Fall That Spills From the Porch to the Garden

This is the year we finally got new replacement umbrella covers for the back area. I know there are so many colors to choose from, but I went with a soft olive green, and it’s a color that looks amazing above containers filled with blooms of almost every color. One day, while trying to decide what color mums I wanted for this fall, I was standing in the flower garden just beyond these back steps, trying to envision what I wanted this porch to look like.

I already had my eye on ivory chrysanthemums with buttercream centers. The more I thought about them paired with these umbrellas, the more I convinced myself what a perfect match it would be.

I wanted to keep the entire look soft and subtle, so I decided on pumpkins in a few different shades of pale yellow. I also picked up some salmon-colored pumpkins, which ended up out in the flower garden.

I continued to keep the colors soft by using some of my baskets in lighter shades. In one of them, I set a hydrangea that still had shades of pale pink and soft green, which blended perfectly with everything around it. Here on the porch, I also added some aged brown terracotta pots filled with small matching chrysanthemums and sedum ground cover.

The sedum is a mix of varieties, but the burgundy foliage running through it picks up the pink tones in the hydrangea. I already had two purple fountain grasses, one at the top of the porch and one at the bottom of the steps. Together, the fountain grass, the burgundy sedum, and the soft pinks of the hydrangea carry the color all the way down. In the background, we have several tall maiden grasses that were taking on gorgeous pink fall hues, making the perfect backdrop for all of it.

Just beyond the steps, fall spilled out into the garden area. Along the walkway, I added the salmon-colored pumpkins and a few more of the soft pale yellow ones. Most of the summer blooms were gone in this area, so the touch of another ivory chrysanthemum filled it with new color. I carried the entire look through by coordinating the garden urns to match the back porch.

Sometimes the prettiest fall looks come from the softer colors. Let me know if you’ve ever gone with all soft colors for fall.