Harevested greenery in waiting

With Christmas just around the corner, it’s time to begin decorating. At our house the Christmas decorating begins outside around the middle of November. I like to use fresh evergreens and grapevines outdoors. Because I’m rather “thrifty” shall we say, I refuse to purchase evergreen boughs. Instead, I harvest my own.

I start by making note of which evergreens are looking well enough to harvest, and which can be pruned without affecting the appearance and future shape of the evergreen.
 
Using a variety of evergreens provides more depth, texture and interest to an arrangement than using one or two varieties.

Tools needed are: hand pruners, loppers and a pail of water.

Harvest with an eye to shaping the tree and/or shrub rather than cutting willy nilly.
 
A straight cut is made to remove the branch from the plant.

Next cut the stem you’ve just harvested at a sharp angle.

Place the stem of the harvested branch into the pail of water.

Continue harvesting until you have enough materials to make your wreath, swag or planters.

When you do have enough materials, change the water in the pail, and add Christmas tree preservative.

Re-cut each of the stems (angled cut) and put them in the fresh water.

Set the pail in a cool, shaded location (garage or unheated shed) until you are ready to begin creating your decorations.

Suggested evergreens:
 

Boxwood

Cedar

Euonymus (variegated for colour)

Juniper (be sure to get stems with berries on them!)

Spruce

Yew (berries don’t last long on cut stems)

Suggested deciduous:

Redtwig dogwood

Yellow dogwood

Curly willow

Grape vine

Tree branches with interesting shapes

NOTE: do not place these stems in water

 
Accents:
 

Evergreen cones

Rose hips

Teasel

*Hydrangea blooms

*Silver dollar seed casings

NOTE: do not place these in water

* Use only where arrangement will be protected from wind, rain and snow.

Could this be the start of a swag?

We have entered the “In Between Season” – the time of year between the official end of the gardening season and the beginning of seed catalogue arrivals (which herald the start of the next gardening season). So, to fill time as I wait, gardening magazines and a few cookbooks (no, I am not planning on taking up cooking again), keep me occupied and out of the stores. The hours are also spent planning our outdoor Holiday decorations.

With the global economy on a downslide, saving money wherever and however we can is a must. This year, our outdoor Holiday decorations will consist of as many found items as possible and reflect a very natural theme. A walk around our property shows there will be no problem finding red twig dogwood, curly willow or rose hips. But they alone are not enough for decorating the outside of our home. I need evergreens. Those on our place are still too small, to trim. So, I need a source for pine, cedar and spruce. I could trim the neighbours’ cedars that grow over our side of the property line, but I am reluctant to do that as the cedars are not as thick as they should be. Thinning them would result in reduced privacy for both the neighbours and, ourselves. And, they’d look terrible. I’ll keep looking. Job sites are not going to yield any greens since all of the evergreens at my job sites have already been trimmed. I’ll keep looking. It’s certain my friends won’t allow me loose in their yards. I’m pretty sure they will know what I’m up to and they no doubt want the greens for themselves. I’ll keep looking. Going onto Crown Land for evergreen trimmings would get me arrested, so, I’ll keep looking.

Driving home from work every day, I see lots of potential materials along the side of the road. I have seen more than I could ever need of teasel, grape vines and … evergreens. Cutting teasels from the ditches is not likely going be a problem as the Townships own the ditches. However, I do fear that if I knock on some farmer’s door and ask if I can cut the wild grape vines growing on their fences, they just might think I am a little loony. And I know if I ask them if they’d like their evergreen bush lots professionally trimmed and the mess carted away for free, well, they’d have me carted away and I’d be writing this article from inside a padded cell. I wouldn’t dare mention the cones I’d be willing to pick up off the ground. Perhaps Trevor knows of a farmer who would be willing to let me and my trusty loppers near their evergreen bush, no questions asked?

As the hunt for materials continue, bird feathers, acorns, fungus, moss maybe a bird’s nest if I find one on the ground, will also be on the list of items to collect.

The vision I have is twisted (much like my mind) vines around the door frames, along the outside railing and porch posts. Fairy lights woven into the vines will provide night time interest. Small evergreen bunches with cones, rose hips and other small finds will be placed along the vines. Perhaps some ribbon or raffia will be added. Instead of a wreath on the front door, a swag, made from a base of mixed evergreen branches and accented with red twig dogwood, cones, fungus, feathers and teasel will be hung. The iron planters will be an easy project using most of the same materials as in the swag.

On every window of the house, I like to hang wreaths. I doubt they will all be made from fresh evergreens as I cannot foresee having enough material for that many wreaths, so artificial ones will be filled out with fresh cut greens, and accents added to match the rest of the decorations.

In years past, when I had my own evergreen forest, and materials were abundant, I made my own cedar/mixed greenery rope. (That project is not of sympton of Marthatization, I just enjoy doing it.) This year it appears I will not be making or purchasing any cedar rope. Besides, it sounds like I’m going to have more than enough to do. As soon as I find an evergreen source! I’ll keep looking.