IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers GARGANTUAN GOURD—Karen and Scott Briggs and their daughters, Caroline, 2, and Kate, 4, surround Scott's prize-winning 1,110-pound pumpkin that won him first place at last weekend's Santa Ana Pumpkinmania Weigh-Off. The family plans to carve the giant pumpkin into a jack-o'-lantern to place outside their Corto Street home for tonight's Halloween festivities. Driving through a quiet neighborhood on Corto Street, one would never guess that behind one of the homes sits a pumpkin patch—especially one growing boulder-sized pumpkins just in time for Halloween.

But that's exactly what's atop a dirt hill behind Scott Briggs' Simi Valley backyard—a weed-strewn garden that has produced giant pumpkins for the past four years.

Briggs' unique hobby began in 2005 with a simple seed.

"A friend of mine started growing them, and one day he asked me if I wanted a seed," he said.

The 35-year-old construction inspector said he took the seed mostly to appease his friend, never imagining the harvest would take on a life of its own.

After watching his first pumpkin balloon to a hefty 127 pounds, Briggs was hooked.

The next year's pumpkin weighed 460 pounds, and last year's tipped the scale at a whopping 959 pounds.

That behemoth won Briggs 10th place at the Paso Robles Giant Pumpkin Weigh-Off, a good showing in his first contest.

But as in years past, his 2008 plant was on track to grow even larger.

Using charts, he estimated it to be 950 pounds, but hoped it would break 1,000.

Hard work, heavy lifting

For Briggs, growing and nurturing a pumpkin to giant-status is like having a part-time job.

"It's a lot of work; I'm up here every day," he said

At the end of April he planted the seed in a little pot, and in May he transferred the burgeoning plant to his backyard garden.

Since then, Briggs has spent his time rototilling, spreading manure, keeping his water system in working order and managing the thick vines and large leaves of the pumpkin plant.

"The plant starts out real slow, and once it gets roots down it grows really fast," he said. "It starts out the size of a baseball, and in a matter of three weeks it's enormous."

At the height of its growth, he said, this year's pumpkin, which has a salmon color instead of the typical orange hue, was putting on 30 pounds a day. While growing the pumpkin takes serious sweat equity, Briggs needed extra muscle last Saturday to move the massive gourd off the hill so it could be loaded into a truck and taken to a competition on Sunday.

As a dozen neighbors and their children looked on, nine sturdy men hoisted the pumpkin with a net onto a wooden slab, which was then slid slowly down the dusty slope with the help of an all-terrain vehicle.

Bill Briggs, Scott's father, helped in the moving effort and maintained afterward that the pumpkin had to be heavier than last year's.

"I was working a hell of a lot harder than last year," Bill Briggs said, the sweat still on his brow.

Briggs approves of his son's hobby, adding that for the last two years it's been the hit of the neighborhood.

"It's fun to marvel at how big the pumpkin gets," he said.

Scott's wife, Karen, agreed.

"I never knew pumpkins could be grown so big," she said. "It's kind of fascinating. It's kind of rare around here."

The pumpkin king

On Sunday, Scott Briggs' months of toil were rewarded. He won first place at the Santa Ana Pumpkinmania Weigh-Off and reached his goal of breaking 1,000 when his monstrous pumpkin weighed in at 1,110 pounds.

It was a sweet victory for Briggs.

"The guy who won second place this year beat me last year by two pounds," he said.

What's more, he set a new record, as his pumpkin—which Briggs ironically named "Junior"—was the largest ever weighed at the Santa Ana contest.

For earning first prize, Briggs took home $1,000 from Kellogg Garden Products/Gardner & Bloome, a wreath, a pumpkin paperweight and a limited edition 2008 Pumpkinmania T-shirt.

While he likes the tangible rewards for his work, Karen Briggs said, her husband does it for the neighborhood children.

"He loves doing it for the kids," she said. The Briggses have two young daughters, Kate4, and Caroline, 2.

Karen said the youngsters in the neighborhood constantly come over to check on the pumpkin and can't wait to see it when it's carved on Halloween.

Scott Briggs acknowledged that his hobby has become an "unintended responsibility," but he doesn't mind.

"Everybody loves carving pumpkins—I just have the biggest one on the block," he said, adding that many trick-or-treaters last year did not believe the pumpkin was real. "It looks pretty neat."

At the end of his pumpkin season, Briggs comes full circle, handing out his dried seeds—giant pumpkins cannot be grown from the seeds of regular-sized pumpkins—to family and friends just like his pal did for him a few years ago.

Friends Andy and Kandi Wahrenbrock took some seeds from Briggs' 2007 awardwinning pumpkin and grew four giants of their own this year in the backyard of their Thousand Oaks home. None are as large as Briggs', but altogether the Wahrenbrocks also have 1,000 pounds of pumpkin.

"It doesn't seem real," Kandi said of the size of the pumpkins, the largest weighing 430 pounds. "It's so inconceivable, it's almost silly."