What to do with your Halloween Pumpkin

by | Oct 30, 2018 | Lawn Maintenance, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Halloween is a time to trick or treat, dress up and carve pumpkins. However, what should one do with that pumpkin once Halloween has come to an end? We found some great ideas from PumpkinPatchesandMore.org. A few of include:

 

  • Put it in the compost heap – it will make good fertilizer
  • Bury it in the garden – it will decay quickly and enrich the soil
  • Wash, dry and save the seeds to plant next year (they will grow!)
  • Wash and roast the seeds – they make good eating.
  • Dump it in the trash, if you haven’t got a garden

Being in the landscape business, we also love this idea of a pumpkin planter.

A Pumpkin Planter

This is a great use for a carved or un-carved pumpkin – anything that adds a little natural beapumpkin-planter-2uty to the yard is a win to us. Head down to your local nursery, pick up some annuals, and use your pumpkin as the planter! It will be a festive decoration for a few days, and then you can plant the whole thing right in the backyard. The pumpkin will naturally compost and provide fertilizer for your plant. If your pumpkin is un-carved, cut off the top and remove the seeds, guts and flesh from inside. Set them aside and save for later (if you have a carved pumpkin, skip this step). Simply pack some potting soil into your pumpkin until it is about one-third full. You may need to do some extra packing to keep the soil from falling out of your jack-o-lantern’s face. Place your plant into the pumpkin, and fill it out with more potting soil. You can dig a small hole and plant the whole thing right away, or leave it on the porch for a few days for decoration. Depending on where you call home, it may be a little chilly for planting. But if you haven’t seen your first frost, give this one a whirl.*

And did you also know …

“Pumpkins are great for much more than carving! Pumpkins provide 53% of our vitamin A, 20% of our vitamin C, and 564 mg. of potassium.  So if you never got around to carving that pumpkin, you might want to cook your pumpkin!

The name pumpkin originated from “pepon” – the Greek word for “large melon.” Native Americans used pumpkin seeds for food and medicine. American colonists sliced off pumpkin tips; removed seeds and filled the insides with milk, spices and honey. This was baked in hot ashes and is the origin of our  pumpkin pie, although it is recorded that they also used pumpkins as an ingredient for the crust of pies, not the filling.”**

*Source: RedRiverMiner.com

**Source PumpkinPatchesandMore.org

 

 

 

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