Today I am shar­ing the main entry way here at the home­stead and how I styled it with­out using mums. I am hope­ful every year that I will man­age to keep my mums alive and every year they end up dead…haha please tell me I’m not the only one with this prob­lem? With­out fur­ther delay, here is how I achieved a bud­get friend­ly rus­tic fall porch with­out mums.

I decid­ed to take a proac­tive approach that saved mon­ey and heartache. If I am being com­plete­ly hon­est we just recent­ly start­ed a new bud­get­ing tech­nique to save mon­ey and become a debt free fam­i­ly. But even on the strictest of bud­gets, mama still need­ed her pump­kin fix. So with $20 in hand and plan this is what we were able to accomplish. 

Trust me. It is suu­u­u­per easy for me to get car­ried away on some pump­kins but in a way, only allow­ing myself $20 to spend real­ly kicked in the cre­ative juices. Once I had my hands on a few beau­ties I knew this was going to be wayy do-able.

How can I decorate for fall without using mums?

My secret? Ferns. 

My ferns always seen to be alive and thriv­ing this time of year so it just dawned on me, why not incor­po­rate them with some fresh pump­kins and call it a day. Not to men­tion it saved $$$ and allowed the full decor bud­get to be spent on a beau­ti­ful vari­ety of pumpkins. 

Ferns add that lit­tle touch of green­ery, filler and amaz­ing tex­ture to you dis­play. Not to men­tion they are unex­pect­ed which make my heart oh so hap­py. Here are a few oth­er porch ideas that make my heart flutter

Add lit­tle height with stacked ter­ra cot­tas and old wood planters. Both of which I already had on hand. Get cre­ative and search your yard for small logs or old planters than you can use for your dis­play. It does­n’t all have to be brand new. Embrace the old and chip­py­ness of some­thing that has been weath­ered and for­got­ten in the flower beds.

By using what you have not only are you able to save big mon­ey but you are also set­ting your­self up to cre­ate that per­fect rus­tic porch look. That is per­haps my favorite part about this style…

Effort­less and afford­able. And that is sim­ply my favorite kind of decorating. 

I tru­ly hope my rus­tic fall porch decor can inspire you to think out­side of the box when it comes to dec­o­rat­ing this sea­son, or any sea­son for that mat­ter. It also just goes to show that mak­ing some­thing beau­ti­ful does NOT have to cost a fortune.