The Great Dartford Pumpkin Competition

A Competition for Primary Schools in Dartford

Started in Autumn 1998, judged in Autumn 1999, won by Wentworth School!

€ Autumn 1998

Time to build a compost heap for your pumpkins to grow on next year. Collect together as many leaves, dead plants, grass clippings and any other organic garden waste, and build your heap. Start your heap, preferably on a patch of bare ground somewhere in the school grounds, with a circle of waste material at least two meters in diameter, and about 30 centimetres deep. Then cover this with a thin layer (about 5 centimetres) of fresh soil. Then add more layers of waste material and fresh soil on top, preferably until the heap is about 60 centimetres deep (the heap will settle under the weight of soil and rain, so you may need to add more material later). If you can add a few spadefulls of horse manure to each layer so much the better, but this isn't essential. It will also help if you can cover the heap with a black plastic sheet once it has settled a bit and it's been rained on. Over the winter the worms and other creatures will get to work inside the heap, breaking things down ready to feed the pumpkin plant's roots next summer.

€ Autumn Tips

(i) If you don't have much soil to hand to cover the layers of garden waste, try digging out the area where your heap is going to go to a spade's depth first: then you can put the soil back on top, layer by layer.

(ii) No black plastic sheet? Ask QED to try to get you one (recycled from a Kentish farm).

(iii) Not enough garden waste? Ask some parents.

(iv) No place to build the heap? Enquire whether your local allotments have a spare plot where you could grow your pumpkins

(v) Think you know a better way to prepare your heap? Try it - you might be right!

€ Spring 1999

QED will supply you with seeds for two different kinds of pumpkins: sweet ones for eating and giant ones for fun! The seeds should be planted in pots in April and the young plants hardened of and planted out around the base of the heap once the threat of frost has passed. Instructions for planting and planting out will be supplied with the seeds, some of which will be supplied from Uplands Allotments in Handsworth, Birmingham, where people really know how to grow delicious pumpkins.

€ Spring Tips

(i) Plant the seeds the right way up. (Advice to follow on video!)

(ii) Don't let slugs eat the young plants. (Advice will be given on alternatives to slug pellets)

€ Summer 1999

The pumpkins will grow over the top of the heap during the summer.

€ Summer Tips

(i) You can keep the heap moist by mulching with black plastic sheet or grass clippings.

(ii) Female blooms can be fertilised by hand. (Advice to follow)

€ Autumn 1999

Competition time! Which school has grown the heaviest pumpkin? And which school has grown the most tasty pumpkin? We'll find out in October 1999.

€ Autumn Tips

(i) Don't cut your pumpkin off the plant until the last minute, so it doesn't lose weight.

(ii) Recipes to follow!