Mike Wolanin | The Republic Avery Vogt poses for a portrait on the pumpkin decorated steps to her house in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, Sept. 23, 2025. Vogt runs a pumpkin decor service called Pumpkin Lady of Columbus.
Avery Vogt is one of the few who can claim to have a pumpkin patch in their garage.
Earlier this year, she founded her own business titled the Pumpkin Lady of Columbus, where customers may purchase packages of pumpkin decorations for their porches. And even though her business is less than a year old, she has had more fun in spreading the seasonal spirit than she anticipated.
“I feel like a pumpkin fairy…,” Vogt said.
Vogt grew up in Greenfield and attended Franklin College for business, graduating in entrepreneurship. She, her husband Jon and her two daughters have lived in Columbus for about eight years. She previously worked at Cummins in HR, before moving to engineering in project management.
“I love business, I love the concept of solving problems for people,” Vogt said. “It’s a passion of mine, so I got to study that in college, it was cool.”
When she left the workforce to be home with her kids, Vogt said she still had that passion for small business and solving problems, but she found that to be challenging with limited hours. She said she wanted something that blended well with her family life and that she could do part time with her kids, and that inspiration came in the form of an entrepreneurial podcast.
“… I had heard of this lady who’s using pumpkins in Texas to decorate and I was like, ‘wait a minute, that kind of checks off, I could bring my kids to do the marketing or sales, talking about pumpkins.’ It’s seasonal, it’s short and so that excited me,” Vogt said.
Vogt said she was at first intimidated to run the idea by a friend, but thanks to that friend’s encouragement, she gained that momentum to start the Pumpkin Lady business. Finding that courage to tell others about their ideas is one piece of advice she would give to any aspiring entrepreneurs.
“I would tell them to get ready to be told no 99% of the time and then be OK with that. I wish I could tell my younger self get ready to fail at multiple things before something is anything successful,” Vogt said. “So this is not the first thing I’ve tried, it is the most successful thing, but I had to fail, get ready to fail multiple times and in those failures get ready to be told no a lot and be OK with it.”
How it works is a customer first orders from one of the five pumpkin decoration packages offered on the Pumpkin Lady’s website. These packages range from the Sprinkle Package, which includes around 18 pumpkins, to the Premium Package, which includes around 105 pumpkins and two hay bales, according to the Pumpkin Lady’s website. They then decide on a time for Vogt to deliver and decorate their porch.
“I do have to wash all of them, it’s the least fun part,” Vogt said. “So I wash all then, I load them all up either in our van or our truck, like we are making this work. There’s no fancy equipment here; this is us stuffing them in our current cars at this point.”
Vogt then styles the pumpkins on the customer’s porch, saying that there is an art to arranging them. She makes sure to sweep the porch afterwards and puts a special spray on the pumpkins to help them last a little longer. All of the pumpkins are sourced from local Columbus farmers.
“I have the best farmers, I have a deep respect for people (whose) livelihoods are dependent on growing things,” Vogt said. “We do beekeeping, so… we’re pretty aware of the fact that being dependent on something to grow for your livelihood is very interesting.”
Customers also have the option to request Vogt to come back and pick up the pumpkins around Thanksgiving. She said she has had a few customers so far and there’s more down the pipeline.
Vogt said she has ideas for what’s next with the Pumpkin Lady business, like expanding it to surrounding cities and specialized installs for local businesses. One aspect of Indiana she loves is the ability to experience each season, so one of her goals with her Pumpkin Lady business is to help customers slow down and enjoy the fall season.
At the same time, it’s helping her slow down and enjoy fall with her own family.
“I think, for me, if the Pumpkin Lady… this little, small, tiny business, can help other people or other families or moms or grandmas that host their Thanksgiving, anyone, can help them celebrate all that fall has to offer, that just is meaningful to me,” Vogt said. “It feels like it takes on more, it’s just not about the pumpkins at that point; it’s about the seasons.”
