Dani Clement has lived in Federal Way for 34 years but this is the first autumn she’s been able to grow a 68.5 pound pumpkin and a 78.5 pound pumpkin.

“We’ve been planting pumpkins forever,” Clement said, noting she started when her first grandchild was born.

While a nearly 80-pound pumpkin won’t win her a Washington State Fair award for largest pumpkin — those fruits can be up to 1,600 pounds, she said — the trick is to make sure the pumpkin has a continuous water supply.

She said she planted her two pumpkins this season from a self-starter kit meant for giant pumpkins using two pumpkin seeds.

“One seed germinated and took off,” she said. “The starter pot was planted in July.”

When her grandchildren were younger, she would often incorporate “pumpkin Sundays” where they would come to her and her husband’s backyard and pick pumpkins.

Clement’s backyard is also filled with giant sunflowers, tomatoes, rhubarb, a fig tree and several other fruits, vegetables and flowers.

What’s unusual about Clement’s and her husband’s pumpkins, she said, is that they have traveled up an arbor and prefer to hang as they grow.

Although last year they didn’t grow any pumpkins, in 2012 their garden produced five to six pumpkins with four “turning out beautifully.”

That year, the heaviest came to 56 pounds.

But because they prefer to hang from the arbor, what goes up must come down.

Clement’s approximately 70 pound pumpkin fell last Friday with her near-80-pound pumpkin plopping to the ground the weekend to follow.

How does your fall garden grow? Do you have a special fall garden you’d like to see in the Federal Way Mirror? If so, contact editor@fedwaymirror.com for a chance to be featured.

Dani Clement’s pumpkins from this year’s season. The top one weighed in at 78.5 pounds while the bottom one weighed 68.5. RAECHEL DAWSON, the Mirror