Harvest Decor Ideas for Your Balcony

Planters and containers come in all sizes, including ones that are perfect for balconies. Choose a planter or container that fits well in your space. Add some mums or pansies for a colorful display. You can plant seedlings in a soil-filled box. Another option is to place several nursery pots in the planter and cover them with moss or mulch.

Want more than one kind of bloom? Use more than one container. Put a different flowering plant in each one.

If you’re not prepared to take care of plants, you can use containers to hold pinecones, mini pumpkins or fall leaves.

Whatever size your balcony is, it has room for more than one pumpkin. Get several sizes to create cute arrangements of this fall staple.

If you’d like the pumpkins to sit on top of each other, look for ones with flatter tops and bottoms. Remove the stems for maximum stacking potential. Your stacks may need support from a container or nearby wall.

Real and faux pumpkins work equally well when you’re decorating. Of course, you can use faux pumpkins year after year, but if you’re short on storage space, you might prefer real pumpkins.

Not all hollowed out pumpkins must become jack-o’-lanterns. After removing the seeds and scraping out the inside of a pumpkin, use it as a container for a seasonal flower arrangement. Sunflowers, aster and fall leaves would all work well.

For a longer lasting bouquet, you can use faux flowers. If you don’t want to use cut flowers, you could place an entire potted plant inside the pumpkin and let the blooms and greenery peek out.

If your balcony has patio furniture, add some seasonal accents. Place decorative throw pillows depicting pumpkins or leaves in orange, yellow and red on chairs. Throw blankets in autumnal colors can make sitting outside more cozy when it cools off.

Side tables can hold arrangements of fall blooms. Create a centerpiece for a coffee table or outdoor dining table with a bowl of produce that includes colorful mini pumpkins and fall squash.

Fall nights are an ideal time to sit outside and enjoy cooler weather. Make your balcony seem more welcoming by hanging a few strands of string lights. Lanterns can add to the atmosphere. Make a circle of battery-operated candles to evoke the feeling of a campfire. Avoid open flames. In addition to creating a fire hazard, traditional candles may be prohibited in some apartment complexes.

Fall wreaths can feature everything from colorful leaves and flowers to acorns and pinecones. Hang a wreath on the door to your balcony or on the exterior wall. A wide range of premade wreaths are available. You could also make your own DIY harvest wreath.

A garland makes the perfect accent for a balcony railing. Look for garlands featuring colorful leaves or a mix of faux pinecones and mini pumpkins. Other options include a strand of sunflowers with fall leaves or a combination of artificial magnolia leaves and berries. If you don’t like the natural look, garlands with gnomes made of fall fabric are available. Or perhaps you’d prefer to hang a row of vintage red pickup trucks hauling loads of pumpkins.

If you’d like an actual fall harvest, you can grow vegetables and herbs in containers on your balcony. In late summer, look for patio pots of peppers, tomatoes and eggplants. You want plants that already have fruit on them. Put them in a spot on your balcony that gets full sun. Arrange containers of herbs like rosemary, basil, cilantro and sage around the vegetable plants.

Harvest decor and Halloween decorations pair together nicely. In October, set out your harvest display and pepper it with some festive witches, skeletons or ghosts. Hang some orange or purple string lights and maybe a few spider webs. After Oct. 31, you can take down everything for Halloween, but leave the pumpkins and other harvest decor until it’s time to put up the Christmas lights.