Equipment: pumpkin, oasis, spray paint in 3 colours, clear bowl, sticks.

Flowers: roses, ornamental cabbages

Foliage: scented geranium, bay leaves.

A lovely halloween table centrepiece. Cut the top off the pumpkin - approx 1/3 down and remove the centre and seeds. I used a saw and an ice cream scoop for this. Use spray paint to colour the top section of the pumpkin, and use enough spray for it to drip down onto the bottom section. I used three shades: the darkest first, then the middle shade, then the lightest.

I used a clear bowl to insert into the body of the pumpkin, and put the oasis in that. It will help when watering later on. Pack the oasis tightly so it can’t move. around. Use the sticks to attach the top of the pumpkin to the bottom, leaving a gap. This will be the space you fill with the flowers and foliage - it should look like it is tumbling out.

Build up the foliage evenly around the full diameter of the pumpkin, adding flowers as needed. it is best to keep the stems short to get a much neater finish, and to emphasise the “top hat”. This is a fun piece that gets a lot of attention but the pumpkin does deteriorate quite quickly. It will go before the flowers do. Keeping it as cool as possible helps.