Fall Front Porch 2021

I'm very glad to see October -- how about you?  Such a lovely month of changing foliage, early morning mists, blue skies, and beautiful sunsets.  Today we've had Irish weather, as my husband says.  It's been alternating rain and sunshine for most of the day, and the rain has been such a nice, gentle one.     

      

   

Our neighbors' dogwoods (diagonally across the street) are turning beautifully, and our maple tree is now sporting some golden yellow leaves.     

   

   

I mentioned in my previous post that I was planning a trip to the garden shop to buy plants for the front porch.  We ended up making two trips, because in addition to plants for the porch and natural area, we bought 12 crepe myrtle trees to plant down the side of our yard where we had the poplar trees taken down.        

   It's a challenge every year to figure out what to plant in these big pots.  It has to be something with a little bit of height, otherwise it looks kind of silly since the pots are so big.  When I first got the pots about 20 years ago, I purchased some sort of cedar tree to go in them.  They only lasted for a year or two before they died.  I remember the man at the garden shop told me those plants didn't do well in our hot climate; I should have listened to him.       After those died, I tried ivy topiaries for several years.  They should have been a one-time purchase, since ivy will live through the winter here, even in pots, but mine didn't.  Sigh.  I think I purchased new ivy topiaries three different times, and they were not cheap.  I finally discovered that they were getting these tiny bugs on them, and that's what was killing them.   This year we've purchased boxwoods, and I sure hope we have better luck with them.     

I got the boxwood idea from Susan at Between Naps on the Porch.  Susan planted boxwoods in planters in front of her porch several years ago, and they've done really well.  The lady at our garden shop showed me these which have a more upright growth that would look good in a pot of this height.  This variety is called "Wintergreen."  So far, we really like them, and I hope I can keep them alive.  😏   

  I originally wanted a lighter colored mum, but I'm so glad I went with this color -- love it!!  The vibrant color should show up well from the street.   

The pansies I selected this year are labeled Delta Rose, and I love their colors, too.  We also planted an autumn fern in the pot on the table below, and later in the fall, we'll put it in the ground in our natural area.    

    

   
We got this little terrier lawn statue last year; Hal says he's our spirit totem.  Needless to say, we're still missing Duncan.    

   
We have a door knocker we recently purchased from Wayfair.  Getting that installed on the front door is one of our upcoming projects for the porch area.   

   
We've also picked out an address plaque at Wayfair that we still need to order.  It will go to the left of the door and below the porch light.  We hope it will cover most of the residue left on the brick from previous house numbers, etc.  We also have to get my flag holder re-installed on the porch column so that I can get my fall flag put out.  I took all these pictures today before lunch and then realized that I haven't gotten any pumpkins to put on the porch.  Woops.  Maybe I can get those tomorrow, and I'll update the post with some pics of the pumpkins.  I have to tell you that we really love our updates to the house.  Everything looked so tired and dated before, and we're very happy with the new look.   

   
Work continues on our yard, too.  You may be able to see the four flower pots sitting in the natural area.  Three are lenten roses and one is an autumn fern.  Our goal is to get a lot of perennials in our yard in the next few years, so that we can enjoy them from year to year.  I had also planned to buy a peony, but the nursery was out for this year.  I was disappointed because my trusted gardening book said that fall is the best time to plant peonies, so I may have to look around and see if I can find one somewhere.  We also need to decide what to plant in front of the house where the Japanese magnolia tree used to be.  We definitely want something low growing so as not to block our windows again.    Have you put any pumpkins out at your home yet?  I love their colors this time of year, especially combined with the many-colored mums and pansies.  I hope you're enjoying a pretty fall season where you live.  Thanks so much for your visit today, and have a great week my friends!!