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 Add
a Fall Display to Your Garden, Front Steps or Balcony
By Melinda Myers
[September 20, 2025]
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.
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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 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 TV & radio program. Myers is a columnist and
contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and was commissioned
by Summit for her expertise to write this article. Myers’ website is www.MelindaMyers.com.
[Photo courtesy of MelindaMyers.com]
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