Giant veg will amaze you!

By the way, they are not grown to eat, just for the fun of the competition.

To me thats totally pointless, all that time, energy and care going into one giant, when you could have so much more edible foods, why grow one enormous pumpkin when you could have half a dozen smaller ones that would keep you in soup for the winter, or pies, but personally I think pumpkin pie is vile!

It must be a man thing, I just can't see women bothering although they might encourage a partner to keep him out from under their feet.

To me thats totally pointless, all that time, energy and care going into one giant, when you could have so much more edible foods, why grow one enormous pumpkin when you could have half a dozen smaller ones that would keep you in soup for the winter, or pies, but personally I think pumpkin pie is vile!

It must be a man thing, I just can't see women bothering although they might encourage a partner to keep him out from under their feet.

Sorry I don't agree with most of what you've said, I don't see giant veg growing as art as its to competitive, to me competition is a negative, not only because I don't get the rewards that others do from it, but maybe because looking at it from the outside I see the nastiness and othering that comes fabout due to it.

I wouldn't try and stop people doing it, though, just as I wouldn't things such as football which I loathe with a passon.

I don't see art as competitive, to me competitiveness and art are mutually exclusive, I think we create because it fulfils a very deep need in us, our brains operate in a highly symbolic way and we expressive this through creativity. I just don't see where competition comes into it, or if it even should, maybe I'm more of an art for arts sake person, I'm not saying that praise for what we create is bad or unwelcome, I just don't see the need for competition.

Marianne72 said:

We express our humanity through many kinds of creative experience - 

We do indeed.

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I think you misunderstand. These competitions are not about feeding but just for relaxation and fun, also the getting together of people with like interests. We express our humanity through many kinds of creative experience -  giant veg growing is another form of art. You would'nt say the arts are time wasting, because they are about different types of human experience. Yes, these people get very competitive and 'serious' about  strategies and there is also learning through the art of growing, but that's not the point. We all need some fun in our lives.

Taken from the linked article:

Maggie Walter, from Plymouth, took home a £1,000 prize after her 3.95kg (8.7lb) aubergine was judged the heaviest.

She said she "never expected" to win and described the victory as a "nice surprise all round".