I've been keeping quiet about something I'm not proud of. You might even say that I'm been trying to hide it. The truth is, I'm ashamed of the sad, pathetic state of the flowers in our front urns. It's a disgrace in fact. With limited opportunity for curb appeal, having no yard to speak of nor having a home that has vast architectural interest, making the most of what we have out front is of utmost importance. 

Earlier this spring, we spruced up the front of our home by overhauling the small planted area surrounding our city tree, as well as taking special time and care to select, plant, and care for the new flowers in our cast iron urns. We were thrilled with the results, and once the flowers came into bloom, we had showstopping urns. 

Despite our best efforts, the scorching summer temperatures took their toll on our poor flowers. They were teetering on the brink of death, and when returning home from our vacation earlier this month, we learned they had lost their battle. Although still lively in places, the vast majority of our flowers were dried, brown, and lifeless.

With a long fall season ahead of us, I knew we couldn't live with this sad mess for the next couple months. So I picked up a multipack of mums at our local Lowes for around $10, hoping to infuse a little color and life into these planters. 

So I got to work pulling out the dead and dying flowers. I also decided to yank out a dead section of the sky pencil in the left urn, seen in the picture below. The only things I left in there were the trailing sweet potato vines.

Alex has been saying for months that he thinks this sky pencil is in a death spiral, and boy was he right. After I pulled out the dead section, the sky pencil looked hollow and wimpy. It was so bad in fact, that I had to turn the urn around, so the open section was better concealed by the house.

After removing the dead flowers, I got to work planting the mums, hoping these new fresh flowers in yellow, purple, and orange would somehow round out the look. The results? Mediocre at best. It definitely looks better now, and I know the mums will fill in a bit as they grow, but I'm not wowed by the results. 

I'm going to give it a week or so to see how the mums are doing. I have an itching to just ditch everything in the urns and create pumpkin topiaries for the season, but then again, knowing how pumpkins tend to disappear from doorsteps in our neighborhood, it might not be worth the time and effort.

Apparently the squirrels voted that they didn't like the new look. This was the view this morning after one of those little bastards ripped a sweet potato vine from its location in the dirt. That poor little vine has seen better days, that's for sure.

What do you think? Should I give these new guys a chance, or simply cut my losses and go big for the fall season? Have you been doing any fall planting to spruce up your garden or home? Are there any other cool weather plants you might recommend? I'm a gardening novice, so any advice is appreciated.