Fall Flower Garden Inspiration (Plus Decor Ideas)
Other than the fact that Winter follows too close behind, I love Fall! It’s such a wonderful time of year, with 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. Even though it’s been several years now, 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 garden beds.
This is a beautiful, Minnesota hardy white chrysanthemum along with turtlehead. I’m looking forward to this mum getting big and bushy. An autumn joy sedum plant would make a nice addition to this little grouping.
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 flowers are asters, which 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 such an easy-care plant and one of the best plants for an autumn garden. It’s not one of my favorite perennials until they are in full bloom, and then 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.
Below is a different variety of sedum in the fall. So pretty.
Perennial coral mums and a lovely annual aster in one of my perennial gardens.
Whimsical Outdoor Fall Displays
Switching gears now a little, I’d like to show you my little 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. Besides chrysanthemums, there are pansies, creeping Jenny and ornamental peppers.
This 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. A good choice for bringing festive autumn colors to your front porch is by adding fall containers.
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.
The colors of these asters, rudbeckia, mums and black-eyed Susan just scream fall to me. Aren’t they gorgeous?
The contrast of the dwarf globe blue spruce with the dark red mums is stunning. Note to self to add more evergreen shrubs to my perennial garden.
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.
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 purple asters and helenium in the background.
More Tips for Creating a Beautiful Fall Flower Garden
- Visit a big box store garden center or your favorite local nursery in late summer or early fall. It’s the best time to shop for new plants for your fall garden, because you’ll be able to see all the beautiful blooms and picture how the plants will look in your gardens. If you’re lucky, you might also be able to snag some deals on end of the season clearance plants.
- There are many annual flowers that will keep blooming, and even enjoy the cooler temperatures of fall, until the ground freezes. Cool-season annuals include alyssum, marigolds, snapdragons, celosia and many more.
- Ornamental grasses are always a great choice for a fall garden. Although not a perennial in my zone 4 garden, purple fountain grass is one of my favorite fall annuals.
- Plants with colorful foliage like coral bells, croton, or ornamental kale are also excellent fall plants.
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.
We have 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
Fall is such a great time to garden and we have lots of great fall gardening posts here on Gingham Gardens. Here are some I think 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
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
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