Autumn is a very good excuse to have a shuffle around with the pots by the front door.
By September, some summer planting is starting to look a little tired and everything suddenly feels ready for a change. That doesn’t mean emptying every pot and starting again, though.
A few well-placed pots, some good autumn planting and a bit of rearranging can make a big difference, without covering the doorstep in pumpkins quite yet.
START WITH THE POTS THEMSELVES
It’s easy to focus entirely on the planting, but the pots make up a big part of the display too.
Terracotta pots are particularly good in autumn. Their warm, earthy colour works beautifully with autumn foliage, old brick, stone and timber, and they only seem to get better as they weather.
So if yours have picked up a bit of moss or the odd mark over summer, don’t be too quick to scrub them back to perfection. We’re rather fond of a pot that looks as though it’s been in the garden for a while.
MIX YOUR HEIGHTS
One small pot on its own beside a front door can look a bit lost.
Grouping a few front door pots together usually works much better. Start with one larger pot, then add a medium-sized one and perhaps something smaller in front.
They don’t need to match either. Mixing different shapes and sizes often looks far more natural.
And if you’ve got a big entrance, don’t be frightened of going big. Six tiny pots trying their best probably won’t have quite the same effect.
SYMMETRICAL OR SLIGHTLY LESS ORGANISED
A pair of matching pots either side of a front door is a classic for a reason.
But if your house or garden is a little more relaxed, try grouping your porch planters to one side instead. Three different-sized pots gathered together can feel much more informal and works particularly well around cottages and older properties.
It also saves you trying to work out whether one pot is two inches further from the door than the other.
USE WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE
Before emptying your summer pots onto the compost heap, have a proper look at what’s still going strong.
Evergreen shrubs, grasses, small trees and plenty of perennial plants will carry on happily through autumn. You might only need to remove anything that’s finished flowering, give everything a tidy and fill a few gaps.
Sometimes all a display needs is a quick shuffle.
ADD A BIT OF TEXTURE
Autumn planting isn’t only about colour.
Grasses, seed heads and evergreen foliage can look just as good as flowers, particularly as the season moves on.
The same goes for your containers. Mix smooth terracotta with older weathered pots, pair a low bowl with something taller, or add one larger statement planter beside the door.
You’re really just trying to stop everything looking the same height and shape.
Highly technical gardening advice, obviously.
KEEP IT PRACTICAL
Autumn does, unfortunately, bring rather more rain with it.
Make sure your pots drain properly and aren’t sitting permanently in water. Lifting larger containers slightly on pot feet can help, particularly as the weather gets wetter.
Not the glamorous part of autumn container gardening, admittedly, but worth doing.
KEEP IT SIMPLE
The best autumn entrances usually aren’t the ones with absolutely everything going on.
A few good pots, some interesting planting and a mix of heights is often enough.
So before buying an entirely new collection of plants, have a move around with what you already own. You might be surprised how much difference half an hour of pot shuffling can make.
And if there happens to be a gap that really does need filling, well... we know somewhere with a few pots.
