Creating Christmas Outdoor Designs from Plants in Your Garden

Decided this year I'd make a set of outdoor Christmas planters from evergreen plants we have in the garden. Having made so many designs over the years, it's time to reuse  the accents and items I have saved and come up with a way to make inexpensive, lovely planters for this holiday season.

If you're like me, you probably have a box just like this....stashed away in the garage.

Given I live in Ontario, we don't have the same plants like the imported boughs (oregonea, princess pine, douglas fir or western cedar) and floral grade materials (eucalyptus, salal, magnolia). But there are so many other choices we can use to have a similar effect.

In this sample, I reused all our accents from the past 3 years. I added cuttings from plants such as:

1:  Boxwood

2: Yews

3: Junipers

4: Ivy

5: Euonymus

6: Birch (also reused from past years)

7: Dogwood

Other selections you can use too:

• Holly
• Ilex
• Spruce
• Sumac
• Hydrangea
• Alder
• Cedar
• Rose-hips
• Pussywillow

I pruned all the cuttings in ways to promote a balanced habit. Do not butcher the best parts of the plant in order to fill your planter. Think of thinning and adjusting shape. Just layer and remember your accents can hide blunt ends.

Don't forget:  the bottom branches off your live Christmas tree work great too!

Follow the directions on how to layer and place within your planter on one of my previous blog DIY posts and here...have fun designing.

Reuse and add anything that you have saved.

Use what works for you and you'll be able to make beautiful arrangements that are welcoming for this Christmas season!

Here I just added some artificial dyed magnolia stems for a punch of red!

Apart from buying these 3 red accents, designing these 3 outdoor creations didn't cost me one penny. All reused materials from years past and a few cuttings from the garden, these planters still look great!

Enjoy this Christmas season and perhaps plan for 2017's garden, by adding some plants which can carry you through designing Christmas planters for next season.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Homemade Mulch

The warmth outside today got me out in the garden. What a beautiful day!

I've decided that I will no longer buy mulch in a bag (or bulk bin) for myself. Since I have a small garden, and ample resources at my disposal, I will use what I have to make my own mulch. My aim is to have a good litter layer over my soil. Hopefully this will minimize watering during the heat of the summer and will deter slugs this spring.

Resources at my disposal:

• evergreen boughs from my winter containers
• pine cones (Christmas decor extras) collected from various gardens where I work
• cuttings from my rose and ninebark bushes
• leaves not yet composted from last fall 

Necessary tools:

Too coarse to add to perennial beds

• sharp hand pruners (secateurs), loppers if necessary
• my garden bin
• time and elbow grease

For now, I've used my winter container material.  These pine and cedar boughs are not overly large, but since I have perennials, I need to break it down to incorporate it into the small space.  So, I've cut it into smaller bits.  Otherwise this size would work great under large evergreens, or in the back of a shrubbery bed. It didn't take long - just half and hour. It was a great way to enjoy the 10 degrees plus today. Spring is coming!
 

I will have more than enough for my hostas

Slugs attacked my hostas in the darker corners of my little garden, and with this pine and cedar mulch, I think I will be able to keep them at bay. (The pine needles and rough pine bits scratch slugs' skin, hopefully keeping them off my perennials.)  Once I see the Hostas peek out of the ground, I'll scatter about 2 inches of this around so once the leaves emerge, it won't be noticeable.

If you don't want to spread this mulch in the garden, cutting up your garden waste this way accelerates decomposition.  The smaller the bits, the quicker they will become compost. (Evergreen needles have a natural resin that takes longer to decompose, that's why it's a great resource for mulch. However, if you want to compost it quicker, cutting it up speeds up the process.) I used to add all my winter greens into my city yard waste bin, now the leftovers will go on my garden or in the compost bin.