Autumn Celebration
John Montgomery Autumn Harvest

With cooler mornings and shorter days comes the feeling of Fall in the air.  That means a busy time for our Architects and Designers, and of course an excuse for seasonal celebration to enjoy the outdoor living that is our passion. Though gatherings are a lot smaller this year (ok to be real, we just see our family,) we feel an Autumn feast is still in order, with fresh-harvested garden vegetables and colors that reflect the season.  We take time to live in the moment, enjoy the garden, and share a bountiful harvest.  Here’s how we’re designing our Autumn celebrations this year, with some DIY ideas and favorites from our team to you.

Fall Fashion

Here at the J. Montgomery Studio, we design outdoor spaces for every style.  Some of our outdoor areas have a formal elegance, while others are casual and funky.  Style, like fashion, is such a personal matter that it’s hard to write about, but we take great care in styling our own spaces to fit our individual tastes, and to fit a festive occasion with a complementary theme.  For a seasonal look, there are infinite ways to style your space to set the scene.  Since food is at the heart of a harvest celebration, we like dressing up our dining areas.  Always inspired by the extra-ordinary, here are a few of our favorite recent ideas:

Fruit And Flower

One of the joys of Fall is the sense of abundance.  Harvests have come to fruition and leaves are giving one last show of color before they fall for the year.  When designing Autumn floral arrangements, we love incorporating fall fruits, twisting bits of grapevine, and dried seed pods into our designs.  For a real sense of heavy abundance, let fruit or flowers trail down or hang in a vase, or let them spill over and down the length of the table in natural drifts.

Heavy apples hang low on a tree that would benefit from fruit thinning

Persimmons and Chinese Anemones shine in this sweet Autumn arrangement

Heavy apples hang low on a tree that would benefit from fruit thinning

Figs combine with Pennisetum rubrum grasses and Loropetalum in this unusual take on Autumn colors!

Branch Out

A stunning theme is sometimes achieved with the simplest of materials.  Especially at home in a contemporary setting, these bundles of branches give striking intensity to table centerpieces, entrances and dead wall spaces, and stagnant corners.  For color and strong vertical lines, go for Red-twig Dogwood or Birch.  For motion, go for dried grapevine or parthenocissus weaving through. Combining branches with flowers, as in the arrangement below, is a wonderful and natural effect.

Heavy apples hang low on a tree that would benefit from fruit thinning
Container Redos

Autumn is often the season for tired containers.  If you planted in the Spring, you’re very lucky if they are continuing to look great!  Even if most of the plants are continuing to do their thing, seasonal touches in the form of Autumn colors or twisting branches add that extra interest for an outdoor gathering.  If a complete redo is in order, go for subtle and dark colors in addition to Fall colors.  These tones make the bright colors pop and give your containers a more natural feel.  Or try something different, like this lime green and burgundy planting, for an elegant twist.   This time of year, chrysanthemums and ornamental grasses are a great color addition, lasting right through until Thanksgiving!  Pansies, Cyclamen, and Ornamental cabbage are also becoming available this next month at local nurseries, and will last all through the winter in most parts of the Bay.

Lime green and burgundy foliage in a traditional tuscan urn planter

Here at Montgomery Robbins, we are ready for Fall!  Are we done with the heat yet?  We look forward to cozying up once the weather turns and thinking about our Spring designs.  If you’d like us to have your Landscape Design project brewing in our minds, contact our studio today for the 2021 Design Season.

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