Last October we turned our porch into a deliberately spooky display with pumpkins, fake spiders, and gnarled branches. This summer, though, we unintentionally recreated that same eerie vibe — only it looked more like “is this house abandoned?” Here’s how that happened.
With a newborn at home, porch plant care slipped down our list of priorities. Slowly the planters went from overgrown to brown and brittle — in short: dead.
One planter after another lost its life…
…until they were so far gone even the squirrels would have given them a proper burial.
It was embarrassing, so we finally decided to address the mess. We wanted to restore some curb appeal — especially for our Project Sell This House effort — but we also wanted a quick, practical fix. A short trip to Home Depot solved it: two mums, a pansy, and a hosta.
We chose to put the mums in the two large square planters flanking the door. The first order of business was removing the old boxwoods that had somehow turned orange and lifeless. Out they went.
Normally I would have planted the mums directly into the soil, but our porch gets very little sun and is sheltered from rain by the overhang. That makes it hard for plants to thrive long-term, so instead we left the mums in their original square containers and simply set them into the planters. That way they’re easy to swap out with the seasons or remove to place in the sun for a few hours when needed.
Instant update — quick, tidy, and reversible. When the season changes we can swap those containers out in seconds, whether we’re still living here or a future homeowner takes over.
Because the mums remain in their nursery pots, we can also occasionally set them on the lawn for a little sun to keep them perkier than they’d be on the shaded porch.
For the smaller containers I did plant those directly into the soil since the size made that easy and they were more likely to survive with a little extra care. These plants are small, so digging them in didn’t take long, and we can bring them into the sun a few times a week to keep them looking fresh.
Once the plants were in place we gave the porch a good sweep. Thankfully the painted stripes we added last spring are holding up well and still look clean — a relief since we worried the light colors might show dirt quickly. A quick sweep and the porch looked refreshed.
All told, this little makeover cost less than $35. The mums were about $12 each and the other plants came in at roughly $10 total. For a small investment, our porch went from unintentionally spooky to welcoming.
We even met a neighbor and introduced ourselves as “the house with the yellow flowers on the porch.” Much better than being known for the dead shrubs.
How does your porch look right now? Anyone else dealing with curb-appeal guilt, or are mums your go-to quick fix for a tidy, seasonal entryway?