Fall decorating trend 'steadily growing' in P.E.I.

All the leaves are brown, and the sky is gray, as the songgoes.

The summer annuals in your urns and pots have all but turned to shriveled stalks. But don't despair fall decorating inspiration is everywhere and supplies are more available than ever before.

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"People have a green thumb in the summer and enjoy their displays and container, then fall comes and a lot of garden centres just shut down," said Peter Meiijer of Van Kampen's Greenhouse in Charlottetown.

The popularity of fall decorating has exploded the last five years or so, said Meijer, and there are an increasing number of types and colours of pumpkins, grasses, gourds, containers, mini-bales of straw, fall flowers and corn available to consumers every year.

"It's been steadily growing," said Meijer. "Five years ago we only had [chrysanthemums]."

Not only has there been a tsunami of interest in home decor driven by social media, Meijer said his business realized itneeded transition crops and services to "get us through dead periods," such as the time between summer and Christmas.

Needinspiration? Check out some of these ideas below.

Plants, pumpkins and purple

Acknowledging she gets a little tired of orange during October, decor blogger Toni Roberts created thisfall porch with pumpkins and foliage in plums, purples, lavenders, blue-grey, sage and greens. She gives you a step-by-step tutorial here.

Vintage

Who says fall displays have to be in traditional autumnal hues of oranges, reds and browns? Gather together some of your vintage finds and go for a white-themed display easier than ever now, with the availability of white pumpkins.

Humour

If you have a some large round bales kicking around, you could copy this display at MacKenzie Farms' roadside stand in Stratford, P.E.I..

Light it up

This twinkly take on jack-o'-lanterns is courtesy of the queen of craft, Martha Stewart.

"Instead of carving traditional faces, drill tiny holes into each pumpkin. Use strings of tiny white lights to illuminate the pumpkins," she instructs.

Too busy? No problem

Too busy pickling preserves to think about decorating?Van Kampen's has started a service that will do it for you.

While the business is still in the process of developing a "catalogue" of displays to choose from, Peter Meijer said they'll start at $50 and go to $300. They can also create custom orders for any budget.

"Next year, we plan to go even bigger," he added.

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