Simple ways to display pumpkins and gourds

Create a fall harvest right in your home

Autumn’s bounty of pumpkins and gourds come in such color, shape and size varieties, they make decorating a home especially fun. Since painted or cut-out pumpkins scream “Halloween,” you’ll want to keep your ever yday pumpkins intact (they’ll last longer too).

Here are some ideas on how to celebrate the season with décor inspired by fall produce. 1. To create a flower-pumpkin centerpiece.

Combine the season’s most popular flowers in fall colors (think magenta mums, yellow dahlias, purple asters) and place in a blue or white pumpkin. To make the flowers last, pour water in a cylindrical container and place it in the pumpkin after car ving out its center. 2. Modernize a rustic display.

If you have a contemporar y décor and think mini pumpkins, wheat sheaves and corn cobs would look too traditional in that setting, go with a more modern interpretation, said Abbie Jacobson, a Chicago interior designer and set decorator. “Use tree branches in birch, pick unusual gourd and squash varieties, or fill a modern planter with white or green pumpkins.” And say no to hay stacks and corn stalks. 3. How to group your gourds.

Making this fleshy ornamental fruit (yes, fruit) look fetching is easy. Take that tiered tray you use when company’s coming over but instead of filling it with cookies or cupcakes, use it to display small gourds in different shapes and colors. A flat wood tray or large basket would also look stylish with gourds in a mix of sizes, Jacobson said. Another colorful combo: gourds, fall fruit such as pears and apples and pine cones. 4. Mix it up.

When it comes to shapes, pumpkins and gourds get high marks for variety. Pumpkins can be round, flat, or cylindrical; gourds can be round, teardropshaped or cur vy. The color variety keeps things interesting, too, since all pumpkins aren’t just orange. Look for yellow, light green, blue and white, as well as specialty varieties like Speckled Hound, which has a light orange rind and green splotches on top, making it look like a can of paint spilled on it. You can find gourds in solid colors, striped, yellowwhite and more earthy tones. Whether your display is on your front steps or your dining room table, var y the sizes, organizing groups in odd numbers, Jacobson said. 5. Preser ving your décor.

To make your pumpkin and gourds last at least through Thanksgiving, give them some TLC. Clean their rinds, which may be covered with dirt and mold that cause rotting, by soaking them for 20 minutes in a mixture of one gallon of water, two teaspoons of bleach and one or two squir ts of dishwashing liquid; dr y before displaying. As a quicker alternative, clean well with bleach disinfectant wipes.