The monsters in Coventry man's garden

[dutchman]

A green-fingered former market trader from Coventry is celebrating a crop of monster vegetables.



Rupert Stephenson, 54, of Radford, has beaten his own personal best with his latest giant veg.

His collection of huge pumpkins and colossal cabbages has a total weight of almost half a tonne.

One of his pumpkins was so big it needed five men to carry it from his allotment and his biggest cabbage was about four feet wide and weighed an incredible 40 lbs.

The retired fishmonger, who used to work on Coventry Market and now works in a furniture warehouse, said: “It takes a lot of time and effort, right from when you start the seeds off in late March.

“My secret is that I give them a lot of care and attention, and feed them with a special cocktail of liquid feeds. I spend hours a week in the greenhouses tending the seedlings at night.

‘‘My partner Blanche helps out and this year we grew maize to 10 ft tall, giant pumpkins that filled our van and big marrows.

“These are the largest pumpkins I have ever grown. They were so big that it took five men to lift them out of the allotment.

“This year was hard with the very cold spring, drought in summer and the damned caterpillars, but we struggled through to grow some nice vegetables.”

Rupert’s 4 ft, 40lb cabbage was the king of the crop this year, taking home the much-coveted best in show prize from the Rowington Club Village Show.

Rupert, a part-time poultry photographer who enjoys fishing, said: “I actually grew a bigger one last year, and I got the cabbage’s sister plants this week and I’m hoping those will grow to 80lb by Christmas.”

Although his prodigious pumpkins were pipped to the post at the Rowington Show, Rupert donated the two largest ones to the Bull and Butchers pub in Corley Moor so punters can guess their weight for charity.

He said: “I just do it for the fun of it, not for one upmanship or anything like that - it’s just for the sake of saying I have done it. I started growing these big ones about seven years ago.

“It’s an expensive business though, it costs about £500 just for the pumpkins, because the seeds are so expensive to begin with.

“I have just ordered 12 tonnes of cow manure for next year, and once we’ve cleared the plots for bonfire night, it’s time to start all over again.

‘‘We’ll be ploughing, rotavating, and drinking tea in the shed whilst contemplating what to try next – we drink a lot of tea.”