When Autumn comes, you’ll be ready. You’ll have the biggest (or smallest) pumpkins around. Pumpkins are the best garden plant a kid could have next to sunflowers.

How to grow pumpkins
Pumpkins need a long season. Kids love pumpkins, so it's worth the long wait. Prepare the kids by telling them it will take at least three months for most pumpkins to mature. Telling them this from the start can prevent the heartache of watching them lose interest because of late production.

Have kids search the library, call a local greenhouse or look on the Internet to find when the last frost date is in your area. Start the pumpkins indoors two to three weeks before that date. Pumpkin plants germinate and grow quickly.

Grow pumpkins in peat pots or traditional pots at least four to five inches in diameter. Use a germinating soil mix. This helps the pumpkin seedlings get all the nutrients they need. You'll find pumpkin seeds at any local home and garden store or a local greenhouse.

Remove all but one pumpkin from the vine once they start fruiting. This will put all the energy into making that one pumpkin into a big pumpkin. You can choose to do this to only one vine so other pumpkin vines grow more pumpkins.

Pumpkin activities
Once the pumpkins grow, the kids can spend Autumn nights roasting pumpkin seeds, making pumpkin bread or using small pumpkins as an Autumn table centerpiece.

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