In the Garden: Add a fall display to your garden, front steps or balcony
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Cooler temperatures signal a change of seasons and an opportunity to add some fall décor to the landscape. Garden centers are filled with fall favorites like pumpkins, ornamental squash, pansies, mums, asters and more. Don’t stop there, look for new ways to add a bit of fall to your front steps, balcony and garden beds.
Set the stage with small or large straw bales. They make nice backdrops and stands for potted plants, pumpkins, decorative squash and more. Once fall has passed, use them for winter mulch in garden beds and insulation for hardy plants overwintering in containers outdoors. Or save them for next summer to use as garden mulch or convert them into a straw bale garden.
Use corn stalks and broom corn to frame an entryway or add vertical interest in the garden. Secure them to a nearby post, tree trunk or sink a stake in the garden to use as a support.
Set pumpkins and large ornamental squash in the garden among perennials or to cover fading summer annuals. Place a few small pumpkins or gourds in containers or hanging baskets that are getting a bit thin on top. You’ll enjoy the added color and fall décor they provide.
Look for other ways to include pumpkins in your fall landscape. Remove the top, scoop out the inside, add some drainage holes and use it for a planter. Fill the pumpkin with potting mix and plant or set a potted plant inside. Trailing pansies like cool wave pansies, small mums and asters, ornamental cabbage, or other fall favorites work well. When the plants fade and winter arrives, you’ll have a biodegradable pot ready for the compost pile.
Stack a few pumpkins or squash, one on top of the other, for added vertical interest. Or stack and fill baskets, pots and colanders and fill each layer with pumpkins and gourds. Add a few fall leaves or American bittersweet to the display.
Carve an opening in the side of your pumpkin and scoop out the insides. Create a fall or Halloween display or gnome house. Use faux moss, figurines and your imagination.
Welcome family and guests with a basket or container of dried plant material collected from your landscape. Scour your landscape for trees and shrubs with colorful berries. Collect a few flowering stems of ornamental grasses, dried flowers, and seedpods. Include some interesting twists to the arrangement with corkscrew willow, Harry Lauders Walking stick or grape vines. Anything that looks good in the garden will add to your arrangement’s beauty.
Wire the stems together and secure onto a wire basket. Or secure your arrangement in pots and baskets that drain. Use chicken wire at the bottom and crisscrossed wires over the top of the container to form a secure base for the arrangement. Add a few rocks in the bottom, if needed, for a counterweight. Avoid windy locations that may topple or destroy your creation.
Once your display is in place, relax and enjoy a cup of hot cider or cocoa. Then start planning for your winter garden display.
Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including the recently released Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine, and her website is MelindaMyers.com, which features gardening videos, free webinars, monthly gardening tips, and more.
