Designer Fall Planters Done The Easy Way

Would you love the look of beautiful fall designer planters but don’t know where to start? I found a super easy and reasonably priced way to style planters for my home. I’m sharing my savvy secrets so you can have gorgeous fall planters for your outdoor spaces. Lots of ideas and how-to pictures.

Have you ever wished your outdoor fall planters and container gardens could look like they were done by a landscape designer? Well, you can have designer-looking planters and at a fraction of the cost. I’m sharing a very easy way to plant beautiful fall pots! I think you’ll be surprised!

I used to have a local landscape designer fill the planters around our home with the most gorgeous summer and fall plants just because I could not create overflowing pots of interesting and beautiful fall plants myself!

The fall planters were amazing, but they finally became cost prohibitive!

I needed a way I could get the fall planter look I loved without the HUGE price tag!

My Ah-Ha Moment!

One day while I was perusing a local garden center, I found the solution to the fall planter problem!

I found a beautiful pre-made fall arrangement in an inexpensive bushel basket! Then it occurred to me that I could probably plant this beautiful fall basket of plants in my own planters at home!

So, I took the bushel basket home and replanted the flowers just like they were in my existing porch and patio pots!

WOW! My planters looked so pretty! And they were almost half the price of the landscape designer’s fall pots I had planted all those years!

I’ve been repotting garden center fall planters for a few years now, and I have some savvy tips to share with you! I’m so excited because you can have designer-looking fall pots and planters too!

Here are some big benefits of repotting garden center planters…

• you save $$$
• it’s nice to carry only one planter or basket from the garden center
• your outside planters will have a designer look
• you can personalize your planters by adding some pretty extras (discussed below)

Here’s how I plant designer-looking fall planters every year!

Find A Ready Made Planter

This year mums made an appearance in my fall planters! I love mums!

I visited my favorite garden center to find some pre-potted fall planters in inexpensive containers.

Here are a few I found…

These pretty fall pots had 5 fall plants in each one, a basket, and fresh potting soil!

I actually got two of the same planter to flank the opening of our patio.

Here’s the style I picked to be planted in containers on our back porch…

The planter had…

• one yellow mum
• one rust mum
• one purple fountain grass
• one black pearl ornamental pepper
• one flowering cabbage
• lots of fresh potting soil
• a bushel basket (I use these when I pick weeds, pick flowers or prune bushes)

I bought two extra black pearl ornamental pepper plants just in case I needed to tuck another little plant in each of the planters.

And I bought a 6-pack of yellow pansies.

I had lots of coleus at home from a few summer planters that I could transplant into the fall planters if needed.

Creating very full and lush planters was my goal. Fall is a short season, so the plants I tuck in a pot don’t really grow that much, if at all!

Prepare The Soil

First, I emptied out the planter of all the leftover summer plants. And dug out all the embedded root systems from the dirt.

It’s really important for the health of the new plants going in the soil to loosen up the dirt and remove and big root systems from previous plants.

I took out about a quarter of the soil in my planter to make room for the new plants and amended the rest of the soil with a good granular fertilizer.

How To Plant An Easy Fall Planter

Planting a fall planter could not be easier! Just put the plants into the planter the way they are in the pre-made one.

First, I removed the plant in the back of the planter, a black pearl ornamental pepper. The beautiful berry-like peppers start red and turn black. I love how they contrast with the rust and yellow mums in the pot.

Because these were recently planted, the plants easily lifted out of their original containers.

I planted the black pearl in the back of the planter just like it was planted in the one I bought.

The back of the planter where the black pearl peppers were planted can be seen when we enter the patio from the garage side of our home, so I wanted something pretty and different at the back of the planter.

Then following the pattern of the pre-made planter, I added the red ornamental grass in the center of our black planter and the yellow mum to the right.

Next, I planted the rust mums (yes, they are rust) and the flowering cabbage.

I used one of the black pearl peppers to fill in the front of the planter a bit more.

I had coleus in a few pots, so I transplanted some of them to the fall planter too! And I used three little yellow pansies plants in this planter to give the container a pop of bright color!

Other Plants To Add To A Fall Planter

You might want to add a few more hearty fall plants to bulk up and add even more beauty to your fall planters!

Since fall is a short growing season, you can really pack a planter full of beautiful fall-hearty plants!

There are so many pretty additions to a fall planter that add a nod to the autumn season.

Here are a few…

• pansies
• flowering cabbage and kale
• creeping Jennie
• marigolds
• lettuces
• violas
• asters
• ivy
• lambs ear
• green or pink sedum
• purple millet
• lemon coral sedum
• trailing sedum

Adding Natural Fall Elements

How about adding natural fall elements, like pumpkins, to your planter? This is such a pretty look.

And they are such a fun surprise!

Remember to add natural fall elements to the base of the planter too. A few pumpkins casually grouped will give a planter more design heft!

Last Thoughts

You can use garden center planters for spring and summer and even Christmas too! Transplanting them into your own pots is so smart, saves $$$, is so easy and attractive!

Fall Planter Shopping Guide