Have a Happy Fall Ya'll!

We are already over two weeks into fall and it's finally starting to feel like it! Now that the temperatures have started to cool off, it's a great time to start decorating your outdoor and indoor spaces with fall color. There are many types of plants along with pumpkins, gourds, corn stalks and wheat straw that will last throughout fall and into winter. And many of them will even thrive and survive through mild frosts and freezing temperatures. What's better is that they can be used in flower beds, around mailboxes, on porches, decks and patios and throughout the home. Creating fall curb appeal that will take winter temperatures in stride and a snazzy interior is easy when you use the right components.

Plants like pansies, mums and ornamental cabbage and kale, along with snapdragons and ornamental peppers will give you the perfect pop of color to draw attention to your gardens and give you an oasis to enjoy on cool evenings. Pansies, ornamental cabbage and kale and snapdragons will continue to perform well after mild frosts and freezes - usually all the way into January in the Lawrenceville area. Ornamental peppers will succumb to the first frost, but their colorful peppers during all are definitely worth it. Mums are best bought when the buds are still closed or just starting to open, as they only bloom once each season. A bonus about mums is that they will survive our cold winters when planted in the ground. You can simply plant them in the ground after they have bloomed out and enjoy their bright blooms year after year.

Adding in other decor to balance out the flowers will really make your gardens stand out too. Besides, have you taken a look at pumpkins and gourds lately? Not all of them are created equal! And they all make a great addition to your fall decor. While the old-fashioned jack-o-lantern pumpkins are beautiful, there are some that look, well............warty and gnarly! Warty Goblin and Red Warty Thing to name a couple. There are many that are suitable for stacking and many of them are actually edible and quite tasty! There's Flat White Boer, Jarrahdale and Long Island Cheese. There are also named varieties that are great for themed garden spaces like Speckled Swan, Fairytale and Cinderella. Not to mention that pumpkins and gourds come in all sizes; some are bigger than beach balls while some are as small as a baseball! Cornstalks and wheat straw add just the right neutral color to the brightness provided by pumpkins and gourds.

On to indoor fall decor! Of course, mini pumpkin and gourds like Pump-Ke-Mon and Wee-B-Little and Daisy Gourds work well in bowls or baskets, but some of the larger pumpkins can be used indoors as well. Create a display in the foyer for example. Mums can also do nicely indoors if given bright enough light, plus their cut flowers last a long time in water. You can also pull some ears of corn from the corn stalks to use along with mums and pumpkins or gourds. Croton is a tropical house plant that provides beautiful green, orange and yellow leaves that can be kept year round, but used in fall decor seasonally.

All or some of these can be used in your garden space. It's all a matter of what you are drawn to and how you want it to look. Stack some pumpkins and paint your street numbers on them or line three together and paint "BOO" on them! If you don't care to carve pumpkins, paint faces on them instead! Use metal bins or baskets to put fall flowers in for decks, patios and porches to give them a more rustic look. The options for how to use fall decor are limitless and decorating for fall can be a fun activity for the entire family, so be creative and have fun!