My attempt at growing a giant pumpkin for the Iowa State Fair
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My new babies. Photo: Linh Ta/Axios
Linh here. After I unexpectedly won second place in the Iowa State Fair's husband-calling contest last year, the confidence boost gave me the totally sane idea: What if I enter a different fair competition every year?
- I considered the ugly cake competition. Then I learned it's only for children.
- So I decided to go big (literally) and try my hand at growing a giant pumpkin.
Zoom in: I am no green thumb. Last year I dumbly let mint take over my backyard, which I'm still living with today.
- So I reached out to Des Moines' giant pumpkin master Don Young for some help.
- Young and his pumpkins have made their rounds on late-night television. They've been in the New York Times. They've traveled the country, earning thousands of dollars from giant pumpkin competitions.
- He shared some of his hybrid world championship-winning seeds with me, as well as his well-earned wisdom.
The big picture: My goal is not to win, but just to be displayed at the fair.
- There are also lots of rules I learned. For example: A hole automatically disqualifies your giant gourd because you could have poured in anything to weigh it down!
The bottom line: I started a seed inside my house on Easter and named it Hope, because you have to have a little bit of optimism to dream of someday forklifting a giant gourd across town.
- But also, I have a backup named Hope #2 just in case!
What's next: I'll share a weekly series giving an update on Hope's growth!
