These massive stone columns have another life this week; these ghosts have the look of a pair of running backs from the NFL. The kids did not pick up on this-any big expression is a good expression. Painting pumpkins is a good way to extend your holiday season; carved pumpkins deteriorate fast. A simple rendering of a face is a strong one; these ghouls look plain scared by the spiders drawing near. The kids got this part, loud and clear.
One client whose landscape was designed by me features a center planting area perfect for seasonal vignettes. The walkway enclosing it on all four sides makes for theatre in the round. The granite wall-Rob and I built this ourselves, many years ago, one heavy stone at a time. I remember this experience as if it were yesterday. I am pleased it still looks great some fifteen years later.
Given that the space is large, I needed lots of elements, set at different heights. The textured pots you see here are liners for wire tree forms. These liners are made from recycled asphalt and cardboard, ground up and poured into molds made in the 1940’s. They make great rustic and inexpensive containers for special events.
I have never forgotten the young person working for one of my clients in Indianapolis who thought “Hardy Mums” was a person running for office. He saw the signs everywhere, and connected his own personal set of dots. Every time I see a sign for hardy mums from the road, I laugh all over again. Given that this scene was a big one, I bought the biggest hardy mums I could find in tight bud, and planted them in fiber pots. Hardy Mums for President-what do you think?
The centerpiece of my vignette-a straw scarecrow. He is not very scary-the crows are perched all over him. The clothes and boots were contributed from the lot of us; the face got painted on a pillowcase. His hat-some left over erosion mat from a hydroseeding job on a slope. He is one hundred percent straw stuffed-as he should be. The corn shocks add height, and set our fall figure down-he looks pleased to be settled in where he is. A hedge of gazanias knits everything together.
This vignette is all about the growing and farming, the land, the harvest, and the garden, in a very gentle way. Not every Halloween needs to be about terror. Very young children can be easily frightened-I try not to get ahead of them. There is plenty of time time for them to grow up into a love for skeletons dripping fake blood and severed plastic fingers littering the ground.
I have a soft spot for this blue-eyed scarecrow and his crow friends. Perched on an embarassment of riches in straw and pumpkins, he is the centerpiece of this sunny fall display. Happy Halloween.
The fall is the perfect time to talk about light as an element of design in the landscape. How, when and where the sun shines, dramatically influences the visual impact of any landscape or garden. October light in Michigan is cold and low in the sky. Uneven or carved surfaces are cast in sharp relief. Any shadows cast will be dramatically elongated. A client choosing a smooth surfaced ornament for their garden should be happy for a subtle light rendering; if not, choosing ornament with some more graphic surface variation might be in order.
I could write on into the next decade about how light is the engine that gets any outdoor space moving. One of my favorite parts of my Michigan gardening life is how the light can make the appearance of everything change, from hour to hour, and day to day, and season to season. The contrast of light and dark in a garden is its heartbeat. In October, the trees coloring up are all the more dramatic for the ignition supplied by that intensely pale light. Its worth thinking about the degree of shade a tree or shrub will cast in a landscape. A densely shady area is all the more dramatic with a pocket pool of light behind it. Plan for dark spaces close to your view, with light spaces in the distance. 
The spring leaves emerging on my Princeton gold maples cannot hold a candle to their yellow fall fire. I am a photographer whose lack of understanding about the mechanics of photography is considerable. So I watch the light. When it suffuses every element in a garden such that the color in my pictures, or the feeling of my pictures, will be saturated-that is the time I photograph. I record; I do not have the skills to generate. It is hard to believe this collection of these maple yellow leaves produces such dense shade underneath; the grey cedar fence appears black by way of contrast, and almost disappears.
Our thin rod steel spheres permit the view of your choice through to the landscape. How they interact with a garden is the best part about them. Imagine this view in the winter, the early spring, the early summer, the high summer, the fall; you get the idea. Add light to the mix, and your possible visual combinations increase considerably. Garden ornament interests me greatly, given how it offers me a sense of solidity, and steadfast longevity, against the ever changing landscape. 
The bright flat October sun sets all it touches on fire. The greens are all that much more electrically green; the reds glow red. If you are looking to see the rhythm established by the masses of light and dark in your landscape, look quick now before the leaves fall. There is instruction coming from the natural world every day, should you care to tune in.
The color of these pansies speaks softly in the spring. The fall light intensifies and electrifies the appearance of their color. On my best days, I think about how the light will fall on a landscape in every season, as this should influence how I place every plant or object.
Though I was surprised to hear from this client that Halloween was one of her family’s most important holidays, she had good reasons. A sister living in Brazil came to visit every Halloween. The family spent Christmas week skiing, away from home. Last but not least, she has a slew of kids. She had boxes of Halloween props-we used them all. A large antique English stone urn took the insult rather well, I thought. Bamboo dyed black, and a stick stack of decidedly unnatural color provided perches for three ravens. Green millet and orange integrifolia clashed noisily. The giant spiders -they were creepy to look at in broad daylight.
We would put up the Halloween decorations the beginning of October. For this reason, the use of wood props and plastic carved pumpkins seemed like a good idea. Though I am not a big fan of mums, these bushel basket grown plants add big splashes of color. The skull lights along the walk are a favorite of the kids.
Though the scarecrow witch seemed sweet and benign, those spiders create an unmistakeable mood. We managed to find a spot for every bat, skull and skeleton in my client’s collection. At Halloween, more is always better.
The side porch columns get dressed up in broomcorn, sticks and whatever else is available at market, all of which is held in place with zip ties covered in giant raffia bows. The corn gets zipped on in three layers, from top to bottom. Each new layer covers the construction materials of the preceding layer. I have also dressed tree trunks in similar outfits.
The side porch door gets the most family traffic in and out, so we give it the full treatment. All of the carved pumpkins are lit from the inside. Good and spooky night lighting is a key element.
Though I plant plenty for the fall season, the kids for whom the music is not too loud have the right idea. Trolling for treats in costume on a dark, windy and ghostly night – peopled by the spirits of the dead and doomed; terror-ific. This client called to say her kids were making fun of her-could she not loosen up, and get a little ghastly? We gave it a whirl. I did tell her the kids needed to supply me with their gruesome best in the way of props.
The fruits of the late season are beautiful; their thick skins coloring up speak to the finish of a summer’s worth of serious growing. The broomcorn, the bare branches on the trees, the hubbard squash-all of this speaks to a season coming to a close. The rust red sedum is one of the latest blooming perennials. If you want to represent the season, do lots; we piled the pumpkins up everywhere. 
A porch pillar is encircled with broomcorn, and corseted with dried peeled willow sticks. I picked gourds with astonishing shapes, and the Hubbard squash too big for anyone else to haul home. Is it not astonishing how heavy the squashes are? Every pumpkin and gourd is chosen for its spook factor. Spider webs of hemp fibers complement the lacy shapes of the kale. One of the best things about pumpkins from the market is the stems that are left intact.
