The Last Word: Man Enjoys Extreme Gardening During His Retirement

Ken Zappitella used to be a normal gardener. Now retired, he is an extreme gardener. He grows very large fruits and vegetables in his backyard.

My wife had a nice vegetable garden again this year. We enjoyed lettuce, onions, tomatoes and peppers. But today, my story is about a different kind of garden, and a man who grows things that weigh more than I do.

I’m visiting Ken Zappitella and his wife Kathy at their home near East Springfield. Ken is showing me some of the large fruits and vegetables that are still growing in his backyard. The first thing he shows me is a bushel gourd.

“That’s over 215, 220 pounds right now,” Ken declares.

He then takes me to something that looks like a strange colored pumpkin. However, it’s a giant squash.

“How much does that weigh?” I ask him. “It’s like 295, 300 pounds,” Ken replies.

Ken then shows me two vegetables that are very, very tall. They are long gourds that look like giant green beans. The world record for a long gourd is 15 feet high.

“This one here is about 10 ½ feet, says Ken. “The one over here is like 11 foot-five inches.”

Wow! This long gourd is close to a world record. That’s amazing since this is the first year Ken has been involved in extreme gardening. Ken was doing normal gardening for most of his life but gave it up in the mid-eighties.

“I worked a lot of hours at work,” Ken recalls. “The kids were in sports. We were on the go.”

It’s now 40 years later. Ken is retired. He decided to not just get back into growing fruits and vegetables in his backyard, but growing VERY LARGE fruits and vegetables in his backyard. Kathy says he went head-on into his new hobby.

“I’ve never seen him so focused and so interested in something. Intrigued by it. Researching it,” she tells me.

Ken shows me his pumpkins that are still growing. One is named Pump-Ken and weighs 680 pounds. Another, named Atlas, is 840 pounds. Ken admits those are far from any records. However, he has a mentor, Quinn Werner from Saegertown, who grows pumpkins in the 1800-2500-pound range. Ken is soaking up knowledge from him. However, he may not need any tutorage in watermelon growing. The state record for a watermelon is 235 pounds. He shows me one in his garden that is 218 pounds and still growing. The watermelon season might last another three weeks. There’s still time to earn that record!

“I’m smiling,” he says. For my first year, I’m happy.”

Ken’s biggest thrill from his garden this year is making a jack o’ lantern out of one of his huge pumpkins. Children in his neighborhood loved it. Ken also showed five of his crops at the Albion Fair. He won blue ribbons for everything he entered.

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