Now that’s some vine!

“I’ve been gardening my whole life. My father was a market gardener and I’ve never seen a pumpkin vine this big!” said Jean Finlay.

Jean’s husband John was the one who contacted Orange City Life to make us aware of the proliferating vine that has completely overrun their backyard vegetable patch.

The vine was self-seeded, probably from the vegetable scraps used to fertilise the small plot. From a small unidentified sprout amongst the tomatoes, the vine has sprawled either direction and now stretches more than 20 metres.

“I measured it and it was 66 feet! The same length as a cricket pitch,” said John.

Given the dry summer we’ve just had, the vine has grown mostly on recycled grey water.

Jean, who just celebrated her 80th birthday (Happy Birthday Jean!) has been pollinating flowers by hand and is just starting to see the first fruit.

We’re keen to see if the fruit will grow as prolifically as the vine!