Jen was about to pitch the pumpkins when I yelled, “Wait! We’ve got a compost pile now.” I really had no idea if you could add pumpkins to compost, but I had sent them to the landfill every year in the past…enough was enough.

A quick Google search shows tons of pages urging readers to compost their leftover pumpkins. Once I tossed them into the enclosure, I used a flat shovel to chop them up. After they were in small pieces, I covered them with readily available leaves. What an easy time to add browns (leaves) and greens (pumpkins) to a pile!

So, the pile is off to a good start. Fall truly is a great time to start this great experiment. Oh, and in the interest of sharing, here are some other useful tidbits.

• I added my first wave of kitchen scraps: Saturday’s fruit leftovers and some old bananas.
• We had our first four-legged visitor to the pile…probably going after the fruit mentioned above. They didn’t touch the pumpkin pieces.
• Having all these brown leaves around is so helpful.
• I need to work on a better system for collecting scraps in the kitchen.
• I am going to need a pitchfork.

Happy composting everyone!