6 ways to spruce up your outdoors for the holiday season

The holiday season is near, and it is highly likely that you are decorating out of doors for the season. If you like the natural look, versus icicle lights or a blow-up Santa and reindeer, we have some advice for you that will look great and save you money.

There are many natural items in your garden that lend themselves to a seasonal look that can be extremely attractive.

Check this out:

1. Holly

Holly and ivy are not figments of some songwriter’s imagination, they actually exist. Winter hardy, blue holly has been around for a generation now and is a staple in many Canadian gardens. Don’t be afraid to cut stems this time of year, as no harm will be done.

2. Evergreen branches

This is big business. You can go to your local retailer and buy pine, fir, cedar and spruce branches at considerable expense, or you can cut your own. Again, no harm done to your trees. There is no magic in this, just cut with a sharp pair of pruners and get creative with the use of the stems inside and out. Pruned branches will produce new growth over the following few years.

3. Berries

Many plants produce berries or berry-like fruit in late fall. For the most part, they remain on the plant until late winter when foraging birds clean them off come February and March. Crabapples, mountain ash, bittersweet vine, euonymus and even roses can produce great look
ing fruit that is useful outdoors in containers and as decoration on the Christmas table.

4. Dogwood

The red twig dogwood is an invasive plant to many farmers as it grows almost anywhere that you find lingering moisture, especially in low land. When you cut native dogwood down by a metre or so, it grows back up aggressively in a year. The bright red bark of dogwood stands out in an outdoor arrangement, will not wither, and stands up to any amount of frost. It is one versatile decorating accessory.

5. Birch

This one is a bit tricky, as we wouldn’t recommend you cutting down your birch tree just to decorate at your front door. Unless, of course, you were cutting it down anyway. Again, there is no magic in the birch branches that you find at retailers this time of year. They are cut from two- to three-year-old trees, and then plants are dug up and replanted. Like a Christmas tree crop, they are sustainable and renewable.

6. Willow

Another fast grower. Pussy willow and Arctic willow both provide the raw material of a great display out of doors. They are unique in that they are very flexible. If you are clever, you can twist and weave them into wreaths, baskets or just braid them into a rope that will look great on the fireplace mantle.

Where do you get this stuff?

Neither of us are proponents of foraging for decorating materials in the wild. Conservation areas and public forests have enough problems with humans taking liberties with their assets. However, a neighbour may have some of these plants on their property who would be pleased if you did some free pruning of their mature landscape. Or you may know a farmer who would welcome your interest in controlling their dogwood problem.

Always with permission from the landowner.

The holly, ivy and evergreen boughs (not to mention live Christmas trees) are, well, evergreen. The message here? That the message of Christmas does not die. It will not go away. We celebrate the season year after year for personal reasons that come back to one thing. Peace.

Peace to you.