Puddock Hill Journal #30: The trash is the last place you want to throw a pumpkin.
With Halloween in the rearview mirror and cooler temperatures finally threatening to settle in next week, one’s mind turns to the sorry remains of our decorative pumpkins.
As our house is not visible from the road, we don’t put on a big pumpkin and gourd show, but the women who refresh our planters every season (shout-out to Prairie Wind) compose seasonal displays atop our gate pillars. I referred to these above as “sorry remains,” but in fact they have weathered well so far, I suspect because we have yet to experience a hard frost. Here’s what they look like today (black walnut fruit added by nature):
Lovely and whimsical, but soon they will indeed start to show their age.
We have long disposed of our pumpkins at the edge of any nearby woods, but a recent NPR article reminded me that many folks might still be putting theirs in the household trash.