Make a Halloween lantern

IF you have grown your own pumpkins they should be ready to harvest now.

It takes about 15 weeks from planting out for pumpkins to mature and have a hard skin.

Keep toasty

Remove the fruits from the plant and allow it to sit out in the sun for about a week to dry up the sap.

Pumpkins are vulnerable to frosts, which makes them collapse and go soggy. So if a dip in the temperature is forecast, cover them up with a fleece blanket.

Frightful mess

Select well-shaped pumpkins to turn into lanterns and cut the stems with a sharp knife.

Keep the cut end away from clothing because the clear, sticky sap is hard to remove from fabric.

Face facts

Using a sharp knife, cut off the bottom of the pumpkin.

Scoop out the fleshy inside, making sure the base is scraped level. Mark out a spooky face with a felt tip pen, using the snag of stem as the nose. Or use a star cookie cutter to make a pattern in the skin then clean the edges with a sharp knife.

Flaming fun

WHEN flower arranging, stop as stems crumpling you try to force them into floral foam by first making a hole with a knitting needle.

Rub petroleum jelly over the cut areas and the outside skin to prolong the life of the pumpkin and prevent it from drying out quickly.

For safety, put a tea light in a glass jam jar before popping it in.