If you are hosting Thanksgiving dinner this year, or even if you just want your home to look nice for the holiday, ensuring that your home is clean and decorated for the occasion is important. Indoor decorations are easy, but when it comes to your landscaping, things can seem a little more challenging. Below are some tips for landscaping your yard in a way that appeals to your guests, your neighbors, and your family.
Start with Thorough Maintenance
If you want to create a beautiful Thanksgiving-themed landscape, it’s important to start with a clean canvas – and that means regular fall maintenance. Depending on the trees around your home and the average temperatures leading up to Thanksgiving, that maintenance may involve raking leaves, trimming grass, and even removing a few weeds from your flowerbeds. When everything is pristine, it’s easier to be creative in a way that allows your fall-themed decor to stand out.
Include Traditional Fall Colors
To start sprucing up your landscape for Thanksgiving, think about ways to incorporate traditional fall colors into your yard. Yellow, orange, red, brown, and all the shades in between are classic, and you can find many ways to bring those colors to life. You might opt for a reddish-brown mulch, a variety of natural brown containers, and even fall-themed lighting to suit your individual preferences.
Choose Hardy Plants in Fall Colors
Next, you can add pops of fall color to your landscape with flowers and foliage that are hardy enough to withstand Chicago-area autumn temperatures. Some great options include:
- Anemone hybrids in stunning yellow, orange, and red hues;
- A wide range of colorful Chrysanthemums (or mums);
- Perennial sunflowers; and
- Cold-tolerant succulents (such as Sedum and Sempervivum).
If you want to plan for years to come, consider trees and shrubs that are known for their gorgeous fall colors. Options include maple trees, bottlebrush buckeye, and crape myrtle, and each of these will provide a brilliant display of color from spring through fall.
Creative Decor
If you want to really have fun with your landscape, consider adding some fun decor to the mix. An adorable scarecrow in the flowerbed, a wheelbarrow filled with hay near the front walk, or a weather-tolerant cornucopia filled with a variety of pumpkins and gourds on the front porch offer a subtle, yet creative touch to your yard. If you’re planning to bring some plants in for the winter, consider repotting them in fall-themed containers for some extra fun.
Thanksgiving landscaping doesn’t have to be incredibly detailed. In fact, Thanksgiving is all about the rustic down-home feel, so feel free to be creative. A few carefully placed pumpkins, a cute scarecrow, and a Happy Thanksgiving welcome mat can go a long way – but it all starts with a meticulously maintained lawn and landscape.