SOME giant vegetables were to the fore as Friends of Waunfawr Park in Cross Keys put on a community vegetable show.

Growers went along to the event to show off their biggest and best home-grown vegetables on Sunday. Green-fingered locals grew some giant vegetables including a pumpkin weighing 458lbs grown by Darrell Parry. The heaviest onion, weighing 4lbs, was grown by Alan Williams, and won him a £50 prize.

Organiser Darrell Parry said: “As with all things that grow from seed, they start small and can grow to some giant sizes.

This was our first show and hopefully it can become a major vegetable show for the area in the future.” Mr Parry added: “We are aiming to grow this show into an even larger event for 2013, and would like to thank both Mark and Stephen Dowden for all their hard work in setting this event up.” One of the event organisers Mark Dowden, who works for Waunfawr park services, said of the pumpkin: “It took six men to lift it into the car and we had to get a tractor and bucket to unload it.

Considering how bad the weather is it was a brilliant effort. It’s certainly the largest one we have ever seen here.”

● The largest pumpkin on record was grown by Chris Stevens in the USA and weighed 1,810 lbs 8oz. The heaviest onion on record, at 16.52 lbs, was grown by John Sifford from the West Midlands.