In the news

After the barbecue summer and the 'mild' winter (that was last year's three weeks of snowdrifts, then) the Met Office could be forgiven for throwing in the towel. But though they've given up seasonal forecasting, others haven't.

Positive Weather Solutions forecasts a white-out as bad as last year's: Netweather reckons on temperatures two degrees below average. Meanwhile the Met Office's monthly outlook for November talks of 'mild' and 'very mild' weather with only occasional frosts until at least December. Who's right, I wonder?

At least I can believe the predictions of Tony Russell and others that conditions are conspiring to create a truly brilliant autumn this year. But how much do you think it's worth? Environmentalists have been turning economist at the Biodiversity Summit in Nagoya, Japan this week to argue that a price should be set on the value of nature - the only way, they say, to save it in a cash-strapped world.

You couldn't have a Hallowe'en weekend without at least one pumpkin turning up in the news. But what a pumpkin. Just a week after the UK record fell to the Paton twins and their 682kg (1,504lbs) monster, the world record has also taken a tumble. This time it was Chris Stevens, a farmer from Wisconsin, USA, and the pumpkin in question weighs an eye-popping 821.24kg (1,810.5lbs). Now that's what I call a lot of soup.

Elsewhere on the web

If you need immediate distractions, Kew's been posting daily photographs on the progress of its Titan arum lily (Amorphophallus titanum), flowering its socks off right now: don't stand too close if you visit, as it stinks of rotting meat. There's a wonderfully quirky idea from Emma, aka Fluffius Muppetus, for Christmas stocking fillers for gardeners this year; and Mark Diacono has been picking his first grape harvest at Otter Farm: there will, it is said, be wine.

Out and about

All together now... wooooooooooo.... yes, it's Hallowe'en this weekend, and that means pumpkins and all things autumnal. RHS Garden Wisley strikes a suitably spooky note with a talk from author Amy Stewart on 'Wicked Plants' - that is, plants which 'kill, maim, intoxicate or otherwise offend'.

Enter your artistic creations in the Pumpkin Carving competition at Arlington Court, Devon, or set the little ones loose in the majestic gardens of Chatsworth in Derbyshire, for a feast of pumpkin parades, broomstick-making and serpent mazes.

After all the ghosties and goblins have crept back to bed for another year, you can turn your attention to a bit of gardening. It's bulb-planting time, and there's expert advice from Avon Bulbs, demonstrating how to plan and plant them at its Somerset headquarters on Wednesday. And the Denbigh Plum Festival gets under way in this weekend celebrating the unique round fruit found only in Denbigh in North Wales. Festivities include tcookery competitions and the chance to have your hair dyed purple.

Sally Nex is a garden writer and blogger and part of the BBC Gardening team.