DAVID and Heather Parkin were sitting on their back porch when they noticed a massive sweet potato popping out from their garden.
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Once dug up, the heart-shaped vegetable weighed in at a staggering 5kg and was unlike anything the green-thumbed couple had ever seen.
To add to their glee, two more sweet potatoes were discovered under a cluster of vines, barely smaller then the first pick of the bunch.
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Mr Parkin said that the discovery adds to his 'growing' number of gardening achievements, after 192 pumpkins were picked from their backyard in 2020.
"The pumpkins just about took the whole place over," he said.
"A lot of them were self-sown ones and they just went berserk. We had them over in the driveway and the driveway was full."
Mr Parkin has dedicated about every square inch of their backyard to growing organic produce.
He said that growing lawn only to mow it is a missed opportunity when an outside space can be utilised in productive ways.
The "urban gardener" might be on to something given the current cost of fruit and vegetables.
"The great thing is that if you want to get something to eat, you just walk outside and get it right away," he said.
"We grow what we like and we have been able to share a bit with some of the other people we know. We also sold about 70 pumpkins last year to the markets."
Mrs Parkin said of her husband: "He's a diligent worker and he's my horticultural hero."
As for the couple's impressive sweet potatoes, soup seems to be at the top of the menu with previous crops proving enjoyable.
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