Make a Pumpkin Topiary in Five Simple Steps

My sweet friend KariAnne at Thistlewood Farms is hosting this All the Fall Projects blog hop for her Thistlewood VIP group and I’m so excited to be a part of it! If you’re joining me from Amy Sadler Designs, I’m so grateful you’re here. Welcome! Wasn’t Amy’s patina pumpkin project incredible? I hope you’ll enjoy learning how to make a pumpkin topiary and follow along for the rest of our projects.

This pumpkin topiary can be made with just a few supplies. If you need symmetry (like me!), you’re gonna want to make two.

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Here’s what you need for each topiary:

Three foam pumpkins (you can make them different sizes if you’d like). These are from Joann’s.
Wood dowels (think about the size and scale of your pumpkins when choosing a size.)
Paint (optional)
One pot or urn of your choice, appropriate size for your pumpkins
One grapevine wreath, appropriate size for your bottom pumpkin to rest on
Wide roll of burlap + string of 50 lights (optional)
Saw (or handsaw) to cut your dowel. If you don’t have a saw, ask your hardware store to cut them for you
Drill and bits
Clear Gorilla glue

This project is easy to customize. You can choose all the same pumpkins in graduated sizes, or make them all different. Purchase pre-painted, paint your own, or leave them natural. Make small topiaries for the mantel, or oversized ones for the porch.

Step 1: Select Your Pumpkins

After you select your three pumpkins and determine your stacking order, remove the stems from the bottom and middle pumpkins. Leave the stem on your top pumpkin. If you’re painting your pumpkins, you’ll want to paint and let dry before you move to step 2.

Step 2: Drill Holes

Use a drill bit the size of your dowel or slightly smaller and drill about 3″ (for large pumpkins) into the top of the bottom pumpkin, and the top and bottom of the middle pumpkin. It isn’t necessary to drill all the way through.

Step 3: Determine Spacing + Prep Dowels

Decide how much you want the dowel between your pumpkins to show. And it’s ok if you want them to stack on top of each other without any of the dowel showing. For large pumpkins with a couple of inches of the dowel showing, cut your wooden dowel into about (2) 10″ pieces. Paint the dowels if you wish, and let dry.

Step 4: Assemble the Pumpkins

Insert one dowel between the bottom and middle pumpkin, use clear Gorilla glue to secure it in place. You may need to hold it until the glue dries or lay it on its side. Insert another dowel into the middle and top pumpkins, glue, and secure in place.

Step 5: Assemble the Base

Wrap your grapevine wreaths in burlap, or another type of ribbon and/or string lights. Place the wreath on your pot or urn, and then place your pumpkin stack on top of the wreath. Our topiaries are very lightweight. If you need to secure yours, consider putting rocks in the base and using fishing line to secure the pumpkins to the base.

And that’s it. Display on your porch or in your home alongside potted plants, mums, pumpkins or whatever decor gives you all the fall feels!

Follow Along: All the Fall Projects

I hope you enjoyed learning to make a pumpkin topiary; thanks so much for joining me. Next up– please check out Melba’s fall wall art for more fall inspiration.