I love decorating with nature inspired items for the holidays.  I especially enjoy making wreathes and garlands out of greens that I can find in my own backyard.  I made this garland last weekend.  It’s a little wild and might not be everyone’s style but I love the look of lots of different shades of green combined with a variety of textures.

This was actually the first garland that I’ve made but I think it turned out well.  The first step was to gather different types of greens.  I used a few different types of evergreen branches, green ivy, and a few succulents I found still growing in our yard.

I used a green plastic covered wire as my anchor.  I would gather a substantial bunch of greens and then anchor it to the wire using green floral wire.  The general pattern I used was a bunch of evergreen and then add a green of interest like the succulent or ivy.  I repeated that step until all the wire was covered.  For the end, I attached a bunch going the opposite direction to finish off the garland.

I try to remember to mist the garland everyday with water to keep it fresh and so far it isn’t dropped any needles and it looks pretty good.  If a piece does start to look dried out it is easy to remove and go forage for a replacement.  Other additions that would look nice are some clementines strewn about or some pine cones tucked in.  

I used the same technique to make a wreath for our front door.  I also included boxwood and some dried herbs (lavender and thyme).  This was a grapevine wreath frame that I reuse every season.  For the fall, I had used bittersweet to make a wreath.  This winter I just unwound the floral wire and the old stuff fell right off.  I am even able to reuse the floral wire again and again.  I love that these decorations didn’t require any additional purchases and won’t result in much waste getting thrown out.  In this season of abundance, it is sometimes nice to keep things simple and natural.  Thank you Mother Earth with supplying me with these decorations! 

I also was lucky enough to find a little living tree this year.  It is quite small but I plan on decorating it with all edible decorations like dried orange slices and popcorn & cranberry garland.  I haven’t completed it yet but will be sure to share it when I do.

Be Happy, Be Healthy!