Not everyone tucks their pumpkins in at night, but then again, not everyone grows them to be more than 1,000 pounds.

Larry Hill recently harvested three larger-than-average pumpkins from his garden near his Town Road 403 East home. One weighed in at 1,020 pounds and the others were around 800 pounds.

“You just don’t see them that big up here,” the retired Boise maintenance worker said as he looked out his window at the gourds. “I’m pretty proud of them.”

And proud he should be. A lot of work went into growing the orange- and white-colored giants sitting on display at the end of his driveway. Aside from covering them with a warm blanket to contain heat during cooler overnight hours, Hill spent about an hour a day for about four months with the gourds watering, fertilizing, trimming and overall nurturing them.

“It takes time,” he said. “But it’s fun. If you want to grow big pumpkins, it’s stuff you have to do.”

The idea for the unique hobby came when Hill’s neighbor was bragging about a large pumpkin her father grew. Hill made a pact with himself to earn a new set of bragging rights. Three years ago, he ended the growing season with a 288 pound pumpkin.

“After that, I was hooked,” he said with a chuckle.

Hoping to surpass 300 pounds, Hill’s biggest pumpkin last year only weighed in at 170 pounds. The flood and other poor weather conditions weren’t conducive to growing produce in Borderland. Hoping for more cooperation from Mother Nature this year, Hill got serious.

“I got the seeds from bigpumpkins.com,” he said. “I read diaries of other pumpkin growers and that’s how I found the seeds I got.”

Four months later

Atlantic Giants seeds went in the ground of Hill’s garden around the middle of May and were removed from the vines by the end of September.

When asked about watching them grow, Hill laughed as he admitted its similar to having children. After spending every day with the pumpkins, he didn’t realize how fast they were growing until hearing comments from a fresh set of eyes.

“They grow about 22.5 pounds a day,” he said. “That’s about the size of a good sized jack-o-lantern.”

However, to be competitve, growers need their pumpkins to gain more than 40 pounds a day.

“I’m not even in that playing field,” Hill said.

Still, 1,020 pounds is impressive for northern Minnesota and getting the pumpkins from the vines to the back of Hill’s pickup required some engineering.

“I built a tripod,” he said.

Curious about the actual weight of the gourd, Hill attended a pumpkin festival in Rainy River, Ont., but the scale available only went up to 1,000 pounds. Hill had a hunch his monster weighed slightly more and was able to get an exact reading from the Boise scales.

Up next

So what about next year?

Hill said he doubts the weather will align as beautifully as it did this year, so he may try another challenge.

“The mother of my orange pumpkin is a Howard Dill award winner, which is the prettiest pumpkin,” he said. “I don’t have a prayer to grow the biggest pumpkin, but I could get the prettiest. I might try that. It’s still early.”

For now, he enjoys the conversation – and near vehicle accidents – the pumpkins create.

“I’ve had it in the back of the truck and people are craning their necks, following us with cameras out the window, the whole works,” he said. “It’s fun to see the reaction the pumpkin gets… Some people golf, I garden and grow big pumpkins. It’s addicting and really is fun.”