How to decorate flower boxes for fall and winter depends on the condition the flower boxes are in after the summer season. That's why various solutions for autumn and winter decoration are presented afterwards, from decoration for empty window boxes (empty balconies) to permanent planting, not just for autumn and winter, but for the next few years:
Decorate empty flower boxes
The stylish and heavy flower boxes are often meant to remain on the balcony when the summer flowers have been disposed of. If you don't have time for fuss, but you don't want to stare at empty flower boxes when looking out the window, creativity is required:
Creativity for children
If your everyday life is quite busy, you can keep children busy with the “Balcony Decoration” project without you having to pay full attention the whole time. This is how it could work without having to renovate your living space afterwards:
- First collect cardboard, usually it is enough if you transport the next purchases home in boxes
- Cut into square, flat pieces, which are first collected in a box
- You need scissors, office stapler, enough staples, thin foil in bright colors and opaque colors
- An old carpet or blanket works well as protection for the floor
- Then there is a work table, which if necessary is wrapped in an old tablecloth/foil so that it is colour-safe
- Christmas trees are cut from the cardboard, always with a wide stem for attachment
- The stem is later secured in material that covers the entire stem
- Two material rectangles several centimeters thick almost at the height of the balcony boxes
- These could e.g. B. can be cut from thick green Styrodur insulation panels (by an adult)
- Maybe you can find something else in the household, two suitable boxes, for example. B.
- The stem is attached between these rectangular, upright bodies, e.g. B. glued over the entire surface
- If you have a handyman in your household, you might be able to find pieces of squared timber in the right size
- In which dad drills a few holes evenly spaced over the surface with the drill
- The stem of the tree then comes in between and is also pierced with a skewer, strong wire or similar
- Long screws through, screw on nuts on the opposite side, and the Christmas tree has a thick, sturdy handle
- It shouldn't be blown off the balcony in the next storm
- The skilled do-it-yourselfer attaches a piece of timber across the balcony box, perhaps with wedges, perhaps with nylon rope/wire using the drainage holes
- He now screws the “Christmas tree stems” onto it using small angles
- If the mounting device for the flower boxes allows it, you can also simply place a grid on the balcony box and tie it up
- The grid can be cut to size from a screed mat (by an adult) using wire scissors or pliers
- Sand off sharp-edged wire ends or secure with thick textile adhesive tape
- Now we can get started, the Christmas trees are painted green and, after drying, decorated with painted tree decorations
- In addition, all sorts of shapes can be cut from the colorful, possibly glittering foil and then stapled to the tree
- No more precise suggestions, the creativity required here is intended to stimulate your children's brains
- In autumn, the Christmas trees can stay green for now and then be decorated later
- Cover paints are usually a little waterproof, you can help with hairspray or spray paint
- If your balcony regularly gets a full rain front, only a creative solution will help if you don't want to rebuild:
- Pack the finished works of art in thin cling film, preferably the otherwise unloved really sticky one
- If you wrinkle cleverly when packing, it looks like a hint of ice and snow
Depending on the age of the children, you will of course be sitting at the craft table when the tree shapes are cut out with scissors, but this can be done in one go if you have previously thought about how many trees you want to put up “. If you have enough space/time available for the craft table to either remain standing or temporarily moved into a storage room together with the "color protection devices", and you would like to encourage children's craft work, you could of course also do a round in front of the Christmas trees Insert autumn decorations, with deciduous forest á la “Indian Summer”. If the summer flowers and their flower boxes overwinter in the basement or the remains of the summer flower decorations and their substrate have been disposed of and the empty, not particularly attractive plastic flower boxes have been put together in the basement, you have an empty balcony to decorate. What you can do with it basically depends on the mounting device for the flower boxes. If, as is often the case, the balcony box holder is a wrought iron frame, you can easily attach all sorts of things to the iron struts, the craft trees just described as well as all sorts of other autumn decorations.
The adult decorations
The adult decoration for empty flower boxes needs just as much creativity, your thoughts will just turn to other materials and a less colorful design, here are a few suggestions:
- In craft stores (architect supply stores) you can get thin, semi-transparent polypropylene films in DIN paper sizes
- In many colors, more autumnal and rather flashy, and in white, gray, anthracite
- You could cut a tree parade out of these to match your home decor or in your favorite color
- Perhaps the most diverse deciduous tree silhouettes in all autumn colors
- Polypropylene is light, UV-stable, temperature-resistant from -10 to +110 °C
- It can be cut with a cutter or strong scissors
- It can be glued with special adhesives and (of course) fixed with screws
- You could screw many trees to the bottom of wooden strips, which you then screw together and sink into the flower box
- With the right distances, a small forest of the desired color and three-dimensional effect is created
- When Christmas approaches, the autumn forest is followed by a parade of fir trees, in dark green or elegant gray tones or really colorful
- Which can be decorated in any colorful way, with light decorative items, a hole punch and string
- The decorative royal class are then two of these trees, connected with threaded rods + nuts and illuminated
- Lighting can be provided with an outdoor string of lights, the connections of which must be waterproof
- This outdoor string of lights can also add color, so the possibilities grow into quite a few color combinations
Take advantage of autumn offers
In autumn, the shops are full of autumn plants - asters, chrysanthemums and heathers can quickly and cheaply create an autumn planting that is impressive and brings a more or less colorful autumn atmosphere to the balcony, depending on your wishes. If you're in a hurry and durability isn't important, you can buy the next special offer you come across. If you like these traditional autumn plants or parts of them, you can read about the right types/varieties of asters, chrysanthemums and heather under “Planting and decorating balconies and terraces in autumn”, which are sure to be winter-hardy and will give you joy for much longer.
More ideas for permanent fall planting
As I said, there are asters, chrysanthemums and heather that decorate the balcony for a long time, but it doesn't have to stop there: you can create a colorfully blooming autumn oasis with exceptionally beautiful flowers, e.g. b. with:
- Autumn monkshood (Aconitum carmichaelii var. wilsonii)
- Lily hostas (Hosta plantaginea)
- Columnar golden bulb (Ligularia wilsoniana)
- Various late-blooming toad lilies (Tricyrtis)
- Petite Torch Lilies (Kniphofia galpinii)
You can transform flower boxes and pots into impressive, colorful flower bushes, e.g. B. with:
- Autumn anemones (Anemone autumn elegans) and Japanese anemones (Anemone japonica)
- Richly blooming chamomiles (Boltonia asteroides) and autumn daisies (Leucanthemella serotina)
- Late blooming perennial sunflowers (Helianthus)
- Winter-hardy perennial marigolds (calendula hybrid 'Winter Wonders Amber Arctic')
- Various late-blooming coneflowers (Rudbeckia)
You can decorate flower boxes and pots with small flowering shrubs, e.g. B. with
- Chinese crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica)
- French sackflower (Ceanothus x delilianus)
- Shrub veronica (Hebe speciosa)
- Carpetberry (Gaultheria procumbens)
- Tree jockey tree (Dermatobotrys saundersii)
You can hang hanging baskets or attach trellises in flower boxes/pots and let flowering climbing plants climb up in autumn and winter, e.g. E.g.:
- Burning clematis (Clematis flammula)
- Common ivy (Hedera helix), blooms exceptionally and beautifully in winter
- Large-leaved clematis (Clematis heracleifolia 'Mrs. Robert Brydon')
- Sky blue passionflower (Passiflora caerulea), needs a warm microclimate
- Mediterranean Daphne (Daphne gnidium)
You can bring a very restrained autumn planting into the flower box, which is presented in all tones from green to cream to silver, e.g. E.g.:
- Himalayan fleshberry (Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis)
- Mother's Commemoration or Zhi Mu (Anemarrhena asphodeloides)
- Olive willows (Elaeagnus)
- Late blooming goldenrods (Solidago aspera, Solidago rugosa 'Fireworks')
- Late-blooming wormwood shrubs (Artemisia lactiflora, ludoviciana, pontica)
In the other articles about autumn and winter, decoration and balconies you will find many more plants that can be planted (flowering) in autumn, are well to excellently hardy and will beautify the flower box for several years.
Conclusion
Even empty flower boxes can be decorated for autumn or winter with a little creativity; the ideas presented here were just initial suggestions from a huge range of possibilities. The flower boxes can of course also be planted for autumn, very quickly or with a little more work (when shopping), the range of possibilities is just as huge - and you could then decorate these autumn plants even further, see “Autumn decoration & winter decoration”.
