Start Halloween preparations in your greenhouse

With Halloween just a few months away, keen gardeners may fancy growing their own pumpkins and now is the ideal time to sow the seeds.

Kids love making pumpkin lanterns while pumpkin pie also makes a tasty treat.

The ideal time for planting outside has just passed but this large fruit can be grown in the greenhouse anytime.

Just fill a 7.5 centimetres pot with compost and plant one seed around 2.5 centimetres beneath the surface.

It is important to keep the soil moist until roots begin to show through the bottom.

When this occurs, transfer it into a larger pot (around 12.5 centimetres) and allow the plant to establish itself before planting outside.

Once outside, treat it with a good mulch and feed it regularly remembering to protect it from the elements as much as possible.

The pumpkin fruits themselves should be raised from the ground with wood or bricks and should only be removed from the plant when the skin has hardened and the stem cracked.

The pumpkin should then be left outside for ten days to fully harden, after which it will be ready to eat or transform into a witch, ghost or ghoul.