The Beauty of a Fading Fall Garden

Have I told you how much I love fall?? Haha, yes, I have mentioned it before, and for good reason. The transitional season that will be ushering us into winter is so spectacular in its own right, with the leaves on the trees turning vibrant colors, you can’t help but be in awe of such beauty.

All spring and summer we takes hundreds of pictures of our gardens, posting them on every social media outlet we can, and blogging about them. But, do we ever think about taking pictures of our gardens as they wind down? I was doing some last-minute yard work this weekend — putting away my garden decor for the season, and I couldn’t help but notice the beauty that surrounded me, despite the imminent ending to another growing season.

So, here is a collage of pictures from the garden as it nears its end. I hope you take a look at yours and feel the same way too!

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To Every Season, Urn, Urn…

As I have said before, Fall is one of my favorite times of the year. I love the sights, smells, everything. I have apple pie flavored coffee, and “crisp fall leaves” smelling wax melts in my candlewarmer. I have four totes in my crawl space full of fall decorations that I put up in my house Labor Day Weekend. It’s funny how when you move into a house, you all of a sudden love to buy decorations for every season. I buy too much! The core of my fall decorating will stay out until Christmas, but I will swap out Halloween decorations with Thanksgiving decorations when needed.

This also goes for my decorations on my front entryway. You don’t have to spend a fortune to make a nice entryway. My decor has changed over the years, as it naturally will, because your tastes change and you finally understand how to make things look nice and put together! I have to admit I am still working on this, but I’m finally understanding more as time goes on. Like everything, including my home, it’s a work in progress!

And all you need are a couple of planters. Or urns, like I have stated in the title. And you can get pretty much use anything. Back in the Spring, I really wanted a couple of urns to put out on our small porch. Well, urns are expensive. And trust me, I like to splurge, but I really didn’t feel I wanted to splurge on urns. I knew better. But, lo and behold, I found two black plastic urns for $11.98 each. Yay! What a bargain! And, they were just the right size for my small entryway. So, as Summer came, I planted a few annuals in it. But now that it’s Fall, I wanted to decorate accordingly, and will probably do it for the Winter, too.

This is what I decorated my urns with, maybe this will give you some ideas on how to decorate your planters!

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I have put some gourds, which are very inexpensive, in the urn, along with some fake grasses that I purchased at a craft store. Mixing real plants with a few fake plants to fill in the holes will add nice textures, along with improving the aesthetics of the planter.

  • Find something you really like to put in your planter and make it the “star” of the decor. Everything else you choose should enhance the main interest in the planter.

As you can see, my “star” of my planter are the brown, fuzzy corn-dog looking things called Cattails. What are they? Cattails are a marsh and wetland plant that are really interesting looking. Since I live so close to the Erie Canal, my daughter and I went what I like to call “stroller off-roading” one beautiful September day on the canal path and snipped some off.

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They are very fuzzy, and when they mature, the seeds float off into the air. They look like little feathers from a down coat! I have used cattails in my fall decorations for the past couple of years. I actually rode my mountain bike many miles one year to find them! I’m always up for an adventure!

Even if you don’t have access to cattails, you can use ANYTHING– tree branches, corn stalks, hay bales, pumpkins (orange and white), and fall favorite plant, mums! Anything can be used, it’s all in what makes you happy!

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This is what I continued to work on. I love white pumpkins, so I added them and my daughter’s regular pumpkin ready to be carved, along with a yellow mum, and a bowling ball… yes I will elaborate on using bowling balls as decoration in a Spring post!

Outdoor decorating can be made into anything you want it to be. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time or money either. It all depends on what is right for you and your home. So, sit back and enjoy the wonders of the Fall season. Winter will be here before you know it!