By Jessica Coleman -- Daily Staff Writer

Gardening has long been an integral part of life in Virginia.

Even Thomas Jefferson, one of the commonwealth's most notable residents, reveled in the prospect of working in his garden. In a letter to a friend in 1811, he wrote:

"No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden."

Since Jefferson's time, however, the harvest of fruits and vegetables has become a cause for competition. With state and county fairs offering ribbons and cash prizes for the largest, prettiest, or tastiest plant, gardening has become less a hobby or means of providing sustenance and more a sport.

"We have lots of those smaller ribbons," said Sandy Charles, of Warren County, "but my goal is to get one of those big 'Best in Fair' ribbons."

Charles and her husband, Phil, owners of the Lackawanna Bed and Breakfast, came to the Northern Shenandoah Valley from Arlington County several years ago and moved into a historical home with an overgrown garden. Since they were going to start a bed and breakfast on the site, one of their top priorities was to get the garden in order.

"Gardening became my passion because it was an extension of decorating the house," Charles said.

So she and her husband planted a variety of vegetables and fruits, including tomatoes, potatoes, melons, grapes and rhubarb, mostly in box-frame gardens. Then Charles also got involved with helping at the Warren County Fair, and the couple began entering their vegetables.

Last year, they took home first place for potatoes and a watermelon.

"My watermelon was beautiful," she said. "It wasn't very big, but I talked to it every day, and it didn't have any spots on it."

She said she had her hopes set on a "Best in Show" ribbon, but was disappointed when a plate of green beans took the honor. And yet, a minor setback will not deter her. The couple already are talking about planting seeds for this year's garden.

"Every year we say we're not going to do this again," she said. "But now it's starting to turn spring and our thoughts go to doing it again. I don't know, there's great satisfaction with growing something and putting it on a plate and seeing how it compares with what everybody else does."

Nancy Shrum and her son, Barry Shrum, of Maurertown, would agree. They are regulars at the Shenandoah County Fair and the Virginia State Fair. She raises gourds, and her son grows giant pumpkins.

Last year Shrum won first place for a long-handled gourd that reached 60 inches, while her son also took home first prize for a pumpkin weighing a whopping 530 pounds.

"That was the first real big pumpkin I'd ever grown," he said, adding that he had begun growing smaller pumpkins in 2000.

Shrum also dries her gourds, decorates them and enters them in craft competitions in the fair. She won "Best in Show" in this category last year, as well.

As for what makes their vegetables so large, both Shrum and her son say it's not any one thing.

"A lot of it's the soil, the weather conditions, how well you take care of your plants," Barry Shrum said. "It's a crapshoot really, a lot of the time."

He said he thinks it's the novelty and the excitement of watching the giant plants grow that makes them want to work in their gardens and enter the fairs each year.

"I think that's what sparks the interest," he said. "We go out and measure the stuff as it's growing to see what kind of growth rates we're getting, and these pumpkins can gain 30 pounds in a day. It's very interesting."

But growing giant vegetables isn't relegated to the adults. A fourth-grade student at A.S. Rhodes, Alexis Stiles, was recently announced as the Virginia winner of the Bonnie Plants Cabbage Contest for a 21-pound plant she harvested last year as a school project. She received a $1,000 scholarship from the company for her efforts.

"It was really cool because it was getting bigger and bigger, and I didn't think it would get that big," she said. "It was as big as my little brother, except round."

Alexis said she planted the cabbage at her grandparents' house and that they helped her tend to it because her grandfather is a gardener.

"We had it in one of the best spots so it could get a lot of sun," she said, adding that a healthy dose of Miracle-Gro also helped. "We did a lot of watering."

Last year was the first time A.S. Rhodes had participated in the Bonnie Plants Cabbage program.

"I just said: 'Here it is. Stick it in the dirt and see what happens,'" said Cindy Atwell, Alexis' third-grade teacher, who gave her the assignment and now calls her a "cabbage patch doll."

* Contact Jessica Coleman at jcoleman@nvdaily.com