How Can We Bring the Garden Indoors in October? 🌿✂️

Bring the beauty of your garden indoors with easy, inspiring ideas for October!
In this Wednesday Walkabout, Linda shows how to cut, condition, and style fresh blooms straight from your garden — transforming ordinary clippings into timeless arrangements filled with color, texture, and charm.

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✂️ What You’ll Learn

🌸 How to condition your cut flowers so they last longer
🪴 What to clip in October — from Viburnum and Hydrangea to Coleus, Begonias, and Mums
🧺 Tips for cutting from container plantings to promote growth
💧 Why morning cuts keep your blooms fresher
🎨 How to design with color echoes — if it looks good in the garden, it’ll look good in a vase
🌶️ Even use edibles like cayenne and jalapeños for an unexpected autumn touch!

🌼 Linda’s Favorite Materials

Centurion Collapsible Bucket (a longtime favorite)

Floral preservative packets for freshness

Sharp pruners for clean cuts

Blue-and-white vases and spray-painted gourds for styling

Her book, A Year of Garden-Inspired Living, for seasonal guidance

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🕰️ Chapters

00:00 – Intro: Bringing the outdoors in
00:30 – Conditioning bucket setup
02:30 – The mindset of beauty (no big budget needed!)
03:20 – Cut #1: Chinese Snowball Viburnum
07:25 – First arrangement reveal
09:40 – Tools & conditioning tips
10:00 – Cut #2: Begonia foliage from containers
12:15 – Adding Coleus and rooting tips
16:30 – Why you should cut from containers
17:00 – Edibles as decor: cayenne + jalapeño stems
19:00 – Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ + Hydrangea pairing
21:00 – Design placement on the kitchen island
23:30 – Annuals & azaleas for simple beauty
26:00 – Conditioning bucket wrap-up
27:15 – Linda’s challenge: Show us what you’re cutting this fall!

🍐 Linda’s Tip

“Beauty doesn’t have to be perfect.
It doesn’t have to be expensive.
But it does have to be noticed.” 🌸

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[Music] Well, hello everyone and welcome to today’s Wednesday walkabout. Here’s our topic for today. How can we bring the outdoors in in the month of October, specifically in the month of October? And I’ve got some tips for you. But let’s start out with the first stage in our bringing the outdoors in, and that is doing something inside. So, what I’ve got here is my Centurion collapsible bucket. You guys might remember I endorsed this product a number of years ago and I love it and we will put a link still here and it’s still here. I have filled it up with water and I am actually using one of the two or three of the thousands of packets I have of floral preservative that I get with each bunch of my Trader Joe’s uh flowers. So, I am just going to prep my bucket for flower conditioning. So, I just put in lots of cool, clean water. I dumped in several packets of crystal. And now it’s time for going outside and let’s see what we can bring indoors. What do you say, Stuart? Let’s do it. Let’s do it. [Applause] [Music] Well, I get this comment a lot on my channel and it’s not necessarily said in a snarky trolly kind of way, but I but I do take it to heart and that is, “Well, Linda, we could have this beauty if we had a beautiful home like yours. If we had the money to have a beautiful garden, and that’s a a I mean, that’s a a justifiable point. However, I will say this. I like to think that even when I was in college and poor, I would do some of these same things. And I didn’t have any money then. It was just Stuart’s raising his hand. I’m agreeing. It’s a mindset. Yeah. It’s a mindset. And so the thing about creating beauty indoors and outdoors is beauty doesn’t have to be perfect and it doesn’t have to be expensive, but it does have to be noticed. So, here are five things in my garden today that I have noticed that would be beautiful ways to bring the outdoors in specifically in this fabulous month of October. So, let’s get started with my number one clipping cutting for today. Well, one thing I have definitely noticed is that the snowball viburnum, the Chinese snowball viburnum that Stuart loves so much is blooming out of season. And why not take advantage of that? Because one other thing that I have noticed is unlike hydrangeas, the blooms on the snowball viburnum last for a long period of time and the foliage is much more longasting, too. So, why don’t we cut off some of these blooms? I am going to look for some fresh ones. This one is just beginning to emerge, so it makes a good candidate. So, I’m going to look for some of these fresh ones. And this is going to be my first cutting, my first bouquet that I have noticed that we can bring indoors in the month of October. So, how does this apply to you if you don’t have a Chinese snowball viburnum? Well, look for anything that might be uncharacteristically blooming at this time of year or it might be characteristically blooming. It may be uh supposed to bloom in October. Look for interesting seed heads. Look for changing colors of foliage. And don’t restrict yourself to just deciduous, but also evergreen. Well, it naturally saw these beautiful blooms. Well, I’ve realized lately as I’m trying to lead a healthier life that I am missing a couple of things. I am missing uh crunch. I need more crunch in my life and I need more deliciousness in my life. I also need more protein in my life and that is where magic spoon came in. Now, we think of this as the adult version of sugary childlike cereals. Uh but this well this ain’t your kid cereal. This is for adults. And even though we think about eating cereal at breakfast and things, that’s not how it fits into my life. So, how does it fit into my life? Well, number one, it fits in because it is packed with protein. It is also great for a lowcarb keto friendly diet. In fact, it fits into so many people’s eating guidelines that you’ll want to check it out. But I also love it simply because it is a little something sweet that is not um packed with sugars and carbs and all of that kind of stuff that I can have with my afternoon cup of tea or I can mix with other things for a little bit of crunch. And one way I’m going to use what when we were kids was it cocoa puffs. Cocoa puffs. This is their chocolate protein cereal. and I am going to use it and some of the peanut butter cereal to make uh well, let’s just say a personalized trail mix. So, you want to definitely check in with us this weekend because I’m going to share my recipe with you. But the other way HubS and I like to eat it is in the well, he uses them in the morning as a I’m on the go kind of protein snack that he can have with his coffee. For me, I like a little something something sweet and delicious in the afternoon that I can have with my cup of tea. And that’s when I pull out one of these protein treats or I just pour a little snacksized portion in the afternoon with my cup of tea. So I can either have a protein treat or I can have some dry cereal with my hot tea. And for some reason for me at my age, it just really hits the spot because it satisfies my need for something kind of crunchy and sweet that’s low sugar and packed with protein. Because I think for most of us at my age, those are some things that we are really trying to incorporate more into our lives. And the other thing I like about it is it doesn’t have the sticky kind of texture that a lot of protein bars have. Steuart’s nodding that a lot of other protein products have. Now, I first found out about this on a podcast many years ago. I think it was Tim Ferrris or um Gretchen Rubin, I can’t remember, but I first found out about it on a podcast and I tried some then. So, I am especially proud to now be sharing their product with you all. So, if you want to take advantage of it, then just check out the link in the description box below for $5 off of your next product purchase of Magic Spoon, whether it’s cereal or a protein bar, because you too need something crunchy and delicious with your cup of tea or coffee in the afternoon. [Music] Okay, so this is my arrangement number one, a cutting from the garden in the month of October. I think this white is really beautiful. It has kind of a springy quality, but nevertheless, this is blooming in October, so it is definitely seasonal. I’ve put it in a beloved piece of blue and white, and I think it really makes a very charming vignette right here in the window. I also took one of my gourds. I spray painted it a glossy white and I think it then accentuates the color of the blooms on the viburnum and they in turn accentuate the beautiful form and color of the gourd. The other thing that’s wonderful about Chinese snowball viburnum is you’ll notice that I’ve got them in a southacing window. Probably has a little bit too much light on them for the blooms to be enduring, but nevertheless, I’m not worried. This is actually day four of these cutings that I took positioned and choreographed in this arrangement and I think it looks pretty good. Tell me your thoughts. Okay, let’s talk a little bit about some of the howto’s and the tools that you’ll need to bring the outdoors in in October. Number one, if you’re short on ideas, then I really do encourage you to get my year of garden inspired living. It’s just these kinds of tips that I include in my book and they are all seasonally organized. But what else do you need? Well, you need just a good pair of pruners. Like I said, indoors I’ve got a bucket filled with water with uh crystal flower food in it. And then I also need my outdoor bucket because as soon as I cut something, I want to make sure that I immerse it immediately in water. Now, I’m doing this at around 10:30 in the morning. Ideally, I would have done it even earlier because that will help ensure that what you cut stays fresh longer while it’s still hydrated from the cooler nighttime temperatures and maybe ambient moisture that may have been in the air. So, that’s just kind of some howto tricks. Let’s go to the backyard and talk about number two, my ideas of how to bring the outdoors and your garden indoors in October. Okay, my second tip is to look for things in your landscape or in your alley that are overgrown and would be beautiful in a cut flower arrangement. So, in this case, I’m thinking about these beautiful beonas. All of these beonas here were started from cutings that I took off of the original plant, but look at how tall they have grown respective to the container. So definitely I can still take cutings from this and I am in no way diminishing the beauty of this vignette that I’ve created here. But I think this kind of dark foliage is perfect for this time of year. It is just about Halloween after all. Now, this in particular is an example of why I want to have a container filled with water because I don’t, if you’re new to this kind of thing, I don’t want any of my cutings to be wilted by the time I bring them inside. If I took even five minutes, cut these, put them into a basket or something, and then brought them inside, they may have already lost a good bit of the moisture that they will need to really look beautiful in whatever arrangement I decide to compose. So, I’m going to take more cutings of this. And by the way, the secondary benefit of this is probably if I make sure to capture a leaf node, and by a leaf node, I mean a node right here where the leaf attaches to the stem. If I make sure to have a section of a leaf node immersed in the water, in all likelihood, it will start putting out roots and then I will have yet another plant. So, this is candidate number one for an arrangement. Notice that I’m saving the leaves as well in case I want to use them somehow. Okay, I think I’ve got enough cut foliage. Now, what do I want to add to this to make an entire composition that I’m cutting straight from the garden? So, I’ve got all of this gorgeous beonia foliage ready to go. Now, I could stop here. It looks beautiful just the way it is. And I could go to Trader Joe’s or something, or I could go out to my own garden and cut a couple of Zenyas and stick it in there. But here’s the way I want to style it, I think. And that is texture on texture and color on color. So, I’m just looking for compatible colors. If they’re compatible in the garden, they’re going to be compatible in the vase. I’ve often talked about design by Tussy Mussy. What looks good together in your hand looks good together in the garden. Well, the reverse is also true. What looks good together in the garden will look good together in a vase. So, I’m going to cut also overgrown some of this kolas foliage. And boy, isn’t it gorgeous right now? And I want to play I really want to play up the purple in it. So, I’m going to put this in my temporary water bucket here before I bring it inside to put into my other bucket where they will be conditioned for a while. What is it you’re doing to them now to make get them ready for the water? I’m just keeping them from will I’m I’m good point. I am removing Here’s a basic. I’m removing the bottom foliage because I don’t want it to be immersed in the water because then it will just rot and it will encourage the growth of bacteria and slimy water. So that’s why I’m removing the foliage that will be underwater. Just a little prep. Now this also will have some leaf nodes that are submerged which will then probably put out root growth. So then I can pot this up, which is another way to bring the outdoors in in October because not only am I bringing it in a cut fashion way, but I can also bring these in to pot up and bring them into overwinter. Now, what should my third component be? I’m just not really sure. My instinct would be to go to Trader Joe’s and get something in a color that would really really dramatize the beauty of this foliage because it looks very seasonal and I think it looks very Halloweeny. Um, but I’m lazy and I don’t want to go to Trader Joe’s. I I I try not to get in my car whenever possible. So, I’m just going to scrge around the garden and see if I can find something that will be a third floral component that would really set this off. My instinct might be to go pink because that is act the actual color of the bloom that is on this beonia. So, let me see what I can find. Well, I knew if I just scrged long enough, I would find something that works for me. And indeed, I did without even having to go to the store. Number one, this is just common nandina foliage, which I think is just indispensable in the garden. I love the way we’ve got a great color echo going and a textural contrast component. So, I’m just going to stick these in my bucket. And then this is kind of unexpected, but I think it will work beautifully. Look at that. I really think that helps. It kind of is very synergistic with the rest of the foliage. So, I can take it away and I can put it back. Now, at this point, I could stop here just with that and arrange it. But why do that? But why do that when I can add more? So I am just going to strip these just common mum flowers. These are some that I bought in a pot last year, used them in a container planting. I replanted them into the garden to become a component of the garden itself. And now they are going to be a part of this arrangement. So, they are here in my cutting bucket and they will shortly be removed to my conditioning bucket and then in their final composition and all of this foliage I’m stripping. Well, its destiny is the compost pile. And by the way, Stuart, here’s a light bulb tip. Don’t hesitate to cut from your container plantings just as much as you cut from your own garden because a lot of those are overgrown. By cutting them, you can increase their bushiness and make them be a little bit more filled out of especially if you’ve still got more time left in the growing season. But most importantly, because they are just very, very generous about what they can provide your vase. Okay? Just like we don’t want to limit ourselves to just what’s growing in the garden we can cut from our containers, we also don’t want to limit ourselves to just the foliage and the flowers of ornamentals in our garden. This is when you might want to visit the vegetable garden because they are every bit in my mind just as beautiful as the ornamentals. It’s very very constant spry, that wonderful floral decorator, arranger um from earlier in the 20th century. And they in and of themselves I think are just stat statuesque and very architectural in their own right. In this case because this is so beautiful I think this would look great in something like just a tall very clear glass face with a little bit of water in your kitchen. I think it could be stunning. I can use these cayenne peppers and I shall because I can continue to harvest from them even after I bring them indoors especially if I remove them from they’re secure on the trellis. I can also cut, as I said, once I get untangled, I can also cut from these jalapenos. And then I can have a contrast of the more delicate cayenne and the larger fruit of the jalapenos. See there? Isn’t that glorious? [Music] Well, I don’t know that we think of sedum autumn joy as really being much of a cut flower but its blooms whether they’re are fresh blooms or beginning to dry blooms could not be more autumnal and right here is a case in point this is another twofur cutting from October that you can bring inside for decor but also for the future because each one of these cutings can be used in the vase but when they’re done I can also just take the stem stick them in the ground and they will turn into another plant. Now, I could use these blooms just on their own in just one singular arrangement. I saw an article in Martha Stewart once and that’s what she did. But what I am going to do is I’m going to take advantage of the coloring in the blooms and I’m going to cut some hydrangees that harmonize beautifully with these same colors. So if I can find some blooms that are just dry and not necessarily scorched by the sun, I can do just that. The thing about these kinds of hydrangea penicula is yes they bloom on new wood but this time of year they also have that gorgeous blush pink that too just like the sedum looks so autuminal. So I’m going to cut some of these. And in this case I don’t even want three things. I think just two is going to be just fine. [Music] And this arrangement is going to hold center stage here on the corner of my island. Here’s another tip. Have one prominent area of your home where you always have something fresh, some fresh flowers. um some fresh foliage, just something that really makes a statement. I noticed that for me that space is right here on the corner of my island. I knew it immediately when we saw the house for the first time. I also noticed it’s something Bunny Williams does in her home in the barn outside. She has a desk that comes out and on the end of the desk, we’ll try to find you a picture, she always has a very prominent urn, typically the same one, but it’s an everchanging floralcape of cutings from her garden. The beauty of cutting from your own garden is if you feel that an arrangement isn’t quite full enough, all you have to do is just go outside and cut some more. Now, if I really wanted to make a vignette, I would add a third component. And what I think would be absolutely beautiful would be a basket of pears right next to it. Maybe uh some of those blood red pears. Um, I can’t remember what variety those are, but you know what I mean. The red ones or just some really beautiful uh green Bosque pears with just a little hint of brown on them. A basket of those or one or two I think would create a beautiful, beautiful still life. Lastly, I think if I can get out the door. Lastly, what we want to do is just be very, very simple. So if you say, “Well, Linda, I I just don’t have time to do even those simplest of compositions,” then don’t do them. Just find one thing that speaks to you that is really, really beautiful. Notice its beauty. It can be anything. It can be weeds from your alley. But just cut that one simple plant and use it in mass in a vase, a basket or some kind of container to really bring the beauty indoors. Now, another thing, don’t hesitate to cut from some of your annuals that earlier in the season you would not probably have cut from as part of your bouquet for a number of different reasons. Like I I could cut these still now. they would still put out more fresh blooms for the pollinators to enjoy, but I’m not also going to hesitate to cut from them as fresh flowers if I want something that would be or I needed a white component in an arrangement and this would be just the ticket. I definitely would want to make sure, however, that I don’t get a bee and bring the bee inside with the bloom. Okay? And if you don’t want to go to any trouble, as I said earlier, just think simply. Just pick one beautiful thing and cut it in moss. I’ll probably be cutting some of these hydrangeas for Steuart to take home because he wants to juzj up. Is it your the bar in your kitchen in your house? Piece of the garden. Piece of the garden to bring inside. Um, but I could do hydrangeas. I could do some of the beautiful white roses if I chose to do so. But what I think I’m going to do, which is kind of an unexpected component for a vase, especially this time of year, but that is cutting small or large bouquets of repeat blooming aelas that are very, very seasonal in their own right. So, I could cut small branches and just create a sweet little bedside bouquet or a little bouquet to put in your bathroom, especially if it color coordinates with your bathroom. Or let’s say I wanted to do something a little bit larger. if I wanted to have it on my desk, these make unexpected, but I think really beautiful arrangements. And while this isn’t the time of year I would normally prune them, cutting them to bring indoors is a whole another ball of wax. If possible, I always try to cut blooms that are in the shade because I know they’ll be more fresh and long lasting when I bring them inside. If any of them are already spent, I just pluck them off. And when I bring them inside and I put them in my conditioning bucket, I’ll make sure that I either smash the end or give it a lateral or rather a vertical cut. So it will make sure to take up all of the moisture, the hydration through its stem. And this is the final material for my conditioning bucket. I’ve showed you how I have styled a couple of these compositions already, but obviously I have a lot more material here to work with and I promise you I will show you how these ultimately turn out and really highlight what kind of containers are putting I’m putting them in. As importantly, I want you to see where I place them in the cottage because whatever I arrangement I make, it’s typically contextual. In other words, I want it to match the colors, the function, um the theme, the kind of aura of the space in which they reside. So, here’s my challenge to you. Send me pictures. Give me recommendations. Tell me what you’re cutting from your own garden to make some kind of statement uh composition in your home for fall because October is filled with so many gifts that it is only right that we bring some of that beauty inside and enjoy it indoors as out. And remember, beauty doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but it does have to be noticed. [Music]