Toby Williams grows pumpkins and watermelons.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
Toby Williams, 5, from Shepparton has found a love for gardening and the bees that come to visit his blossoming veggie patch.
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“They’re like ‘there’s a party in the flower, let’s get in’,” Toby said with excitement.
His family moved into their current home in August 2025. In the backyard there was an empty garden bed just waiting for a keen young gardener to flourish.
First to be planted was a handful of pumpkin seedlings that had been gifted by a friend, but they were eaten by blackbirds.
Only one survived, and it is now climbing along the back fence with a couple of green pumpkins that are getting bigger every day.
Toby has also been growing watermelons, with the help of his mum, Brittany Barnard.
One of the first watermelons they harvested weighed 7kg.
“It wasn’t as big as I was hoping, but it was pretty big,” Ms Barnard said.
Toby was so proud of what he grew that he threw a watermelon-themed party for his friends.
“We made a watermelon cake and we had watermelon juice,” Toby said.
Toby and his mum are hoping to grow an even bigger watermelon by pinching off the new flowers on the plant to direct all of its energy into the growing fruit.
The veggie patch is also growing tomatoes, corn and strawberries.
Toby Williams and his mother, Brittany Barnard, inspect their growing watermelons.
Photo by
Megan Fisher
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