Bring a Touch of Fall to Your Front Steps!

As I write today, the weather is still very warm and sunny, but Fall is just around the corner! To inspire you to embrace this transition, I’m offering a few clever ideas for making your front steps inviting, with a nod to the fabulous, rich colors of the fall season!

Quick and Easy

• Purchase Mums - Take advantage of the beautiful chrysanthemums sold everywhere. You can head to a local garden shop or to a major home improvement store. Purchase enough plants to really make an impact and choose colors that compliment your home! My house is taupe with a red door, so I lean towards yellow, white and burgundy mums – and accordingly, I wouldn’t choose pink or purple which would clash with my front door color!
• Repot Your Mums into Nice Containers – if you have urns on your front steps already, fill those. If not, clay pots or even bushel baskets work well, too. Don’t hesitate to use a variety of containers in varying sizes and types – an assortment can look great, too! Arrange the pots (safely) on your front steps in clusters of one, three or five. Anything looks better arranged in odd numbers!
• Add a Variety of Pumpkins - To finish off your display, tuck pumpkins of varying sizes on the steps around your pots. If you can find these, I love white pumpkins mixed in with the traditional orange ones.

Getting Tricky

• Miniature Spruce Trees and Tiny Pumpkins and Gourds - During the past year, I’ve grown a miniature spruce tree in each of the large square containers that frame my front steps. Since I won’t uproot those trees for mums, I’m planning to surround the trees with dozens of tiny pumpkins and gourds. (You can also fill empty window boxes this way too! If you decide to fill window boxes, make sure to fill the box almost to the top with mulch or other filler first so that you don’t need to buy a ton of pumpkins!)
• Add Kale to Your Display – these ornamental cabbages are deep dark green and are grown with either white or dark purple variegations. Kale adds a nice touch of variety to the more traditional mums and lasts almost into December!

My Trickiest Idea

Create Pumpkin Topiaries! You may need some “guy” assistance with this project, but from personal experience, it can be done! Given the style of my steps, I needed to create two topiaries, but at your home, you may be able to get away with one!

Here’s what you need:

• One or two urns or large container pots
• Stiff wire (I used a few coat hangers)
• Wire cutters
• A few wired lengths of artificial fall leaves
• 3 pumpkins for one topiary, 6 for two

Here’s what to do:

• Measure the width of the opening of your container(s) and head to the pumpkin patch with that measurement.
• Start by finding two large pumpkins that will fill the diameter of the pot, then two more of a “middle” size and then two more that are smaller again. The idea is to create a graduated stack of three, with the largest on the bottom! You’ll need to choose carefully, looking for nice flat bottoms and similar shapes and sizes for each level.
• Place the large pumpkins onto the containers first and remove the stems. Insert several cut lengths of wire into pumpkin number 1, and then “impale” pumpkin number 2 (without a stem) onto the wires. Repeat the process, ending with the smallest, taking care NOT to break off its stem.
• Decorate the seams between each pumpkin with cut lengths of faux fall foliage.
• Stand back and enjoy!

* The photo here features one of my topiaries minus the smallest pumpkin and after I allowed my children to carve the mid-sized pumpkin into a Jack O’Lantern on Halloween!

If Your Time is Limited (and your wallet open)!

• Create Easy Styrofoam Pumpkin Topiaries - Head to a craft store like Michael’s and purchase six pumpkins from their array of Styrofoam look-a-likes to make your topiaries as described above! They’ll also be lighter and easier to stack than the real thing!
• Purchase Touchstone’s Stacking Pumpkins in Urns - Splurge on Touchstone’s faux pumpkin topiaries in lightweight urns. (touchstonecatalog.com, $213/urn with 3 pumpkins, pictured at the top of this page)

• Purchase Williams-Sonoma’s Fall Wreath and Garland - Treat yourself to Williams-Sonoma’s “fall leaf wreath and garland!” The wreath and garland are a combination of fall leaves, wheat stalks, yarrow and dried lotus pods! If you choose to hang the wreath and place the garland around your front door, you’ll be all set in an instant with a fabulous fall display! (28” wreath is $149 and the 6’ garland is $99 at williams-sonoma.com)

Good luck with your Autumn spruce up efforts! Give some thought to my ideas and make a plan for your fall front steps today!

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