Jack o Planterns

Jack o Planterns

This is a fun Halloween project for gardeners! It’s silly and quirky, and it puts a smile on everyone’s face. Turn your Jack-o-Lantern into a Jack-o-PLANTern this year for a fun garden therapy project using these simple DIY instructions.

Making your own is a really simple project. Heading out to a garden center will be the most time consuming and, might I add, dangerous. You will have to show some restraint if you don’t want to come home with a carload of colorful grasses, kale, and other fall beauties.

Materials:

• Pumpkin
• Soil
• Grasses, cabbage, sedum, & ornamental kale
• Marker
• Knife

Jack o plantern materials

1. Cut the top off your pumpkin to make a hole in the top. If it is fairly empty, then you don’t need to spend a bunch of time scooping it out. I removed the seeds and roasted them and left the rest of the junk in there. It will all compost together in the end anyhow. Use you marker to draw a face on the best side of the pumpkin and use the knife to carve out the holes.

Making a Jack o lantern planter

2. Now add some soil to the bottom of the pumpkin. You can use a container mix soil, although I just used SEA SOIL original which is pure compost. I found that my plants had quite a bit of container soil in them and I didn’t really need to add much more in the way of peat moss or perlite. Contrary to typical container planting instructions, you really want to pack the soil down at the bottom to create some firm areas where the plants can sit. These planters will not last long enough for the roots to struggle and will have lots of moisture and organic matter from the pumpkin itself. I also don’t think drainage holes are necessary but add them if you choose.

How to Make a a Jack o lantern planter

3. Now for the fun part (it is even more fun than carving a jack-o-lantern)! Plant some ‘hair’ with grasses…

Jack o plantern instructions -adding hair

…and ‘hats’ with cabbage.

Jack o plantern instructions -adding hair and a cabbage hat

Fill soil around the roots of the plants (remove the plastic pots) and pack it in through the eyes and mouth. Leave space for sedum and ornamental kale as eyes and teeth.

Jack o plantern instructions -adding kale for eyes

I tried swapping out the kale and sedum in different jack-o-lantern eyes until I got the look that I liked.

4. Now set your pumpkin out in the cool fall air and water periodically. After Halloween, remove the plants and make a pretty fall planter or use them to pretty up the garden. Compost the whole pumpkin and the soil and you will be well on your way to a greener garden next year.

Thanks for visiting the weekend project !

Original article and pictures take gardentherapy.ca site