Ready to cull your garden to decorate for the holidays? Gardens are great sources for holiday trimmings: holiday wreaths, arrangements and more. It’s a fun way to be creative and save money.

The list is long for items you can use from the garden to decorate, both indoors and outside. Here are just a few tips and suggestions:

Vines are excellent for winding among the boughs of wreaths or across mantels or outdoor fencing. To keep them fresh indoors, you can place the stems in floral water tubes and refill them regularly through the holidays. Anti-desiccant sprays can be helpful, too.

Berries, both fresh and dried, are great options for holiday decorations. They add color and vibrancy to any display. If you’re using them outdoors, you can simply interplant them with other elements. Indoors, fresh berries, like vines, can benefit from water tubes to keep them bright and perky.

Pine cones work well for surrounding the focal points of your arrangement or interspersing with other elements. Along with chicken wire or other deterrents, they can also help prevent squirrels or other varmints from digging among your decorations.

Evergreen boughs are commonly used in both outdoor and indoor displays during the holidays. You can purchase them from holiday suppliers or trim your own garden evergreens and wind them together with floral wire.

Dried flowers from the garden can add a touch of elegance. Examples include dried hydrangeas, straw flowers, globe thistles and sedums. Most garden flowers are dormant and dry this year. In future years, you can plan ahead and hang them to dry for a couple of weeks, let them dry within your arrangement or use desiccants or silica gel to preserve them.

Acorns and other nuts add volume and interest to the mix. Keep in mind that they can attract critters to your display, so their best use might be in inaccessible arrangements (hanging wreaths or door decorations) or indoor displays.

You can follow the same principles for holiday arrangements as for fresh floral displays; for example, many florists recommend considering line, form, color, space, texture, pattern and size (visit the link to learn more). Choose to go simple or complex to fit your mood and your taste.

These are just a few ideas for items to use from your own garden to decorate for the holidays. Natural garden elements, alone, can be enough to perk up your displays, or you can add other accessories like ribbons, wire stakes, lights or candles…the list goes on!

Have fun, and happy holidays in the weeks ahead!

Beth Stetenfeld is an organic gardener, native-plant enthusiast and garden blogger and writer. She’s also a master naturalist volunteer and instructor.

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