Vegetables break records in UK National Giant Vegetable Championships

With record breaking rainfall and devastating floods, you might have thought our dismal summer would have pretty much scuppered this year's harvest.
But judging from the whopping vegetables on display at the National Amateur Gardening show, the weather has not entirely put a dampener on the year's crop.

One pumpkin entered in the UK's National Giant Vegetable Championships in Shepton Mallet, Somerset, weighed in at 200kg. Three-year-old Alexandra Busby is dwarfed by a giant pumpkin

Three-year-old Alexandra Busby from Watford is dwarfed by the mammoth vegetable as she poses for a picture.
Green-fingered Joe Atherton, meanwhile, stands proudly to show off his own record-breaking offering: a 15ft carrot.
The Championships are one of the highlights of the annual, three-day National Amateur Gardening show, which is held at the Bath and West Showground.
Vegetable enthusiasts spend months cultivating their marrows, squash, pumpkins, carrots, beetroot and parsnips in a bid to break the previous records.
There are 27 classes to enter in the giant vegetable section alone, as well as 66 classes in the flower, fruit and standard vegetables competitions.
And it is not only the accolade of having grown a mammoth vegetable they take home, there is also more than £5,000 in cash prizes to win.

A proud Joe Atherton poses with his record-breaking 15 foot carrot

Last year, 90-year-old Alf Cobb, from Holme, near Newark broke the world record with his cucumber which measured a staggering 35 1/8 inches.
This year is the show's 12th anniversary and thousands of visitors are set to flock there before it ends this Sunday.
They might be faced with some surprises in terms of what plants and vegetables are on show because the summer weather has led to some confusion.
High temperatures in April are thought to have sparked plants into flowering early.
And now, after the wettest summer in recent history and cooler weather, they think winter is not far around the corner.
Berries, apples and conkers have already been spotted on trees, while mushrooms are popping up in the fields and countryside.