A million home-grown gargoyles, gremlins and ghosts will light up windowsills this month as thousands of families carve out jack-o-lanterns after being inspired to grow their own pumpkins.

The National Trust’s 'Food Glorious Food' campaign’s huge seed giveaway, along with a warm, wet summer which provided perfect growing conditions, means that there will be enough extra pumpkins this year for one million jack-o-lanterns, 10 million bowls of pumpkin soup, and 600 million toasted pumpkin seeds.

The National Trust will mark the start of the winter growing season with a special series of events during October to celebrate the success of a new generation of home-grown vegetable gardeners. Pumpkin carving classes and spooky trails will celebrate Halloween, whilst winter vegetable growing workshops and cookery demonstrations will inspire people to continue growing their own during the colder months.

Fiona Reynolds, Director General of the National Trust, says: "Our Food Glorious Food campaign has inspired a new generation of people to grow their own food in gardens, window boxes – even wellies and teapots.

Pumpkins are easy and satisfying to grow – we hope that the experience of nurturing and then cooking and eating the fruits of their labour means that families won’t hang up their gardening gloves this winter but will continue to enjoy the thrill of growing.'

The McLaughlin family started growing their own vegetables this summer with seeds from the National Trust and will be celebrating their pumpkin harvest this Halloween with jack-o-lantern carving, pie making and seed toasting.

Nuala McLaughlin, mother of three, says: "We’re going to make our own jack-o-lanterns this year to celebrate the fun that we’ve had growing all summer. Our five great big pumpkins will taste better than shop-bought ones and we’ll be making the most of them.

I love the idea of carving a Halloween pumpkin and then using the flesh to make pumpkin muffins topped with toasted seeds. The children have become really enthusiastic with the garden and curious about vegetables, so come winter they’ll still be raring to get outside and check on their home-grown veg."