Leftover jack o lanterns can be composted!
Sunday October 5, 2025 | LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
After you’ve celebrated Halloween with jack-o-lanterns or pumpkin pie, your pumpkin is wanted by Mother Nature!
Save the pulp and seeds for baking or gardening, and put the rest into composting.
Harvesting seeds from a pumpkin.
Compost options:
For raw pumpkins (not cooked), here are some compost options:
The compost bin in your own backyard.
The compost bins at local community gardens, including Porcher Park Community Garden in Langford.
Local food gardeners (and Mother Nature) appreciate you doing this instead of the pumpkins being ‘smashed’.
Get the Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society (UFRIS) E-Newsletter. It’s free!
Porcher Park:
Porcher Park Community Garden can use your pumpkins for their composting system. They are accepting raw (uncooked) pumpkins, squash and other gourds for their composting system… drop them off between October 15 and November 9, 2025.
After Thanksgiving and after Halloween, you can bring used jack-o-lanterns (remove any plastic or candles) and leftover pumpkins to Porcher Park Community Garden at 828 Wren Place in downtown Langford.
Porcher Park Community Garden is located at 828 Wren Place in central Langford. [Google map]
Leave your ecologically-aware donation of pumpkins outside the gate in the growing box (Box #34) in the fruit tree area to the left of the fenced garden.
Please do *not* bring regular yard waste. No room for that. Porcher Park accepts only fresh organic material.
Food-growing box at Porcher Park Community Garden, Oct 2025. [Island Social Trends]
Your donation of pumpkins, squash and other gourds will feed next year’s crop of veggies at Porcher Park! Organized by Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society.
Financial donations to Urban Food Resilience Initiatives Society for high-quality soil supply are also welcome (by e-transfer).
Donating your pumpkins and squash to the food bank:
If your pumpkin remains untouched (not carved or smashed), it would be cool to donate it to a local food bank.
In the west shore there are a couple of food donation options:
Goldstream Food Bank (on Station Ave)
Porcher Park Community Garden (828 Wren Place) – leave kitchen-suitable pumpkins next to the fence (fruit tree side); pumpkins will be taken to Living Edge Westshore (open on Friday mornings at Forge Church on Sooke Road).
Porcher Park Community Garden is within the larger public park at 828 Wren Place in downtown Langford. [Oct 2025 / Island Social Trends]
Smash, alas:
In days gone by, many carved pumpkins from Halloween night would end up rotting for days or weeks outdoors, or even be smashed on streets! If you must smash, there are two such events:
Saturday November 1. Langford Charity Pumpkin Smash 2025. Bring a cash donation to watch your jack-o-lantern dropped from a fire engine! 10 am to 2 pm. Cineplex parking lot. Proceeds to the BC Burn Fund.
Saturday November 1. Colwood Pumpkin Smash. City of Colwood Public Works Yard, 3300 Wishart Road. 12 noon to 2 pm.
Urban food resilience news section within Island Social Trends.
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NEWS SECTIONS: URBAN FOOD RESILIENCE | FOOD SECURITY | HALLOWEEN
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