- Author: Sue Davis
The autumn months are such an easy time to decorate the garden, a front porch, or inside the home with items found in most gardens and nurseries.
In October, start with a few mums transplanted from the garden into pots, pails, baskets, tubs, etc. (they can be planted back into the garden wen no longer needed for decorations) and massed together form a beautiful decoration. No mums in the garden? Nurseries often have a large variety in early October from which to select. A variety of colors make the best display.
Add pumpkins and/or gourds to the display raised on old garden chairs, overturned 5-gallon pots, a couple of pieces of wood, or just leave on the ground for added visual interest.
A few large leaves that have fallen and not yet been added to the compost pile will add to the decoration.
All of that works for both indoor and outdoor displays. However, the pumpkins will probably not last through December in the warmer indoor air.
Round out the display in October with a skeleton, bats, or a witch to celebrate Halloween. Trade those items for a scarecrow in November.
Once Thanksgiving has passed, changing the outside display is a simple matter of removing the scarecrow and mums and getting some spray paint, a little glitter if that sort of thing is appealing, solar twinkling lights, and evergreen leaves or a few branches from bushes that bear red berries (like pyracantha). Spray the pumpkins silver, gold, red, or green. If making the pumpkins into red or green “ornaments” for the display, also punch a bread tie through the bottom of a small paper cup to form a “hoop” and spray the cups silver to glue over the stem as the top of the ornament. Once the pumpkins dry, set them out with twinkling lights and foliage placed around them to highlight the display. Once the display is dismantled, the foliage can be added to a compost pile and the twinkling lights can be strung through citrus trees to keep them protected from freezing weather.