Fall Decor Ideas

It’s been a warm autumn, but with frost having hit most of the state and leaves turning (and falling!) rapidly, we cannot deny that fall is upon us. It’s not too late to bring on the pumpkins, mums and ornamental cabbage!

There are many delightful ideas for fall decor and some of them are very easy and not that expensive. Two of my favorites have been noted on the blog before: planting in a real pumpkin and filling a decorative container with gourds, pumpkins and squash. Neither is super expensive and both are easy and cute.

So simple, but cute.

For the pumpkin planter, buy a large pumpkin and hollow out the center as you would for a jack-o-lantern. Fill that with planting mix and put in a favorite plant. You can choose a plant from your garden (I used sedum once) or add a fall mum, a decorative kale or some other fun choice. The pumpkin planter will last for several weeks.

The gourd container is easy-peasy. Just find a fun container—I love this old horse trough—and pile in the pumpkins and gourds. Because this trough is fairly large and deep, I used upside down terra cotta pots to balance some of the gourds. I got the idea for this from the Morton Arboretum in Chicago, where they had an entire display of these.

Love the container that these pumpkins and gourds are displayed in.

Some folks go wild with pumpkins and create these gorgeous succulent displays. The succulents are glued to the pumpkin to create a dramatic centerpiece. A flat pumpkin or squash is the best choice for this idea because it allows you to display more succulents.

Mums and crotons fill this very seasonal window box.

While all these ideas are fun and easy, I love the look of mums at this time of year, too. During a recent leaf-peeping trip down Highway 35 in Wisconsin, we stopped in Pepin for lunch and found these delightful window box outside of the Harbor View Cafe. It’s simply a group of mums accented with some crotons. The crotons, which are usually houseplants here, must have needed to be brought inside on cold nights, but he gold/green/orange color went well with the mums and the strappy leaves added a vertical element to the planting.

Don’t forget about pansies for your fall containers.

One thing to remember about fall: pansies, which we often think of as spring plants, do well in the cold weather of fall, too. The container below was seen at a public garden—a pretty mix of mums, ornamental grass and pansies.

What’s your favorite fall decor?

 

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