Green-fingered Halstead gardeners have been showing off their weird and wonderful fruit and veg.

Adrian Wood, 68, of Tidings Hill, produced a Big Bird lookalike in his latest crop of pumpkins, which will be carved by his grandchildren at Halloween.

He said: “The pumpkins are huge this year - I don’t know quit hoe heavy they are but I can barely lift them.”

Three-year-old Lily-May Hollinshead, of Chapel Hill, came up with her idea for Ellie the fruit and veg elephant when she found a beetroot with a trunk.

The artful elephant, which has a potato body and carrot legs, won first prize in the childrens’ section at Halstead Horticultural early show earlier this month.

Lily-May’s two-year-old sister Sienna came second with her caterpillar made of plums.