And all of a sudden, summer collapsed into Fall. You know we are big fans of summer because we love boating and soaking up the sunrays, but the Fall feels overwhelm our hearts as September and October comes. As the seasons change, we're overwhelmed by the beauty of the sunsets and bonfires as they reflect off the water. There's truly nothing like it. Fall at the lake is beautiful and inspiring.
With the coming of the new season, we start decorating our porches first. Today, we're going to share how we do this and create spectacular Fall porch pots that will last through the cooler months. For me, the hardest part is picking the color of my mums! Let's dive in and talk thru how-to build your Fall porch pots!
Recommended items to purchase for your Fall porch pots:
- Planters- I have a double door, so I prefer 2 matching tall planters on each side of my door. If you have a single door and don't need things to appear
symmetrical, you can always buy a short and tall planter to accent each other. Amazon has some great options for a set of 2 tall planters for around $100. I LOVE these that have the removable inserts, and we'll talk more about why this would be handy later in the article.
- Corn Stalks- We visited a friend's farm to chop about 6 stalks down. If you know a farmer, ask them to have a few stalks after they harvest. Or you can typically get some at the hardware stores (like Orschelns or Ace Hardware), box stores like Home Depot and Lowes, or at a local pumpkin patch.
- Picks- We love to buy some picks that will add additional pops of color or bring in additional texture to the pots. You can find fun and trendy ones at TJMaxx, Home Goods, Kirklands, or Hobby Lobby (watch for their sale week).
- Pumpkins- We suggest going to your local grocery store or hardware store to snag some pumpkins quickly. They are typically less expensive than the pumpkin patch too!
- Mums- The hardest part of Fall decor for us is what color of mums to purchase. We find ours at Sam's Club early in the season (typically about $20 each because they're giant) or at our local pumpkin patch, the Fun Farm. They have thousands and they're big and beautiful each year!
- Cabbage Plants- Find these at your local nursery or garden center. These are truly called Cabbage or Kale plants (and though related, they aren't the food variety).
- Vine- Some vines can withstand the cooler temps so look for those strategically. They serve as the "spiller" to hang over the edges of your pots.
- Hedgeballs- Also called Hedge Apples or Osage Oranges. These grow on trees and are typically annoying when they are covering the yard. Their fruit is NOT edible and there's really no use for the balls. We like to gather a few from the tree in Kim's backyard to use as filler in our pots.
- Straw Bales- We always love a good straw bale to accent our decor areas and you can purchase them for relatively cheap at any farm goods store.
How-To Build Your Porch Pots
We ran to Sam's Club to pick up 2 of the beautiful giant mums in the maroon, red shade. And picked up 2 vines at a local nursery. While out shopping Kim picked up the orange and maroon picks. We used about 6 of those, 3 in each of my porch pots. She also found the adorable little pumpkin picks that are made from a raffia or burlap like fabric.
Step 1: Begin by placing some rocks, water bottles, or other filler items in the base of the plater so less potting soil is required.
Step 2: Place 3 corn stalks in the back of the planter. These will add height to your planter and provide structure to hold the picks in place as well. If you have pampas grass, add it in front of the corn stalks for added dimension. We learned that if you spray the pampas grass with hairspray and keep it safe, it should last 2-3 seasons.
Step 3: Place the mum and the vine in the planter. We have always broken up the soil as we removed it from the pot. I'm not known to have a green thumb... my planters typically die off quickly because I never seem to get them enough water. I recently saw this Instagram reel where they explain that mums need a substantial amount of water. If you dunk their planter in water a couple times throughout the season they'll last, the roots drink from the base up so watering them from the top typically isn't sufficient enough for them. I'm thinking next year, I will leave them in the planter they come in so they're easy to pull out of my tall planters and dunk a couple times throughout the season. When I saw the planters above with the removable inserts, I thought, those would be perfect for mums, pull the insert out with the mum, dunk it in the bucket of water and then place it back in the planter, easy peasy.
Step 4: Fill in the planter with potting soil until full and compacted. As you water, the soil will meld together and become less full so be sure you fill as much as possible to prevent having to add more later.
Step 5: Add the colored picks between the mum and the corn stalks. Then add the pumpkin picks anywhere there might be some holes in the mums. Mums are a natural flowering plant so there will always be some holes. Fill those in with your pumpkin picks or larger fillers like mentioned in step 6.
Step 6: We also love to create planters with hedge balls and cabbage plants, like shown above. Cabbage plants are made to thrive in cooler temps. They are so fun and bring a purple color to life as well. Ornamental cabbage doesn't develop it's full colors unless they get a good chill from a frost. So neat that there are plants created to ultimately serve as our fall/winter ornamental plants. For more insight on these cabbage plants, I found this article on TheSpruce.com to be very informational.
Ashley's Fall Front Porch, with Fall Porch Pots filled with mums and decorative pumpkins
We absolutely love being able to use the planters we have to change up the decor each season. Building spectacular porch pots is an easy and affordable way to make a big statement for your front porch. We hope you feel inspired to get out and get decorating, while taking away some new ideas to incorporate.
Happy Fall Y'all!
