shiny, green was more ridged and mottled.
Yellow gave about 8 pumpkins, but I picked some off in order to let the plant focus in growing fewer fruit to a bigger size, a decision I was to regret, since eventually I ended up with just one surviving yellow pumpkin.
Green only produced the one fruit from the beginning.

I used pizza polystyrene bases to keep the pumpkins off the soil. I suffered a lot of anxiety about my plants being trodden on, especially as my boys and their friends frequently rushed past them on their way to the shed hang-out place at the bottom of the garden. I have a very long but narrow garden, with a footpath towards the left hand side, and I had needed to place the growbag on that side as there was no room anywhere else. Luckily, the boys had taken notice of my concerns and the plants came to no harm.
I weighed and measured them as they grew, the final scores being as follows:
Round Yellow - 4lb or 1.8kg
Oblong Green - 7lb 10oz or 3.46kg

This is me tending my beloved plants:

It was very difficult to know when to harvest them, especially Yellow, and in the end I am unsure if I should have waited a little longer.

This is the final day of Yellow.

and cut in half, I think it looks unready, such a disappointment after all that care and attention over months.
With Green, I decided to wait until just before Halloween before harvesting, giving it time to ripen into a lovely orange colour. 

My son requested a Pokemon themed carving for Halloween, so I found a photo of one to copy, and it turned out ok.

I used the flesh to make a pumpkin cake, and that was rather nice too, I shared it with all my family and it was quite a hit.

You might say it was a lot of work for a small result, but I enjoyed nurturing the pumpkin plants, perhaps I will try again this year!