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Thanksgiving Travel Thanksgiving. A time for family, food, and far flung travel. After a year of eco consciousness, the carbon emissions of a single flight for the holidays can make up a large portion of your annual footprint.
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THIS ISSUE
Decorating Inspiration from the Winter Garden
Decorating Inspiration from the Winter Garden
As the holidays approach and it's time to decorate for the festivities, go out into your garden for inspiration. Look for dried seed pods, branches jeweled with berries, leftover flower heads and interesting evergreen leaves. Despite the dreary season, you can create architectural holiday arrangements for your home with twisting, unique branches, colorful berries and classic fragrances. by By Sue Goetz, CPH As the holidays approach and it's time to decorate for the festivities, go out into your garden for inspiration. Look for dried seed pods, branches jeweled with berries, leftover flower heads and interesting evergreen leaves. Despite the dreary season, you can create architectural holiday arrangements for your home with twisting, unique branches, colorful berries and classic fragrances.

And your decorations don't have to be confined to indoors. Turn your creative eye to what remains in the garden this time of year. Window boxes, containers and urns that have lost their season of color can be transformed into miniature winter wonderlands--no need for them to remain bare and empty. Begin by planting spring flowering bulbs deep in containers. After planting, finish the bare soil on top as if designing a vase of cut flowers. Arrange fresh holly branches, contorted filbert stems and fir branches by poking them in the soil a few inches into the container. Add weatherproof glass bulbs, ornaments and pine cones for a festive touch. The arrangement will stay fresh looking for weeks in the cool, wet weather. As the soil warms in the spring, remove the faded branches to allow the bulbs to bloom.

Favorite Plants for Cutting

For the golden touch: Aucuba "Mr. Goldstrike", Euonymus japonicus "Silver Queen", Variegated English Holly, and Golden Elaeagnus

Fragrance: Rosemary, Daphne odora, Viburnum x bodnantense, Balsam Fir and cedars.

Colorful twigs: Red and yellow twig dogwoods (Cornus stolonifera), Golden curls willow,

Evergreens: Camellias, Western Red Cedar, Evergreen Huckleberry, Ferns, Pieris, Rosemary, Salal, Mahonia 'Charity", Boxwood and Firs

Berries: Barberry, Beautyberry, English Holly, Rose hips, Snowberry, cranberry viburnum and Skimmia.

Interesting architectural branches: Witch Hazel, Contorted Filbert, Curly Willow

Seed and floral heads: Alliums, Hydrangeas, Coneflower, Rudbeckia, Nigella, Poppies, Honesty plant (Lunaria) and ornamental grasses like Miscanthus and Fountain Grass (Pennisetum).

Cutting and Harvesting Tips

    • Use sharp pruners. Never pull or snap off as it may damage plants.

    • Keep from damaging cut branches by using large buckets to transport them.

    • Harvest seed and floral heads after a few days of dry weather.

    • Cut evergreens and branches on a rainy day to insure that they are filled with moisture.


Pruning Tips

    • Never cut shrubs or trees in a way that may alter their natural growing habit. Avoid short cuts at the top of woody ornamentals. Find selective long branches to cut closer to the base around the outer edges of plants or cutting that will be trimmed as a part of maintaining them.

    • Learn what plants bloom on new growth (like Beautyberry.) They can usually be cut without affecting next season's bloom.

    • As a rule of thumb, never cut more than one-third of leafy evergreen plants like Camellias or Pieris.

    • Conifers and needled branches are chosen very selectively. Cut small branches where you will naturally want to thin or limb up. Never cut into the woody parts of conifers as they do not usually recover this growth.
Sue Goetz CPH, is a garden designer, speaker and writer from Gig Harbor. Visit www.thecreativegardener.com or contact by email to info@thecreativegardener.com. © Copyright 2009, KPLUFOOD

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