Have you ever grown pumpkins in your front yard?

I tried planting some pumpkins seeds in the back yard but they failed miserably. Now I'm reading that people have "accidentally" grown pumpkin plants from a smashed pumpkin left on the ground.

I'm wanting to try carving pumpkins for the first time in my adult life (one for experimenting and one as a treat for the deer that have made appearances in our back yard.) If I smash a good-sized pumpkin on the small unworked flower bed in front of the house, will it grow? Should I loosen up the soil first? Has anybody ever grown a front yard pumpkin patch? It sounds really cool.

I haven't actually timed the hours of sunlight the front yard gets, but it seems to be open enough to get quite a bit of sunshine.