By reporter Steven Smalley
Oh, the sightseers ? especially at Halloween. A front yard full of huge pumpkins is a tourist magnet for Windermere real estate agent and monster green thumb, Greg Shaw.
In the middle of Magnolia (29th & West Tilden Street), cars crawl past his home with everybody?s eyes on the prize ? a dozen 600 lb. pumpkins side-by-side on the lawn among the corn stalks, winter cabbages and ornamental flowers. Astonished drivers stop to get a long look before a beep-beep from behind gets them moving again. It?s a nightly affair at Shaw?s house.
?At first I wanted to avoid being the Pumpkin Man,? he confesses. ?I thought it might take away from my credibility.?
After 35-years of Charlie Brown-sized pumpkins in a patch on his lawn, he got over that fear. The obvious question for Shaw, how?d you get started?
The beginning was one look at 800 lb. behemoth would-be jack-o?-lanterns grown by a record-holding farmer. Shaw paid handsomely for the beginning of his dream: Two pumpkin seeds for $35 each originating from?a contest winning specimen. His landscaping experience did the rest, and the seasons passed.
?I saw this pumpkin patch and it took my breath away,? exclaimed Linda Hunter, a neighbor. ?It looks like mountains. Giant pumpkins. I?m amazed someone can grow this in their front yard,? she said.
?I love that somebody would use their land like this,? says Pat Hetland, as she walked past. ?I just think it?s a fantasy-land. It?s gorgeous.?
No matter who happened by, they all had the same astonished reactions. ?I think it?s incredible. It?s like a Cinderella pumpkin wonderland,? gushed Alison Dasho.
And so it is.