Compost Your Pumpkin This Year
Every year, one billion pounds of pumpkins are produced in the United States alone, including at least 100 million pounds in every state. Unlike many other aspects of your Halloween experience, pumpkins don’t come in difficult to recycle packaging, which should make proper disposal a no-brainer.
Pumpkins are a unique holiday decoration in that they are entirely natural, yet a majority of the nature gets thrown out once you’ve carved them. So, how can you make sure that the entire pumpkin is being used and not put into a landfill? The simple solution is to compost it.
Earth 911 has the most extensive composting resource on the internet, which will give you more information on what composting means and its benefits. To provide a quick definition, compost is the decomposition of organic materials to produce nutrient-rich soil enhancer.
Pumpkin seeds themselves are a strong source of nutrients, including zinc, iron and phosphorus. These are all great additions to a compost pile, assuming you don’t want to absorb these nutrients yourself in a pumpkin soup or pumpkin pie. So now that you know why to compost, let’s discuss how you do it.
Compost piles rely on a mix of nitrogen-rich greens (which will include pumpkin components) and browns (leaves, paper and other carbon-rich materials). So, Halloween is the perfect time to compost because you’ll have a bunch of leaves falling before winter that need to be raked anyway.
What you’ll be left with after the bacteria take over is a nutrient-rich fertilizer substitute for your garden. You’ll also get two stages of pumpkin compost, first when you gut it to create a jack-o-lantern and again when you smash up the shell in November.
The last benefit to composting pumpkins is that the product you’re creating is ideal for growing your own pumpkins. Lots of communities have pumpkin growing contests in October, so you might as well have an advantage based on what you’re growing with.
Sources:
keltay3
posted on November 3rd, 2007 at 9:34 am
This tells me why, but not ‘how’. If I already have a compost pile, this serves as a reminder to add pumpkins to it. If I don’t, this is not enough information to tell me how to start. Is there no ‘composting for beginners’?
Sarah
posted on November 12th, 2008 at 10:24 am
My class is starting a community garden, and we’ve decided to educate the school by getting the unsold pumpkins from Wal*Mart and having the students smash up our pumpkins (we’re deseeding about 400 for the event)
Would the pumpkins themselves be too rich for the ground???
Would we need to mix in the pumpkins with something else, immediatly???
eucarya
posted on November 12th, 2008 at 4:10 pm
Sarah, congratulations on starting your own compost pile!
Just piling up smashed pumpkins isn’t enough to start the pile. There are some easy steps you’ll need to follow in order to start your own pile.
The main thing to remember is you need an equal amount of “greens” and “browns”. Think of your “greens” as moist and recently discarded vegetables (like your pumpkins) or fresh grass and yard clippings. The “browns” are things such as dried leaves, hay, straw, and even shredded newspaper.
Once you have equal amounts, mix it all together with a fork or a shovel.
After it’s thoroughly mixed, wet it down a bit with a hose, not so it’s soggy, but just enough to keep it all moist.
This should start your pile off nicely.
When you add to the pile, follow these four steps:
1. Take an equal amount of “browns” and “greens” and mix them outside the pile.
2. Aerate the existing compost pile with a fork or shovel (or even better, a compost aerator)
3. Add your new mixture
4. Keep it moist.
You should also take a look at Earth911.com’s composting section to learn more.