All About Pumpkins & Decorating Tips

Pumpkin Conservation: If you’re like me and you bought your pumpkin early (October 2!), then it may be showing signs of decay. To preserve your pumpkin…

If it is intact, give it a bath. Submerge in ice cold water for 1-2 hours and then towel it off and put back on display. Or you can bring it inside or at least move it to a shady spot during hottest part of the day.

If it is carved, a pumpkin usually lasts a week or two (or less in hot weather). To help them last for up to one month, spray a mixture of bleach and water on the inside of your pumpkin daily OR coat the inside with petroleum jelly. Both options serve to keep mold and dehydration at bay. Or, you can spray with lemon juice right after you cut it and repeat process every couple of days.

Pumpkin Carving Alternatives: Carving is messy and time-consuming. There are other options! Here are five, fun and easy suggestions: 1. The easiest approach is to load up on pumpkins. Place lots of different sizes, shapes, styles, and colors of pumpkins and gourds on your porch, yard, or front steps. The presence of so many wonderful, mismatched pumpkins and gourds is eye-catching enough. No need to do anything else! 2. Paint the pumpkin. For best results, use an acrylic paint in whatever color(s) you desire, such as gold or black. Paint patterns or big dots or cats or bats or ghosts or skeletons. 3. Decorate the pumpkin. Some stores, such as Lowe’s and Michael’s, carry decorating kits available in various themes. Or use dollar store witch hats, pirate bandanas, eye patches, creepy stick ’ems, and costume masks to create a pirate or witch or creepy creature head. I just bought some peel off designs and letters that it took me just a couple of minutes to put onto pumpkins to create fun designs and each kit cost just $1. 4. Etch the pumpkin. Create your own design or buy a carving kit (sold at most dollar stores and grocery stores). Trace the shape or design onto the pumpkin. Using pumpkin carving tools, etch the design by gently removing the top layers of the pumpkin. Be careful not to go too deep. Rub the etched area with petroleum jelly to protect the exposed layer. 5. Use a thick, black highlighter to write simple messages on the pumpkin, such as BOO! or BEWARE! or HAPPY HALLOWEEN! Or you can opt to carve and help charity by ordering a custom-designed stencil kit. Better Homes and Gardens has partnered with several charitable organizations, such as The Humane Society of the U.S.(http://www.humanesociety.org/) , Susan G. Komen for the Cure, and March of Dimes (http://www.marchofdimes.com/). The stencil kits are FREE but BHG makes a donation to the charity every time one of their stencil kits is downloaded. The Humane Society dog face is adorable! www.bhg.com/charitystencils

Creating a Pumpkin Centerpiece: Remove the top from the pumpkin and clean out the inside (as if you were going to carve it except you don’t have to save the lid). Instead, place a small potted orange mum inside the cavity of the pumpkin or an arrangement of dried and/or real flowers (such as pictured). These make great centerpieces and nice party favors too.

Pumpkin Candy Dish: Carve a pumpkin as usual but instead of inserting a candle, fill it with candy. It can serve as a decoration and a candy dish for trick or treaters! Another idea is that you can have party guests try to guess the number of candy pieces inside the pumpkin and the closest guess wins the candy pumpkin at the end of the evening!