Season of Change

As much as I hate to see summer end, it’s fun to change out the plantings and replace the summer annuals with fall plants like kale and sedums, grasses and mums add a few pumpkins, change the wreath on the door and  fall decorating is done.  

This will be the last weekend that my porch is set up.  It didn’t get much use this year due to a major repair but I’ve been enjoying it this last month on weekends and after work.  This porch started out as an open entry way and about five years after moving in we enclosed it but it was another 8 years before we furnished it or used it.  A friend suggested I was missing out on some prime living space and she was right. 

The porch is my summer go to spot after work and after yard work.  Candles only on the porch in summer—no electric lights allowed!   I have a ceiling fan (not shown ) but the porch is shaded by trees and cools off for most of the day.  It’s very pleasant to sit out here and watch the fireflies or read and put your feet up.  The awning windows make it possible to sit here even if there’s a sideways downpour because of the way they’re designed.

This weekend, I’ll put the cushions and some of the furniture away, wash the windows, sweep the floor and get ready for winter :(   Good-bye till next year porch.  I can’t wait.

My front walk planter went from THIS…

 

to THIS…

 

Don’t you just love the combination of dark red purples and white pumpkins?   The sedum in this pot is called “Turkish Taffy”.  It will winter over in the pot and next spring when it starts to emerge I’ll take cuttings to root new plants and move it to the flower bed.   On the other side of this pot there is a black Thai pepper plant.  The cold snap very quickly ended the production of peppers but the foliage is still doing well and the color and texture contrasts nicely with the other foliage in the pot. 

One tip that I use in my planters is to add a light layer of bark mulch over the soil after installing the plants.   This prevents rain from spattering the plants and the pot with mud and helps to conserve moisture.

This is a picture of  my front door wreath—I’m not a big fan of bows—the one exception is Christmas and if you’ve read my Christmas wreath tutorial you know that I’m fairly traditional and stick with a simple red velvet bow. This fall wreath is made of two parts—a grapevine wreath and a garland of silk maple leaves.  I don’t even need to wire the garland onto the wreath.  I attach it at one end and just wind the vine around the wreath--front and back—it’s long enough to fill in most of the wreath area.

In spring I wrap a forsythia garland around this same wreath and for summer an ivy garland.  The grapevine wreath, itself is over 20 years old.  I can’t even remember what was originally on it. Now  I use it for every season, except Christmas.  I’ve even decorated it for Valentine’s Day.   If I notice any bare spots on the wood between seasons, I touch them up with walnut stain or dark brown acrylic paint. The silk garlands can be hosed off in the sink and hung up to dry if they get dusty.  I’ve even ironed some of the leaves with a cool iron! 

If you wanted to do a wreath like this, you could add fall berries, silk bittersweet or some foam gourds or even pine cones.  I tend to like simple but I know there are a lot of people who also like “glam”, lol.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I bought this very cute shell planter at Wally world.  I liked the concrete look of it and bought it to gift a friend who’s beach house I was visiting.  I thought it had a “beachy” look to it with the thyme.   Unfortunately, when I drilled  a hole in the bottom for drainage, I cracked it, making it un-giftable but I wasn’t too disappointed I had to keep it, tee hee.