Pumpkins & Gourds

Tyler Swafford’s enthusiasm for raising pumpkins and gourds is contagious. The lifelong farmer, himself the descendent of a lifelong farmer, makes his home on Dayton Mountain overlooking Tennessee’s Sequatchie Valley.

- Hope Ellis-Ashburn

Swafford’s father raised tomatoes and other produce and passed his passion down.

“Pumpkins are fun to grow,” Swafford says. “They are pretty to look at (and) can be used in decorations. And they have a lot of holistic purposes.” He adds that they’re very healthy for humans and livestock to eat. In his experience, chickens, cows and pigs have a particular affinity for the popular fruit.

Gourds are fun for Swafford, too. “There’s so many different kinds,” he says. “You can put them on trellises or the ground. There are so many different things you can do.”

Choosing Varieties 

Swafford’s excitement for the subject makes it easy to see why he feels that pumpkins and gourds can be a great addition to any farm. The fun starts with choosing which varieties that you will grow. Pumpkins grown for decoration have a wide variety of options to choose from. “It’s your preference,” he says. “You can get them with wrinkles, tall or oblong, short and squatty, or where they look like the traditional jack-o’-lanterns,” he says.

There are even choices with the stems. You can choose a variety with stems that grow as much as 20 inches long, curly and 8 inches thick. While the long-stem jack-o-lantern varieties are one of Swafford’s favorite types to grow, he cautions that they aren’t a high-yielding pumpkin variety. But, whatever you want in a pumpkin now, they have it bred up and you can find it.