Step one:
Choose the type of squash that you want to grow in your garden. You will have to choose the variety, color, size, and other features you want before you can pick out the right seeds or starter plants. Once you have made your final decisions pick out the correct seeds or starter plants from your local nursery or seed store.

Step two:
Before you plant, be sure to choose an area that gets eight to ten hours of strong sunlight a day. Squash grown in the shade will often refuse to fruit, which means that they won't produce pumpkins. If they do manage to produce, squash that are raised in the shade are small, distorted, and anemic. Remember, great pumpkins are the ones with the bright orange "tan."

Step three:
Carefully nick the hard seed coat with your fingernail or a sharp knife but do not cut all the way into the seed. Place the seeds into a glass of water and soak them overnight. Nicking the shells and soaking the seeds will make pumpkins sprout faster. Any seeds that are still floating after twenty-four hours should be discarded because they will not sprout.

Step four:
Do not plant the seeds if your nightly temperatures are going to drop below 50 degrees Fahrenheit. You can plant them early by planting them indoors a few weeks before the last frost is expected and transplanting them once the ground has warmed up.

Step five:
When planting your seeds you should be sure to plant then about three inches deep in the soil. The more organic materials your soil has the better your pumpkins will grow. Some examples of good organic materials are sawdust, decayed leaves, lawn clippings, shredded newspaper, etc. Before you use them, you want to make sure that they are in an advanced state of decomposition.

Step six:
When you are planting the seeds, you want to be sure that you are planting them in groups of three in small mounds. Once you have planted the seeds in the mounds you should sprinkle a quarter cup of blood and bone meal over the mound and water the mounds. You can find the blood and bone meal at most garden centers.

Step seven:
Once you have planted your seeds you need to keep an eye out for your seedlings, especially when you are weeding. If you see two round and opposite leaves, they probably belong to a pumpkin, not to some weed, so leave it alone. You should also protect your seedlings from any birds or bugs that enjoy munching on newly sprouted plants. The best way to protect your plants from birds is to use some type of netting to cover the plants until they are more mature.

Step eight:
Now that your pumpkins have started to grow, you are going to need to trim off some of the pumpkins from the vine. For larger pumpkins, you are going to want to trim off all but one pumpkin for each vine. If you are growing smaller pumpkins, you can leave quite a few pumpkins on each vine. The best thing to do is to consult your local nursery or the directions on the seed packet to see how many they recommend leaving on the vine, of course this also depends on how many pumpkins you want to have available for your own personal use.

Step nine:
When your pumpkins are bigger, you will want to place a board underneath them so that the bottom of the pumpkins remains flat. The flat bottoms will ensure that they sit upright. You can do this with other types of squash, if you need them to have a flat bottom. When harvesting the squash you want to make sure they are fully mature and leave at least 4 inches of the stem attached to them.