🎃 Pumpkins can be composted, donated to farms, fed to wildlife

[JudyM]

Hold off before throwing that porch pumpkin into the trash along with Halloween candy wrappers. Those jack-o’-lanterns don’t have to end up in the local landfill.

Consider composting pumpkins in the garden, donating them to community gardens, farms or even a zoo, or simply leaving them as a snack for backyard wildlife.

…Pumpkins, other vegetable scraps and grass clippings in compost piles are high in nitrogen. Provide equal or higher amounts of carbon-based materials such as leaves, sawdust, wood chips or cardboard. Occasionally add water to the compost pile. Turning it over with a rake or pitchfork ensures that oxygen is mixed in.

Some community gardens accept pumpkins and other food scraps to add to their compost piles.

Or consider that pumpkin as a meal for a host of animals at a local farm, zoo or sanctuary. The group Pumpkins for Pigs has an interactive U.S. map of places that accept donations of uncarved, undecorated pumpkins.

https://apnews.com/article/composting-pumpkins-halloween-jack-o-lanterns-gardening-921757fbb2bf84d9e5c55f55a63b280a

[Docreed2003]

1. Nashville has a donation site

Where the pumpkins go to a pig farm!

[questionseverything]

2. We just let the squirrels eat them

[mercuryblues]

3. When the kids were younger

I would get a baseball bat, golf club and small ax and let them break up the pumpkins near the tree line on our property. Every day the remains got smaller and smaller. We would have fun trying to figure out what animal hit it up during the night.

[Ocelot II]

4. The wildlife help themselves. Squirrels seem to love pumpkins.

[Island Blue]

5. I like to watch mine "melt"

in my back yard, and let the squirrels, raccoons, birds & other creatures enjoy them. It’s also fun to watch how long it takes them to 🫠 so that only the seeds are left. Sometimes it takes months!

[Bristlecone]

6. The deer love them

My old golden used to also.

[Hotler]

7. $100 fine for feeding them to wild life in Colorado.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/don-t-leave-those-jack-o-lanterns-or-pumpkins-out-for-wildlife-to-eat/ar-AA13CZwy?cvid=5cdae9d0197144039452c6729ae0f331