Christmas from your garden
Making Christmas decorations using natural materials is delightfully creative and satisfying: fun to make for all ages, truly personal, and saves a heap of cash into the bargain. Plus, it’s a great way to have a ‘green’ Christmas, now that plastic and other waste is a huge issue, avoiding the tide of manufactured decorations shipped from the other side of the world.
From the garden, harvest evergreen foliage of all types: glowing red or orange stems of dogwood and willow; long slender ivy stems; berries; strips of birch bark; seed heads and cones. In future years, remember to harvest architectural seed heads and stems in late summer and store in a cool dry place until needed. After a winter gale, enjoy a woodland walk to collect conifer branches, pine cones and the like (only fallen material though – don’t cut anything living from the wild), or wave-washed driftwood branches from the beach or an estuary. Both gathering and making are lovely activities to do with children and grandchildren, or with a group of friends where you can share and mix the harvest from different gardens.
Lots of different decorations can be made for both indoors and outside. A wreath for a door or gate can be made from scratch, weaving a base from flexible willow or ivy stems, then adding moss (I rake some from my lawn) to tie around the base to retain moisture. Using thin, flexible wire cut to 12-15cm lengths, make up bunches of mixed foliage, leaving spare wire to wiggle through the base, twist and secure. On a larger scale, I love to make a long garland of greenery using a length of thick rope for the base and simply winding string around to secure stems to rope, overlapping foliage to hide the string. Little table centrepieces are simple: fill small terracotta pots (you could spray-paint them gold or silver) with clean sand or rice to securely hold a candle, then place sprigs of foliage, berries, dried flowers etc around them - but not so close as to be set alight! The same principle can be adopted on a larger scale to make welcoming pots of greenery outside, using large pots, tall stems of dogwood, hazel branches or driftwood, maybe with a tall, chunky candle in the centre. These are just a few ideas: for more inspiration, visit Buckland Abbey’s Elizabethan Christmas where the house and Great Hall are filled with beautiful displays from 1st December.
Looking good
Shrubs with evergreen foliage really come into their own now, giving life and structure to the garden. For variety, go for different shades of green, variegations and bright warm yellows. Large leaves like Griselinia and holly-like Osmanthus ‘Goshiki’ make a lovely contrast to small-leaved Box.
Many ornamental grasses keep their shape and structure right through the winter, particularly upright ones like Miscanthus and Calamagrostis.
Container plants for winter interest major on form and foliage. Small evergreen grasses like Carex and Uncinia; ‘wintergreen’ perennials such as Euphorbia Glacier and Ascot Rainbow and Heucheras with colourful scalloped-edged leaves in a wealth of colours. Add winter-flowering pansies and violas for bursts of bloom.
Seasonal jobs
Plant garlic in midwinter to ensure a heavy crop. (The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight offers excellent gift packs).
Check fences and garden structures for signs of weakness or wind damage from autumn gales. Small repairs now, can avert big ones later.
Order seed catalogues and luxuriate in some armchair gardening.
Now’s a good time to clean, sharpen and oil tools and send the mower for servicing while it’s not needed. It’s a great feeling to be well organised in advance of next year.
Sweep and clean, or pressure wash, paths and patios, which can become dangerously slippery over winter. Wooden decking can be fitted with non-slip strips or inserts.