As a child I wouldn’t have imagined growing or buying a pumpkin for any reason other than to turn it into a jack-o-lantern. How we’d look forward to cutting off the top and getting the squishy insides out so we could begin to carve a scary or happily grinning face, secure an old candle stub inside, and bask in the glow! Those pumpkins would sit on the front porch until they shriveled up and looked like toothless old men.
Who knew pumpkins would one day become sought after not for their ability to greet trick-or-treaters, but to add color and design to a front porch and to sit there, imagine this, uncarved? Yet this is what has happened. Now farmers grow pumpkins in white tones and shades of green to add to the perennial favorite, orange. Design-oriented homeowners, especially those blessed to have front porches with steps, mix these colorful gourds in with mums in shades of gold, white or magenta, hay bales and corn stalks to create gorgeous displays that announce fall is here.
If I’m blessed to go to the South during October I’m amazed by the extent to which people go to create these colorful autumn arrays. Not only do porches of homes have pumpkins stacked up to greet visitors with the warmth and hospitality of the season, but every shop and business gets into the spirit as well.
One year I went to a little town in northern Tennessee with my sister and brother-in-law. In Allardt, founded as a community of German immigrants, they annually hold the Great Pumpkin Festival and vendors sell pumpkin-designed everything! T-shirts, plaques, candles, lawn banners—all feature pumpkins welcoming visitors who come to see which farmer grew the largest pumpkin of the year. And the entries are huge. Each year the winning pumpkin weighs well over a ton! Because who doesn’t love a great pumpkin, Charlie Brown?
So whether you grow ‘em or buy ‘em, treat yourself to a plethora of pumpkins this fall. Create a front porch that delights all who drive by and welcomes all who visit with the very essence of the harvest season. Don’t have steps? No problem. Position a wooden ladder or upside-down bushel basket on your porch and stack pumpkins of all sizes and colors around and on it. Or create a pyramid of pumpkins up against the wall. And don’t forget to add some colorful mums or a cheerful scarecrow. Happy fall, y’all!