The Simple Things

Taking time to live well
  • Home
  • Subscribe
  • SHOP
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Work with us
  • Home
  • Subscribe
  • SHOP
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Work with us

Blog

Taking Time to Live Well

  • All
  • Chalkboard
  • Christmas
  • Competition
  • could do
  • Eating
  • Escape
  • Escaping
  • Fresh
  • Fun
  • gardening
  • Gathered
  • Gathering
  • Growing
  • Haikus
  • Interview
  • Living
  • Looking back
  • Magazine
  • magical creatures
  • Making
  • Miscellany
  • My Neighbourhood
  • Nature
  • Nest
  • Nesting
  • outing
  • playlist
  • Reader event
  • Reader offer
  • Shop
  • Sponsored post
  • Sunday Best
  • Think
  • Uncategorized
  • Wellbeing
  • Wisdom

How to use up discarded pumpkins

Lottie Storey November 1, 2015

No need to jack in your jack-o-lantern: give it a new lease of life

Plant pot: Plant an annual within the soil-filled shell and dig into the ground. As it decomposes, it’ll fertilise your plant.

Compost: Put leaves inside the shell to speed the process. Break it into small pieces for a wormery.

Pumpkin printing: A potato printing alternative – cut into pieces and add paint.

Ant colony: Place your pumpkin near an existing colony (outside!). Honey or something sweet will bring all the ants to the gourd.

Bird feeder: We whipped one up last Halloween. Find out how to make a Halloween pumpkin bird feeder here. 

And a few suggestions from the internet that we don’t recommend:

Base for decorative floating candles: That’s likely to be one leaky vessel.

Eating it: Come November, it’s debatable how appetising your old Halloween lantern will look. 

 

More pumpkins! Here at The Simple Things, we love an outdoor gathering and Halloween is a great excuse to wrap up warm and enjoy all things pumpkin. Download our guide for how to use and eat pumpkins, and we’ve got a recipe for a bonfire parkin, too.  

And we could resist including this fella - knit a pumpkin hat (pattern from Cats in Hats by Sara Thomas (Hamlyn) octopusbooks.co.uk) 

Read more:

From the October issue

Pumpkin coconut curry recipe

Salted caramel toffee apples

October's The Simple Things is on sale - buy, download or subscribe now.

InMiscellany Tagsissue 40, october, halloween, pumpkin, pumpkin craft
  • Blog
  • Older
  • Newer
Featured
  Buy ,  download  or  subscribe   See the sample of our latest issue  here   Buy a copy of our latest anthology:  A Year of Celebrations   Buy a copy of  Flourish 2 , our wellbeing bookazine  Listen to  our podcast  - Small Ways to Live Well
Feb 27, 2025
Feb 27, 2025

Buy, download or subscribe

See the sample of our latest issue here

Buy a copy of our latest anthology: A Year of Celebrations

Buy a copy of Flourish 2, our wellbeing bookazine

Listen to our podcast - Small Ways to Live Well

Feb 27, 2025
Join our Newsletter
Name
Email *

We respect your privacy and won't share your data.

email marketing by activecampaign
facebook-unauth twitter pinterest spotify instagram
  • Subscriber Login
  • Stockists
  • Advertise
  • Contact

The Simple Things is published by Iceberg Press

The Simple Things

Taking time to live well

We celebrate slowing down, enjoying what you have, making the most of where you live, enjoying the company of of friends and family, and feeding them well. We like to grow some of our own vegetables, visit local markets, rummage for vintage finds, and decorate our home with the plunder. We love being outdoors and enjoy the satisfaction that comes with a job well done.

facebook-unauth twitter pinterest spotify instagram