Fall is one of the best times to up your curb appeal and create a welcoming yard and garden for all your family and friends with fall planter ideas. Updating your planters and containers for fall is easy, can be done in an afternoon, and can last well into the holiday season. Fall creates a whole new gardening personality… one that is more laid back and sleepy, but also electrified with color and texture. It’s almost as if Mother Nature wants one last dip in the pool before the summer sun sets for the cold winter. And she brings the margarita mix. Gotta love that. Learn how to use these fall planter ideas to create wow in three easy steps!

Fall Planter Ideas in 3 Easy Steps

Fall Front Porch Planter Ideas – Step One

Add foliage.

When your fall containers get tired, nothing perks them up like a fresh foliage plant. Adding a foliage plant to help the eye “rest” is key in this season where everything can look busy. Foliage will also carry farther into the colder weather, extending your containers’ season. Our favs? Ornamental Kale is always a winner, but so are various types of ivy, lamium, and dusty miller. If you grow lambs ear (or any other foliage perennial for that matter) in the garden, now is a great time to divide it and plant some divisions in your pots. Hardy herbs can also be a great idea at this time of year. You may have some plants from the earlier season that can stay in place and contribute here too… don’t be too quick to boot out a plant just because it isn’t flowering.

Photos from ‘Southern Living‘.

‘Hearth and Vine‘ took an existing container that had gotten a little sad at the end of summer, and punched it up with easy fall planter ideas! She added some contrasting foliage plants to the one that was still thriving. Then she pumped up the color with some fall flowers for the pot as well. You don’t have to start from scratch when you create a fall container. Just do a planter makeover!

This fall container idea from ‘Houzz‘ uses just foliage. But notice you still get texture and color! This is purple fountain grass and Coleus.

Planter Ideas Step Two – Fall Flowers for Pots

Add filler flowers to your fall planter.

This is where you add the sparkle! Pop in some festive fall annuals here, mums, pansies, asters, zinnias. You don’t need a bunch here, just choose one or two you love! And don’t skimp. Your fall plants won’t have much growing time to fill in, so tuck them pretty close together to give them a designer look. This time of year, you can either choose to stay with one or two colors for a calmer color scheme, or go all out and make it a fall planter fiesta. You can even stay with an all foliage container by using colored foliage as your filler “flowers’. From ‘Momcrieff‘, this is a great example of using filler flowers… and some are cut flowers! What a great combo in this planter idea.

The foliage in this fall planter is a show stopper, but the flowers add the fun. From ‘Costa Farms‘, use a tall fall foliage plant like this cordyline, then add cascading flowers that bloom right through until frost, like these wave petunias. These are inexpensive plants that you can find at any local nursery, too.

These are fall planter boxes that are updated each season with filler flowers. Mums and Kale fit the bill here. Notice there are evergreens plants in each container. This gives you a great year round base so that you can update your planters for each season. Photo by ‘Tubloom‘.

You can make a fall planter window box using these same steps too! Note that there is both foliage and flowers! Photo by ‘Houzz‘.

These contemporary containers from ‘Houzz‘ show the use of foliage and filler flowers to make these come alive for the whole season! Read on about why those corn stalks are so important too.

DIY Fall Planters – Step Three

Add texture with fall plants.

Ornamental grasses are a great bargain this time of year, and are usually on clearance. Pick up a few container size varieties to add texture, height and structure to your fall container garden. Make sure you plant the taller grasses in the back of the container. Another idea is to use branches and berries to add fall planter texture.

This fall planter idea uses texture and form with these white branches and mini pumpkins. Lots of subtle contrast here with texture, but the color contrast is simple green and white. From ‘Midwest Living‘.

If you really love the whole autumn colors vibe for your fall front porch decor, this container garden is perfect inspiration! The branches of fall leaves and the dried grasses really do add color and texture to an already fiery fall planter! Photo from ‘Pinterest’.

From ‘Houzz‘, another example of adding texture to your fall containers, this time using bamboo stakes.

Fall Planter Idea Tips:

Still not sure how to get started creating your fall planters? You will need to clean out the old summer annuals from your container gardens. Pull out a few new containers if the budget allows. When cleaning out the the old plants, don’t be shy about getting those packed in roots out of there. Use a sharp knife if necessary. Add additional fresh soil when you place the new plants into the container gardens, and pack lightly. Water.This is a great time of year for re-purposed containers as well… a planted wheelbarrow or old tin buckets just hints at the hard work that went into the garden harvest!

‘Liz Marie‘ planted her fall mums in old crockery for her front porch. The pumpkins add the texture to make this a really festive fall planter idea!

If you want a great primer on how to care for your fall planters and containers, then jump on over to ‘Garden Therapy‘ and learn about all the proper maintenance to keep them looking awesome.

This wheelbarrow fall planter idea is something any of us can do. You can simply place nursery pots into the wheelbarrow, and then hide them with fall pumpkins, straw bales and other autumn accents. Or, you could drill a few holes into the bottom of the wheelbarrow, and fill it with soil, then plant directly into it! Frankly, if you are recycling an old, rusty one, you may not need to even drill holes! Photo from ‘Cape Cod Happenings‘.

Love the texture the purple Kale gives to this bright fall container. Photo by ‘McCabe’s‘.

What’s your opinion? Can’t wait to decorate the yard with fall planter ideas, and usher in those holiday festivities with style? Or do you think its a waste of time… those flowers are just going to die anyway? (We’re hoping you pick the first one!) We think you will also love our posts on Fabulous Fall Container Ideas and How to Make Winter Garden Planters! And check out Fall Pumpkin Decorating Ideas and Easy & Cheap Fall Decor over at TBD, and Fresh & Pretty Fall Wreath Ideas over at OhMeOhMy!!

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