Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

This is my favorite time of the year for pumpkins: not on Halloween, when the orange gourds blaze in menacing glory. I like the look of pumpkins that linger a few weeks later on. They’ve dried out and shrunk inward upon themselves a bit, adding a hint of pathos. The mouths of the formerly toothsome pumpkins curl inward, making the Jack O’ Lanterns resemble senior citizens looking out and yelling at all the kids to get off their lawn.

They’ll be compost soon, completely unrecognizable. Pumpkins make great compost material, right up there with cucumbers and spinach in their decomposing glory. But why toss ‘em right away? Let ‘em linger, just at the time when the growth of the past summer is finally petering out. My challenge each year is to leave the pumpkins out long enough to really get some character, but to get them before the bottoms rot out and they fall off the shovel and all over the place. I didn’t move them in time last year. Let’s see what happens this season.

How late do you leave out your pumpkins, and what is their final destination?