Ways to Reuse Pumpkins After Halloween

After Halloween, pumpkins reenact a process that gives many homeowners chagrin: they begin to sag, wither, and rot, much like a badly invested relationship or a man one foot in the grave. They languish in trash bins, their leering, macabre faces a bleak reminder of human mortality as they inspire pity in the occasional passerby. 

Fortunately, your seasonal gourds don’t have to meet such a sad and wasteful end. Pumpkins are remarkably versatile, nutrient-dense organic materials that can easily be repurposed and fed to local wildlife, or returned to the earth to enrich your garden for the coming spring.

Read on for a collection of creative ways to give your pumpkins a brilliant second life.

1. Feed the Local Wildlife and Backyard Birds

Pumpkin innards always provoke a strong, visceral reaction, but what humans find distasteful, local wildlife finds irresistible. Before your jack-o'-lanterns waste away past the point of no return, remember that wildlife considers pumpkins a five-star seasonal buffet – squirrels, deer, chipmunks, and rabbits all seek out its orange flesh for sustenance. Songbirds who have burned through their stores are also on the prowl for seeds. 

Chop up pumpkin innards and scatter them in a quiet corner of your yard or place them on a flat feeder tray. Watching local birds and squirrels feast on your old decor can provide brief glimmers of colorful comedy.

2. Enrich The Soil Through Composting

If you’ve ever looked into the cold eyes of an Irish enforcer, then you know the euphemism, “sleeping with the fishes,” means that the body has already been chucked into the Thames. Pumpkins also return to the earth, but through a much more poetic means. 

Roughly 90% water, pumpkins are packed with nitrogen, potassium, and other vital micronutrients. If your carved pumpkins are starting to show mold or early stages of decay, composting is a viable alternative. Do not toss the entire pumpkin into the compost heap; instead, break it down into pieces to speed up the breakdown process. To balance the high-water content, mix them thoroughly with "brown" carbon-rich materials like dry autumn leaves, shredded cardboard, or straw.

Alternatively, you can try garden trench composting by digging a hole or a shallow trench directly in your vegetable garden bed, burying the pumpkin pieces a few inches underground, and letting earthworms and soil microbes break it down naturally over the winter. By spring, your soil will be rich, fertile, and primed for planting. To speed up composting even further, Vego’s worm composter, intended to be placed inside Vego raised beds, is a streamlined, compact way of producing nutrient-rich fertilizer. 

3. Create a Natural Biodegradable Planter  

If you have sturdy pie pumpkins or decorative gourds that are still structurally sound, you can easily transform them into makeshift planters for plants like ornamental cabbages, small herbs, and violas. As they degrade, they can be composted back into the earth. If you’re finding it a hassle to carry all your spare tools and pots, a potting bench facilitates the movement of essential gardening tools.  

Cut off the top lid of the pumpkin, scoop out the seeds and stringy pulp, then fill the hollow cavity halfway with nutrient-rich potting soil. When your pumpkin starts to sag, transfer the plants to a garden bed or regular pot, and compost it. 

4. Try Some Pumpkin Recipes 

Each pumpkin bears roughly five hundred seeds, closely sequestered within its fibrous pulp. Seeds that have been rinsed can be used for extra ingredients in soups, as can the flesh itself.  

• Homemade Pumpkin Puree: Slice firm pumpkins in half, scrape out the seeds, roast the halves face-down in the oven until tender, and scoop out the soft flesh. Blend it into a smooth puree that can be used for muffins, pancakes, soups, or pumpkin pies.

• Roasted Seeds: If you saved your seeds during the initial carving phase, rinse away the pulp, toss them with olive oil, salt, and sweet-scented spices (like cinnamon-sugar or smoked paprika), and roast them at 350°F (175°C) until golden and crispy for a healthy, crunchy snack.

5. Turn into Natural Birdfeeders

It seems surprising, but pumpkins can actually be converted into rustic birdfeeders – to truly utilize all parts of the pumpkin, fill the inside with dried pumpkin seeds. To create the birdfeeder, drill or poke three or four evenly spaced holes near the upper rim of the hollowed-out, cleaned pumpkin shell, thread durable twine or rope through the holes, and tie them securely together at the top to create a hanging basket. Fill the hollow center with wild birdseed. Hang the contraption from a sturdy tree branch as a nutritious treat for visiting birds.