Simple Fall Galvanized Planters

Don’t have time to decorate a porch? Create simple fall galvanized planters to usher in autumn to welcome visitors, the season – and make you smile.

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Hello there! I’m popping in today to quickly share with you the super simple fall galvanized planters I created for our front porch. They are not expensive, not complicated, and take just a few minutes to put together with easily found plants. That’s all good, right?

But here’s the other thing I want to share with you: this is the only update I’m doing this year for our fall porch decor. I’ve loved creating welcoming fall porches in the past like this neutral fall porch, this one with greens, pinks, and whites (yep, non-traditional for sure!), and this one using nature’s offerings. None of them have been elaborate or expensive – I mainly use what I have from the garden, shop the house, and throw in a few new autumn flowers – and I enjoyed doing it. It really was the only season I did more than change up a wreath and refresh the containers on the porch.

This year, though, we are in a season of change. Many of you know we sold our cottage-farmhouse and are waiting to find a perfect-for-us property. I do have a porch where we’re living, but the desire to decorate it is just not the same.

Flowers make me smile, however. They are a sign of changing seasons, new life, and are just plain beautiful. They are cheap and easy for anyone to do.

So I found a couple of inexpensive galvanized buckets, bought some mums and a couple rudbeckias, aka ‘black-eyed susan’ (3 mums would work, too) along with some potting soil and just like that I have a “fall porch.”

And here’s my encouragement to you: no matter the season of life you are in (busy with babies and toddlers, shuttling around kids, discouraged with health problems, or all the other stages we may find ourselves in) you can create beauty just where you are.

You don’t have to have matching pillows, lanterns full of pumpkins, or banners you made yourself – unless that’s what makes you happy. You don’t even have to have a simple fall galvanized planter. Maybe your one thing is a pile of pumpkins by the door.

Don’t let the Instagram pictures make you think you have to do it all-or-nothing. You can choose what makes you happy, what will bless others and just do it. Embrace the season and all the changes each brings (both literally and figuratively) in your own unique way.

Fall Galvanized Planters

For this quick planter you will need:

• 1 or 2 galvanized buckets
• lightweight potting soil
• organic fertilizer for flowers
• 2 4-inch mums and 1 4-inch rudbeckia (black-eyed Susans) for each planter (or 3 mums each if you prefer)
• garden trowel and gloves (I’ve been using these gloves and am happy with the cost and longevity)
• filler/drainage for buckets

Tip for choosing mums: look for plants that have at least 1/2 unopened buds – and 2/3 is better – to get the longest bloom time from the plants.

There are two ways you can prepare the galvanized buckets for planting:

1. Use a drill to make 3-4 holes in the bottom for drainage.
2. Fill the bottom with rocks or packing peanuts or other things that will take up room and provide pockets for water drainage.

I chose #2 since I didn’t want water to drain onto the porch and also because I knew these would be under shelter and wouldn’t get tons of rain.

Create your planters:

1. Prepare your buckets for planting in one of the two ways from above.
2. Moisten the potting mix and add to buckets, about 2/3 full.
3. Make a hole for each of your plants and add a tablespoon of organic fertilizer to each.
4. Plant your mums and rudbeckia in the soil, loosening the roots as you do to encourage them to start growing into the new soil.
5. Tamp down the soil firmly around each plant, adding more soil as needed to bring the soil level up to within 1 to 1-1/2 inches from the bucket edge.
6. Water in the plants.

That’s it – now you and your guests can enjoy these simple fall galvanized containers for the rest of the season and your porch is ‘fall ready.’

I will be adding a bit more fall decor inside – I love seeing pumpkins, leaves, blankets and other signs of cozy fall decor – but again, it doesn’t have to be a lot, cost a lot, or take a lot of time. We’ll all just do what we like, okay?

Happy Fall!

 

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