If you’ve got a whole pumpkin (or jack o’lantern) to compost, cut it up into chunks or slices first to encourage faster composting. Alternatively, if you’ve got chickens or wild birds visiting your garden, let them peck at the flesh first – that’ll reduce the amount you have to compost.

Don’t forget you can roast pumpkin seeds for a tasty snack – scoop them out and wash away the fibrous strands, then roast them or dry fry them for a few minutes. If you don’t fancy roasting & eating them, wild birds and chickens like them too – though you might want to roughly chop them up first.

You can also use the seeds for crafts – see How Can I Recycle This? for things to do with them.

(That might not sound like a big deal in most circumstances – you can just pull up the plants as you would any unwanted weed or even transplant them and grow them on to full plants – but some people might want to avoid the extra work.)

If you grow your own veg and the tomatoes were tasty enough to be worth it, you can save the seeds for sowing properly – use a ferminating method to reduce the likelihood of seed-born diseases or saving bad seeds. (However, keep in mind that many supermarket tomatoes are from hybrid plants so might not grow “true”.)

Also see: Can I Compost Tomato Plants/Vines?

Firstly, the rind/peel is a great protective layer for the fruit – perfect for its journey to us but a hindrance to speedy composting. If for some reason you’re throwing away whole fruit, split them open to aid decomposition.

Secondly, too much citrus fruit/peel can disrupt the balance of your compost heap. If it becomes too acidic, it might cause problems for the bacteria that breaks the stuff down into compost.

Also, many types of compost heap worms or wormery worms such as tiger worms don’t like d-limonene, an antiseptic substance found in fresh citrus peel. The d-limonene disappears as the peel rots though so your worms will prefer it if you leave it out of the wormery/compost heap until it’s green and furry.

Basically, the odd bit of citrus fruit is fine but too much – for example if you’re making acidic juices from a lot of fruit every day – might cause problems. (Some people keep a separate compost heap/bin for problematic stuff – it’ll compost down eventually and won’t get in the way in the meantime.)

In the future, if you don’t think you’ll use up oranges before they’ll go off, squeeze them and freeze the juice in ice cube trays for use in cooking, or slice them into wedges and freeze, to use as combined fruit and ice in the summer’s drinks!

Soon to go off oranges can also be used in baking and added to smoothies, jams and pureed sauces.

Grapes rot down incredibly quickly in a compost heap (or in a fruit bowl if you’ve forgotten about them). Throw them on your heap, stalks and all.

(It’s away from the subject of composting really but if you’ve got a load of grapes set to go off and don’t want to sling them, freeze them instead. They’re like little mini-sorbets when frozen and can be eaten as snacks without defrosting.)

The flesh will compost down very quickly but the thicker rind will take a bit longer – cut it into pieces if you want it to rot down quicker or disappear into the bulk of the compost.

If you’ve got a whole melon to compost, definitely cut it up into chunks or slices first.

(Some birds like pecking at the rinds to remove the last of the flesh – if you have regular visitors to your bird feeder, or keep chickens, try hanging the rind up near their food for a couple of days — they might reduce the amount of melon that needs composting.)

Firstly, the rind/peel is a great protective layer for the fruit – perfect for its journey to us but a hindrance to speedy composting. If for some reason you’re throwing away whole fruit, split them open to aid decomposition.

Secondly, too much citrus fruit/peel can disrupt the balance of your compost heap. If it becomes too acidic, it might cause problems for the bacteria that breaks the stuff down into compost.

Also, many types of compost heap worms or wormery worms such as tiger worms don’t like d-limonene, an antiseptic substance found in fresh citrus peel. The d-limonene disappears as the peel rots though so your worms will prefer it if you leave it out of the wormery/compost heap until it’s green and furry.

Basically, the odd bit of citrus fruit is fine but too much – for example if you’re making acidic juices from a lot of fruit every day – might cause problems. (Some people keep a separate compost heap/bin for problematic stuff – it’ll compost down eventually and won’t get in the way in the meantime.)

In the future, if you don’t think you’ll use up lemons before they’ll go off, squeeze them and freeze the juice in ice cube trays for use in cooking, or slice them into wedges and freeze, to use as combined fruit and ice in the summer’s drinks!

Alternatively, lemons and their juice can be used in all sorts of cleaning activities around the home, or the rind can be used as a garnish, in pot pourri or to fresh up garbage disposals.

The flesh of the fruit will rot down very quickly but the stones will take a lot longer – if you intend to use your compost in your garden in the near future, the stones might be annoying lumps.

Also see: you can read about other things to do with fruit stones on How Can I Recycle This?

Firstly, the rind/peel is a great protective layer for the fruit – perfect for its journey to us but a hindrance to speedy composting. If for some reason you’re throwing away whole fruit, split them open to aid decomposition.

Secondly, too much citrus fruit/peel can disrupt the balance of your compost heap. If it becomes too acidic, it might cause problems for the bacteria that breaks the stuff down into compost.

Also, many types of compost heap worms or wormery worms such as tiger worms don’t like d-limonene, an antiseptic substance found in fresh citrus peel. The d-limonene disappears as the peel rots though so your worms will prefer it if you leave it out of the wormery/compost heap until it’s green and furry.

Basically, the odd bit of citrus fruit is fine but too much – for example if you’re making acidic juices from a lot of fruit every day – might cause problems. (Some people keep a separate compost heap/bin for problematic stuff – it’ll compost down eventually and won’t get in the way in the meantime.)

Pears rot down pretty quickly – whether you want them to or not! *grumbles about having to clean out the fruit bowl many times when we’ve missed that hour window when pears are ripe but not over-ripe*

Pears are classed as “greens” in composting terms: if you’ve got a LOT of pears or other “greens”, add alongside “browns” (like dried leaves or cardboard) to keep the compost heap balanced. (Balanced heaps will compost down faster.)

Peelings and cores compost down very quickly – when the flesh is exposed to air, it browns and decomposes quickly.

Whole apples take longer though because of the protective peel so if you want them to rot down quicker, cut them into chunks before throwing them in the compost.

Apples, even red ones, are classed as “greens” in the compost heap: if you’ve got a LOT, add alongside “browns” (like dried leaves or cardboard) to keep the compost heap balanced. (Balanced heaps will compost down faster.)

If the apples are only slightly past it, you might still be able to use them for other things. The peelings & cores can also be used to make things too – like jam or cider vinegar.