Take on the giant pumpkin growers

Take on the giant pumpkin growers and start off a whopper in your own back garden. It's a great green-fingered activity to get the kids involved in, too – you could even hold your own giant pumpkin competition either at home or at school!

You'll find seeds of show-stopping behemoth 'Atlantic Giant' on the racks at our garden centre here in Co. Limerick: plant one seed to a 10cm pot of good quality seed compost in the greenhouse or on a sunny windowsill.

While your seedlings start growing, prepare your pumpkin bed. One trick is to construct a pumpkin pit, a hole in the ground at least 1m across and deep, filled with well-rotted manure to create the rich, nutritious environment pumpkins love: plant your young plant in a layer of soil on the top and it'll grow like a turbo-charged triffid. Keep watered and feed regularly with a liquid feed. Pinch out all but the three largest fruit, then after a few weeks remove the smallest of these, leaving your two largest pumpkins.

Shade the fruit as it swells, to avoid the skin cracking in the sun: then when showtime comes, select your largest pumpkin and go for it. Oh, and don't forget to hire your forklift truck!