Add Some Fall Fun with Pumpkin Planters

Are your summer containers looking bedraggled and ready to give up the ghost as temperatures continue to cool? Why not spruce up your outside space with some color and fun by using pumpkins and gourds as creative containers for autumn arrangements.

Pumpkins make great pots for your fall flowers. They will look great through Halloween and Thanksgiving, and when the pumpkins start to decompose, you can either place your arrangements in new pots or simply dig a hole and plant the entire pumpkin in a planting bed. As the pumpkin decomposes over time, it will add some nice compost to your bed.

How to Assemble a Pumpkin Planter:

Buy a large fresh pumpkin and select one big plant or an assortment of smaller plants to fill the pumpkin. Plants to consider are mums, succulents, snapdragons, pansies, violas, ornamental kale or cabbage, Swiss chard, dusty miller, rosemary, mint, lavender, variegated ivy and sweet flag.

Cut off the top 1/3 and scoop out the pulp inside. Save the seeds to roast. Use a knife to cut a drainage hole in the bottom. Place a coffee filter at the bottom over the drainage hole to keep soil mix from leaking out the hole.

Fill the pumpkin halfway with container mix. Place your plants in the mix and pack more mix around the plants. Leave about two inches of space at the top of the pumpkin so soil doesn’t spill out when you water. Water well and place pumpkin planter in sun or shade, depending on your plant selection. 

Add some extra charm with homemade scarecrows and dried stalks of corn left over from your vegetable garden. Get the kids involved by having them paint faces on the pumpkins. Enjoy the season!