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Pemberton District High School’s giant ‘pump-king’ experience

The kitchen garden team at Pemberton DHS, in Pemberton Western Australia, have weighed into the local foodie culture with a royal ‘pump-king’, grown at the school with help from the kitchen garden kids. The school’s Kitchen Garden Program Coordinator, Katrina Zemke, gives us the full story ...

‘Our fantastic gardener, Colin Britza, wanted to give our kids the opportunity to be involved with growing a huge, giant pumpkin and to see just how big we could actually get it. The kids were involved in preparing the soil and in the weekly fertilising of our heirloom giant pumpkin seedling; in the end the whole school was talking about it.

When it was time to pick the pumpkin and cut its cord, one class carried out a ‘guess the weight’ competition to raise money for their class camp. The pumpkin weighed in at a huge 102 kg and was cut up by our Year 6’s using a saw.

We collected, washed and dried all the seeds and will package them for sale next term. In 2013 Pemberton DHS will host a ‘Giant Pumpkin-Growing Competition’ at the Southern Forest Festival in Pemberton, where growers will bring their amazing pumpkins in for a weigh-off.

The pumpkin has been the highlight of the term for many students, especially as their pumpkin was put on display at the Manjimup Agricultural Show and also put into the Manjimup-Bridgetown Times.’

Katrina recommends all Kitchen Garden Schools give growing giant pumpkins a go – you can purchase seeds from Diggers.