Fall Flower Garden Inspiration (Plus Decor Ideas)
Other than the fact that Winter follows too close behind, I love Fall! I love the chill in the air, pumpkins, mums, scarecrows, bonfires and fall flower gardens. Today it all comes together with some awesome Fall Flower Garden Inspiration and some cute and creative Fall Outdoor Decor Ideas.
A few years ago I shared a post filled with flower garden pictures and ideas from mine and my sisters’ gardens. There are three of us and we all love to garden. The sad part is we live states away from each other. I’m in Minnesota (Zone 4), sister Susan is in Colorado (Zone 5) and sister Becky is in South Carolina (Zone 8). The cool thing is, I get to share their amazing Fall Flower Gardens, along with some of the cutest Outdoor Fall Displays on the internet.
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So take a break, grab your favorite beverage and enjoy this fun, virtual, fall garden tour of three sisters in three different gardening zones. Just a forewarning – there are lots of pictures and ideas, but I’m hoping you’ll leave with some inspiration for your fall gardens and ideas for your outdoor fall displays swirling around in your head.
Fall Flower Garden Inspiration – Zone 4
I’ll go first. As a little refresher and for those of you that aren’t familiar with Gingham Gardens, we’ve lived in our fixer upper home (and gardens) since late summer 2016, so this is about the 3rd summer in our current home. I’m still designing and redesigning my gardens, and adding in more fall blooming flowers is something I need to do. So while I’d don’t have lots of pictures of full fall gardens, I’m sharing pictures of some of the best fall blooming perennials from my gardens.
This is a beautiful, Minnesota hardy white chrysanthemum along with turtlehead. I’m looking forward to this mum getting big and bushy.
Another fall favorite is Solidago (Goldenrod) with Black-eyed Susans and Coneflower in the background.
New to my gardens this year is this lovely Sneezeweed, aka Helen’s Flower, or Helenium. Can you tell yellow is one of my favorite flower colors. I think a bunch of purple asters and some of the white mums would create a stunning grouping with these Helenium.
These lovely purple Asters are butterfly and bee magnets. I don’t deadhead asters because they’re always covered with bees, and that is a good thing, so I just leave them be (or bee).
Autumn Joy Sedum is not one of my favorite perennials, until Fall that is, and now they are gorgeous. Sedum is another bee magnet. Just a quick side tip for sedum and mums – to keep them from getting floppy and blooming too soon, two or three times during the summer, I shear them down to a couple of inches tall. I stop trimming them around the middle of July.
Whimsical Outdoor Fall Displays
Switching gears now a little, I’d like to show you my tiny front porch fall vignette. If you need some great tips for getting your potted mums to last, stop by and check out this post when you’ve finished up with the tour.
And, my old washtub planter is all decked out for fall. In case you can’t tell, I have a thing for scarecrows. The mini pumpkins are a favorite meal for our resident squirrels, and just about everyday I see a half eaten one in the yard.
Amazon has some really cute Outdoor Fall Decor items, plus with Prime you can get it in 2 days. If you don’t have Prime, you can try it free for 30 days.
Outdoor Fall Decor Ideas – Zone 8
Let’s head down to South Carolina now and take a look at some of Becky’s fun and creative Fall Outdoor Decor vignettes. I love how she includes the pot of basil in this fall grouping.
Just by adding some simple fall touches to a front porch, you can make your home feel so much more inviting.
This two-sided fall vignette around the mailbox is just too cute with the corn stalks, scarecrows and pumpkins.
Here’s the other side of the mailbox.
Even just doing something as simple as switching out the plants in your summer containers, adds tons of character to your outdoor fall landscaping. Here are some awesome tips and instructions for transitioning your summer flower pots to fall.
Fall Flower Gardens – Zone 5
And now, we’re on to Colorado for an incredible feast for the eyes. Holy Cow, this is what I want my fall gardens to look like, but I have to remind myself not to compare. Susan has been gardening here for many, many years and I’m only on year 3 in my current gardens, so I have a long way to go.
The colors of these Asters, Rudbeckia, Mums and Black-eyed Susan just scream Fall to me. Aren’t they gorgeous?
I love the contrast of the Dwarf Globe Blue Spruce with the dark red mums. Note to self to add more evergreens to my flower beds.
Lots and lots of fall colors here. I see Black-eyed Susan, Helenium, Mums, Asters and I believe the tall light blue plant in the back is Russian Sage.
More Mums, Asters and Black-eyed Susan. The seed heads of the Black-eyed Susans even add some interest here.
Nothing says fall like sunflowers and all these different varieties really make me want a bouquet of them.
And one more Fall Garden picture with more purple Asters and Helenium in the background.
Of course a beautiful fall garden can’t be achieved overnight. There’s still time in most gardening zones to add perennials and transplant perennials, but my best advice to you is to plan out your gardens for three seasons. Start now and it won’t be long before you’ll have the garden of your dreams, plus, the journey to get there will be amazing! Gingham Gardens has a great guide / workbook to help you do just that. It’s called – Designing with Perennials for 3 Seasons of Blooms. Fall is an awesome time to plan your gardens for next year. Check it out when you’ve finished up here.
Here are more Fall posts you’ll enjoy:
The Best Fall Perennial Flowers
Fall Porch Decor and Outdoor Decorating Ideas
Tips for Keeping Potted Mums Looking Great
Tips on Transitioning Container Gardens to Fall
There are also lots of resources to help you plan your perfect flower garden in the Gardening Resources Library. To gain immediate access and to subscribe to Gingham Gardens’ newsletter, simply complete the form below.
More Fall Gardening Goodness
There’s a bunch of Fall Gardening Posts on Gingham Gardens. Here are a few I think you’ll enjoy:
Planting Bulbs in the Fall For Amazing Spring Flowers
All About Seed Collecting
Quick & Easy Steps for Fall Garden Cleanup
How to Keep Geraniums Over Winter
How to Overwinter Tender Bulbs and Plants
Huge Favor, pretty please! Would you please scroll back up when you’re finished and pin your favorite pictures to your gardening board or fall board on Pinterest. There are some pinnable collages at the bottom of the post too. Thanks so much for sharing and helping me out!
Thanks a bunch for stopping by Gingham Gardens today. I hope you enjoyed this virtual fall garden tour and have gained lots of inspiration for your fall flower gardens, along with some fall outdoor decor ideas. If you have a question about this post, or another gardening question, or you just want to say “hi,” please leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as I can. I love hearing from you.
Happy Gardening,
Joanna
Follow Gingham Gardens on Pinterest for lots of great gardening ideas and tons of gardener’s eye candy. Gingham Gardens is also on Facebook – come say “hi.”
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I love sunflowers as well, but mine don’t last into Fall (Zone 6). Many of them are self-seeded from the previous season and come up in Spring. Some are grown from seeds newly planted in Spring (if I can keep the chipmunks from digging them up and eating them!). I recently learned that the prime time for sunflowers, at least around here, is July. I usually have a couple dozen plants with dozens of flowers, but the only thing left by September are the seed heads, most of which have been eaten clean by the birds.
Hi Sue – thanks for stopping by Gingham Gardens. Next spring try staggering your planting of sunflowers. Plant some seeds later in the spring and see if you don’t have sunflowers lasting into the fall. Good luck and happy gardening, Joanna
The sunflowers were by far my favorite. I forgot to plant any this year – just forgot. I didn’t realize it until I saw others in the neighborhood blooming and I realized what I had done. I should have planted some seeds any way but with the vegetables needing to be harvested and canned, there was no time. Enjoying yours makes up for my mistake.
I enjoyed all three tours!
Jeannie
Hi Jeannie – thanks so much for stopping by. I’m so glad you enjoyed mine and my sisters’ gardens. Every year at the end of summer, there’s always a plant or two (usually more) that I wish I’d planted. There’s always next year though. Happy fall, Joanna
The 3 different gardens are just beautiful. You and your sisters definitely share the gardening gene. Thanks for posting such informative posts for us.
Hello Mary – thanks so much for your kind words and taking the time to comment. I’m so happy you’re enjoying Gingham Gardens. Joanna
So enjoy your site-I am in PA and we do a fall festival fundraiser. I do the pumpkin booth where the kids decorate and take their pumpkins home- to pay for the hundred dollars worth of stickers that they use(they decorated 165 pumpkins this year) we sell mums-we always look for mums with only one or two buds open for color because our festival is mid-September. This year I actually planted mine in my bed because I was going away for 10 days-hope there is still some color when I get home-Happy Fall!
Hi Judy – your fall festival sounds so fun! I hope you have an exceptional good one this year and sell lots of mums. Thanks for stopping by and taking the time to comment. Good luck! Joanna
I am a more recent follower but already, when I see the newsletter in the email, I save reading it for later when I can take my time and enjoy this treat! Thank you for a lovely interlude in my day.
Hello Lucy – What a sweet comment. Thank you so much! I’m so very happy you’re enjoying the blog and my efforts are appreciated. Stop back soon. Happy fall, Joanna
So appreciate you showing the different zones. We are in zone 6 and are able to have a lot of what is in zone 5 – although we cannot have a spruce for long. To hot and dry. All three gardens are just beautiful in their own way.
Hi Carol – Thanks so much for stopping by and taking the time to leave such a sweet comment. I’m happy you enjoyed the post! Happy fall, Joanna