Wheaton family grows 368-pound pumpkin

Since stepping down from dentistry 11 years ago, I've enjoyed every minute of my retirement. One of my many interests is gardening, which I'm trying to share with some of my 11 grandchildren.

Part of my “bucket list” is to grow a giant pumpkin.

Every winter for the past three years, I've ordered pumpkin seeds from Nova Scotia, Canada, that have the genetic potential to grow very large. The seeds (at $6 each) come from pumpkins that weigh more than 700 pounds.

Until this year, I've had no real success. Usually the leaves die prematurely and the pumpkin rots. For the past three years, our best effort was a 136-pound pumpkin grown by two grandchildren, Carl and Anna Miller of Downers Grove.

Each year, I give each of my grandchildren's families several seeds and the promise that whomever grows the largest pumpkin wins a $50 prize from me.

This year, Carl planted a pumpkin at my Wheaton house and, because I tended it, I won my own $50.

Over the past three years, I've learned many tricks about pollination, fertilization and pest control. I used that knowledge for this year's pumpkin, which was growing along the side of my house and had leaves like elephant ears. I constantly pruned the vine back to 40 feet and the pumpkin kept growing.

Finally, we harvested it, weighed it, measured it, photographed it and painted it.

We took it to the Wheaton Police Department's truck scale and it weighed in at 368 pounds. (I promised to give the officers an envelope of seeds as a friendly payment.) It's 7 feet, 4 inches in circumference.

My grandson Carl did the planting, I did most of the tending and my granddaughter Anna did the painting.

It was a lot of fun, but look out for next year. I hope my neighbor will need a chain saw to control the vines that invade his yard!