Annual festival celebrates humongous gourds and family fun
Four-time winner Leonardo Urena of Napa poses with his 2021 champion – 1,623 pounds. Photo courtesy of Elk Grove Giant Pumpkin Festival
Where can you see a 1,000-pound pumpkin? Elk Grove, of course, at its annual Giant Pumpkin Festival.
This weekend, Oct. 7 and 8, marks the 29th Giant Pumpkin Festival with plenty of pumpkin to see (and eat!) at Elk Grove Park, 9950 Elk Grove-Florin Road, Elk Grove. Admission is free, but parking is $10 (cash only).
Since 1994, this pumpkin party has grown into the largest salute of its kind in the Sacramento region. Pumpkin growers will haul in their prized giants for the annual weigh-in and a chance at history (as well as cold cash). Last year’s winner (which tipped the scales at 1,866.5 pounds) took home $7,000. The weigh-in starts at 9 a.m. Saturday with winners announced at 4 p.m. Check-in is 7 to 9 a.m.; entry fee is $10 per pumpkin in advance or $25 on Saturday.
Don’t miss the Pumpkin Regatta at noon Sunday. Runner-up pumpkins from the weigh-off are carved into boats and raced across the park’s lake. Anyone (over age 18) with access to a giant floatable pumpkin can enter. Fee is $5 and check-in is 9 a.m. Sunday.
Other contests include a pumpkin recipe contest, cupcake and junior baking contests for kids and teens, a scarecrow contest and youth art contest. (Entry forms and details are available online.)
Expect to find lots of food and fun with food trucks, arts and crafts vendors, carnival rides and, of course, a giant pumpkin patch.
Details and directions: https://www.cosumnescsd.gov/392/Elk-Grove-Giant-Pumpkin-Festival.
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Garden Checklist for week of Nov. 3
November still offers good weather for fall planting:
* If you haven't already, it's time to clean up the remains of summer. Pull faded annuals and vegetables. Prune dead or broken branches from trees.
* Now is the best time to plant most trees and shrubs. This gives them plenty of time for root development before spring growth. They also benefit from fall and winter rains.
* Set out cool-weather annuals such as pansies and snapdragons.
* Lettuce, cabbage and broccoli also can be planted now.
* Plant garlic and onions.
* Keep planting bulbs to spread out your spring bloom. Some possible suggestions: daffodils, crocuses, hyacinths, tulips, anemones and scillas.
* This is also a good time to seed wildflowers and plant such spring bloomers as sweet pea, sweet alyssum and bachelor buttons.
* Rake and compost leaves, but dispose of any diseased plant material. For example, if peach and nectarine trees showed signs of leaf curl this year, clean up under trees and dispose of those leaves instead of composting.
* Save dry stalks and seedpods from poppies and coneflowers for fall bouquets and holiday decorating.
* For holiday blooms indoors, plant paperwhite narcissus bulbs now. Fill a shallow bowl or dish with 2 inches of rocks or pebbles. Place bulbs in the dish with the root end nestled in the rocks. Add water until it just touches the bottom of the bulbs. Place the dish in a sunny window. Add water as needed.
* Give your azaleas, gardenias and camellias a boost with chelated iron.
* For larger blooms, pinch off some camellia buds.
* Prune non-flowering trees and shrubs while dormant.
* To help prevent leaf curl, apply a copper fungicide spray to peach and nectarine trees after they lose their leaves this month. Leaf curl, which shows up in the spring, is caused by a fungus that winters as spores on the limbs and around the tree in fallen leaves. Sprays are most effective now.
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