After Thanksgiving, when the cold sets in and the neighbors abandon their pumpkins for Christmas wreaths, I always feel a little melancholy when I drive down the street on trash day and see all the discarded pumpkins in the yard waste cans.
I'm lucky, though. Living on an acre lot, I have a large garden area across the back of the property that ends at the edge of a steep ravine. When it's time to bring out the holiday trimmings, our pumpkins, gourds and squash find a new home in the then-barren garden and return to nature by becoming a smorgasbord for deer, squirrels, raccoon and woodchuck.
In the relatively short time before they're devoured or shoved into the ravine by an over-zealous deer or raccoon, they add much-needed color to the spent garden.
The dusting of snow makes them look like sugary treats.
My husband and I make a habit of checking out the autumn leftovers every day. The deer shove them around the garden as they munch on them. The squirrels sit on top of them and dig out the insides. Occasionally, we see a critter nudge its meal a bit too hard and it rolls off the edge of the ravine and down into the creek.
Sometimes the seeds that are left behind sprout volunteer plants in the spring--plants the deer generally eat before they mature into produce-bearing vines.
Every year, I look forward to giving our autumn bounty a resting place in the garden. It just seems so harmonious.
Here's a view of the garden about five hours after I took the pumpkin photos.
Beautiful pictures! My Halloween pumpkin spends the winter tucked into a corner of the vegetable garden -- but becomes a not very photogenic slimy primordial mess, with our cold (bit seldom quite cold enough to snow -- the freezing cold always comes AFTER the rain leaves) and our inches upon inches of autumn and winter rain.
ReplyDeleteYou have the right idea for composting your old pumpkins. We have a small lot so I toss mine in the ditch across the road hoping they will reseed and grow the next year. Not yet. :) Your snowy yard is pretty. Pamela in Canada
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful dusting of snow. Its great that you turn the pumpkins out to pasture :) My sister actually had hers sitting on her doorstep until mid may last year. Crazy right? It was like a rock by that point in time. I think after December it became more of a science experiment than anything. Hope you are fairing well with the snow, and if you have time to stop by my site and follow along I would really appreciate it.
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Oh this is fabulous! I love that you feed the wild life instead of throwing them out. That last picture looks like a Christmas card! Merry Christmas!
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