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Create This Charming Mum & Pumpkin Planter in 5 Minutes

Written by Author Tracey Besemer Published on October 11, 2024 - Last Updated on October 14, 2024

Mum and pumpkin planter.
They’re like potato chips and kittens; you can’t have just one.

Pumpkins and chrysanthemums: they go together like peanut butter and jelly. It’s hard to think of a more quintessential fall pairing. This quick and easy fall DIY looks great on your front steps. Let’s make one together.

The idea is quite simple: scoop out a pumpkin and plant a chrysanthemum in it.

The whole project takes only five minutes. Once you see how easy it is, you’ll want to make a few more. These charming little planters look great, one on either side of your door or one on each step.

Choosing Your Mums

When picking out mums, you’ll want to be sure you pick ones with smaller nursery pots, not gigantic ones that barely fit in your trunk. I’ve found that 6” or 8” potted mums work well for this project.

Chrysanthemum
I bought this chrysanthemum at the grocery store, and you can easily tell which side was facing out into the sun.

Choose mums that are vibrant in color. Chrysanthemums will begin to fade the longer they sit in the sun, especially the pale mauve color I’ve chosen here. Likewise, heavy rains can wash the pigment out of mums as well, so if you want your colorful mums to stay colorful, place them where they won’t get rained on. You’ll also want to choose a plant with healthy leaves and a good mix of open and closed buds. Peak beneath the blooms to make sure the potting soil is moist. You don’t want any that have dried out, as that will affect the buds.

Check out my handy guide to getting mums to last and how to winter them over.

Choosing Your Pumpkin

When picking a pumpkin for this project, it needs to be wide and tall enough to accommodate the nursery pot the mum is in. I also chose a pumpkin that had a relatively flat bottom so it would sit upright on my steps. Make sure the pumpkin doesn’t have any soft spots that will cause it to decompose quickly.

Tools needed to create a mum and pumpkin planter.

Tools You’ll Need

  • Sharp chef knife
  • Pumpkin scoop or a large spoon (Have you seen these awesome pumpkin scooping gloves? Raw pumpkin makes my skin itchy, so I love these.)
  • Drill with a ½” bit
  • Optional – All-purpose potting soil if you want to plant the whole thing at the end of the season
  • Optional – Large plant saucer to set the pumpkin on

Instructions

Woman using a large knife to cut a hole in the top of a pumpkin.
  • Using a sharp chef’s knife, cut a hole in the top of the pumpkin, the same size or slightly larger in diameter than the nursery pot. (You want the pot to slip down inside the pumpkin so it’s not visible.) You can compost the “lid” as you won’t need it.
  • Scoop out the pumpkin, removing the fiber and seeds. Don’t forget to save the seeds to roast!
Woman using a drill to put a drainage hole in the bottom of a pumpkin.
  • Turn the pumpkin upside and down and carefully drill a hole in the center of the bottom of the pumpkin for drainage.
  • Now, place the chrysanthemum in the pumpkin, nursery pot and all. Water it well if needed and enjoy. If you’re putting the planter inside or on a patio or porch where you don’t want water everywhere, place it on a drip saucer. Be sure you empty it after you water your mums each time so the pumpkin doesn’t begin to rot sitting in standing water.
Woman's hands placing an empty nursery pot inside a carved out pumpkin.
I found it helpful to pull the mum out of the pot carefully and use the pot to see if the hole was big enough.

And that’s it. Easy as pumpkin pie. Actually, no, pumpkin pie is harder than this.

The only downside to this project is that once you finish the first one, you’ll realize how easy it was, and you’ll want to make more. One for each step on the front porch, and one on either side of the door would look nice, and one by the mailbox and… You get the idea.

Mum planted inside a pumpkin sitting next to a mailbox.
Okay. Time to make about six more…

Plant Your Planter

One of the nice benefits of this project is that you can plant the entire thing in the soil at the end of the season. The pumpkin will slowly decompose in place, underground, feeding the Chrysanthemum. These hardy plants are treated like annuals and almost always pitched or composted at the end of the season, but they’re actually hardy perennials.

  • Once you’re done enjoying your mum pumpkin planter for the season, trim back the mum to about 4”. Remove the mum from the pumpkin and gently pull it out of the nursery pot. Add potting soil to the inside of the pumpkin and put the plant back in, adding more potting soil if needed. Likewise, you can do this step initially if you know you’re going to plant it later in the fall.
  • Dig a hole large enough to accommodate the pumpkin and deep enough so the cut opening of the pumpkin will be flush with the ground once you’ve filled it back in.
  • Pack the dirt back around the pumpkin and mount it slightly over the top to the base of the mum. Mulch heavily around the base and cover the plant as well with fallen leaves, cut grass or straw. Your mum will return next year in all its fall glory.

Of course, you can always compost the whole thing as well; just be sure to remove the nursery pot.

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Tracey Besemer

Hey there, my name is Tracey. I’m the editor-in-chief here at Rural Sprout.

Many of our readers already know me from our popular Sunday newsletters. (You are signed up for our newsletters, right?) Each Sunday, I send a friendly missive from my neck of the woods in Pennsylvania. It’s a bit like sitting on the front porch with a friend, discussing our gardens over a cup of tea.

Originally from upstate NY, I’m now an honorary Pennsylvanian, having lived here for the past 18 years.

I grew up spending weekends on my dad’s off-the-grid homestead, where I spent much of my childhood roaming the woods and getting my hands dirty.

I learned how to do things most little kids haven’t done in over a century.

Whether it was pressing apples in the fall for homemade cider, trudging through the early spring snows of upstate NY to tap trees for maple syrup, or canning everything that grew in the garden in the summer - there were always new adventures with each season.

As an adult, I continue to draw on the skills I learned as a kid. I love my Wi-Fi and knowing pizza is only a phone call away. And I’m okay with never revisiting the adventure that is using an outhouse in the middle of January.

These days, I tend to be almost a homesteader.

I take an eclectic approach to homesteading, utilizing modern convenience where I want and choosing the rustic ways of my childhood as they suit me.

I’m a firm believer in self-sufficiency, no matter where you live, and the power and pride that comes from doing something for yourself.

I’ve always had a garden, even when the only space available was the roof of my apartment building. I’ve been knitting since age seven, and I spin and dye my own wool as well. If you can ferment it, it’s probably in my pantry or on my kitchen counter. And I can’t go more than a few days without a trip into the woods looking for mushrooms, edible plants, or the sound of the wind in the trees.

You can follow my personal (crazy) homesteading adventures on Almost a Homesteader and Instagram as @aahomesteader.

Peace, love, and dirt under your nails,

Tracey
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