by Cherry Kelly

Created on: October 15, 2008

Pumpkin Patch Outdoor Holiday Halloween Decorations

Combining your garden produce into some Halloween outdoor decorations can prove to be fun for the whole family! Of course everyone thinks about pumpkins. Carving them, adding candles or glow lights for nighttime viewing is probably the first thing one thinks about doing, but there is so much more that can be done with your garden produce to create an outdoor decoration that is 'out of this world'.

If you don't have access to a couple bales of straw or hay, make your own. A cardboard box works well as a start. Just add some glue and mowed grass to the outside, or some cut up strips of brown construction paper. Add your carved pumpkins to the top and you've created a simple decoration.

BUT, lets take that scarecrow from the garden, remove the head and take a small pumpkin that you can carve to look like a head and either use it AS the head or put in the arm of your scarecrow. You say you didn't have a scarecrow in your garden. They too are easy enough to make with an old broomstick and another shorter stick bound together to form a "T" that you can dress with an old shirt and pair of slacks. Stuff the arms and legs with several bunches of newspaper. Or turn this into a witch by adding a hat and change the clothing to dark garbage bags. Add an old broom or create a broom with a stick and some of your dead plants to create the broom area. Attach a few by taping them to the bottom of the stick area.

Flying pumpkin ghosts are another easy decoration. Using the smaller pumpkins to create your ghost heads, simply add white trash bags taped to the bottom of your pumpkin head and suspend them from a tree branch.

Gourds can be turned into bats or even small ghosts that can be hung from eaves or tree limbs. Who said bats have to be black? Just add construction paper wings and ears taped to your gourd bodies. With a medium to large gourd you can create glowing eye bats. On the underside or bottom of your gourd you will cut a plug hole. Be sure to save the external part of this hole to hold your candle. Carve out a center hollow area. On the topside, cut two small holes for eyes, deep enough to reach the hollow area. Then tape your wings and ears to the body. Use a small candle and put it on the external bottom plug area and hold that to your bat with tape. Duct tape works well.

Gourd shapes will vary and using some imagination will help you create numerous displays. Gourd goblins or trolls are perhaps the easiest as they only require a few bits of construction paper to add arms or legs. You can draw faces on these gourds and put them near your lighted pumpkins.

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