Plants are absolutely amazing. I’ve always thought that, but a recent visit to the Giant vegetable Championships at the Bath & West Showground was simply awesome. On show were hundreds of obese vegetables, fed to bursting with all manner of secret concoctions, animal manure and goodness knows what else.

Thank goodness there isn’t an equivalent show for giant pets, or is there?

I was fascinated, it was awesome.

The winning giant pumpkin was moved around the show hall on a pallet with a pick up and weighed in at a staggering 548.8kg (that’s 1210lbs in old money), from a seed sown in April.
That’s over half a tonne! Amazing.
But it wasn’t just pumpkins on display, there were giant onions, huge tomatoes, runner beans the length of pole vaults, potatoes the size of beach balls and beetroot, Swedes, parsnips and more; each the result of months of careful nurture and hard work.

Most of the growers do it for the fun of it and for the competitive element, but the prize money is not to be sniffed at.
The overall winner won a total of £1580 in prize money and the grower of the giant pumpkin bagged £1 a lb, reaping a cheque for £1210 from the Sponsor Marshalls Seeds.

So if you need an incentive to get the kids growing, maybe that will inspire them.

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