Curb & Cozy
From the video "My mom fixed my porch"

Mom's fall porch formula

Hazel asked her mom to fix her porch planters. Mom redid the whole porch, using four simple rules.

A navy front door with a fall leaf wreath, two black lanterns, a coir mat on a buffalo-check rug, and big planters of mums, kale, tall grass and trailing greens with pumpkins on the steps

Before and after

The same porch with one small pot of yellow mums and one small pumpkin
Hazel's start
The porch after Mom's formula
After Mom's rules
Hazel's mom, a gardener with long silver hair, on the front walk

Mom's rules
Hazel's mom, the gardener in the family.

  1. Go big on the pots

    A few large planters read from the street. Little pots get lost on a porch.

  2. Odd numbers

    Five pots, not four. Groups of three or five tend to look more natural than even pairs. Mix the sizes.

  3. Thriller, filler, spiller

    In each planter: something tall in the back (ornamental grass), something full in the middle (mums and ornamental kale), and something that trails over the rim (creeping jenny).

  4. Layer it

    Pumpkins and gourds in different sizes at the base and on the steps, a fall foliage wreath on the door, lanterns by the door, and a doormat layered on a bigger rug.

The shopping list

Tick things off as you go. Links open a plain search on each store's site.

Live plants: mums, ornamental kale, creeping jenny and grasses are best picked out at a local garden center, where you can see how full and healthy they are before you buy.