Ever wondered if you could do anything else with your pumpkin after Halloween? Once Halloween is over, it can seem like a waste to simply throw your pumpkins away. Fortunately, we’ve come up with a few ideas to give your pumpkins more purpose in your home and garden. Not only are you ticking the sustainability box, but you are also getting your money’s worth and helping the environment and wildlife.

Use uncarved pumpkins as home or garden decorations

Carved pumpkins tend to begin to rot fairly quickly after Halloween, particularly if they are kept inside. Whilst this is great for other uses which we will mention below, it’s not great if you want to continue the autumn vibe at home for a little longer. Instead, keep some pumpkins back uncarved and use them on patio furniture, as a display on your front garden or even as part of your house plant décor. If you sourced your pumpkins from a local patch or farm, it’s likely they had many more varieties available than a supermarket, so the quirky shapes and colours will enhance the display!

Eat your pumpkin after Halloween

With carved pumpkins, you can keep the seeds, dry them and lightly toast them in the oven. With uncarved pumpkins, you can use the flesh in a variety of recipes such as soups, stew or risotto. This is particularly satisfying if you grew the pumpkin yourself. Again, sourcing a variety of pumpkins will bring different flavours to your meals.

Make a pumpkin bird feeder

Carved and uncarved pumpkins can be used as a bird feeder. This time of year, the birds need a little assistance from us to ensure they have enough to eat over the winter. Filling the pumpkin with seeds will entice birds to check out their new food source. They can even peck at the skin and the flesh on the inside. Keep the seeds leave them out for the birds, as they can eat these also. Gardeners World have an easy to follow step by step guide. 

Compost your pumpkin after Halloween

Once your pumpkin has fulfilled its purpose in your home, composting it will add valuable nutrients to your compost mix. Making your own compost is a cost effective and sustainable method of improving your soil quality. Many household waste items can be composted, including pumpkins. Ensure you cut it into small pieces to help it break down.

Save the pumpkin seeds and grow your own

If snacking on pumpkin seeds isn’t your thing, why not allow them to dry before storing them for winter and then re-sowing them next spring? You could have a patch of second-generation pumpkins home grown in your garden! Pumpkin growing is very exciting, particularly for children. Start early, indoors if you can and plant out somewhere with plenty of light.

Donate your pumpkin to local farms

Pigs and chickens love pumpkins and often local farms welcome donations of your pumpkin after Halloween. In this case, you are supporting local businesses and disposing pumpkins in this way reducing both yours and the farm’s carbon footprint. Often famers will let you meet the animals who will be in receipt of the pumpkins so it also makes a family friendly activity.

What not to do with your pumpkin after Halloween

Whilst pumpkins are nutritious for some animals, they can be harmful to others. Therefore, they should not be tossed into fields or left in parks for anyone for find. Furthermore, leaving pumpkins to rot outside can attract pests such as rats or insects. Once you notice rotting, dispose of them properly, compost or bury them. Lastly, do not dispose of your pumpkin in woodland, their decomposition in these areas can upset the local ecology and be detrimental to the native plants or trees.

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