Kids Plant Seeds, Hope for Great Pumpkins

Students from schools in Calabasas and Agoura Hills joined preschoolers in the garden of the Evergreen Generations day-care center Tuesday to plant pumpkin seeds in anticipation of the annual Calabasas Days and Pumpkin Festival.

The festival, sponsored in October by the city of Calabasas and the Calabasas Chamber of Commerce, celebrates the city’s namesake--calabaza is the Spanish word for pumpkin--and is designed to foster a sense of community.

Among those participating on Tuesday were members of the Dwight family of Calabasas, who were working together toward a common goal: to plant a pumpkin that would be a strong contender in the festival’s Biggest Pumpkin Weigh-in contest.

Old hands at gardening--they grow melons and pumpkins at home--Marty Dwight and his children represented Bay Laurel Elementary School at the event.

“They love to do this,” Marty Dwight said, as he watched daughter Bri, 7, and and son Zach, 9, water the soil.

Bri said she helps in the family garden whenever she can. “I like putting my hands in the dirt.”

Tuesday’s planting conditions weren’t optimal and organizers weren’t sure the seeds would grow, but the junior horticulturists were having fun all the same.

While teachers and parents helped youngsters with the shovels and seeds, one Lupin Hill Elementary School student went it alone.

“I was picked to do it and it sounded fun,” said 11-year-old Andrew Kravis, diligently digging in the dry ground.

And he said he hadn’t heard that the pumpkins would be entered in the festival’s contest.

“Cool,” Andrew said when told. And although the contest is open to the public and he will be competing against more experienced gardeners, the boy who had planted only flowers before Tuesday said he was optimistic.

“I’m going to win. I feel lucky.”