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DIY, Garden

MASTER CLASS ON WINTER CONTAINER CONSTRUCTION

December 1, 2015

I’m a late Christmas decorator. At least it seems late, since I usually finish it up a couple weeks before Christmas, which is apparently late these days. But I like to take advantage of milder weather to do my outdoor containers, which is easily my favorite holiday project.

I’m busy gathering materials now. I picked up some $6 wreaths at Home Depot on Black Friday. They look like $6 wreaths, which is to say rather plain and uninspired, but by the time I’m done filling them out with other greens and nice bows, you’ll never know. I also cut a mound of red twig dogwood over the weekend and I’m hoping to score the branch cut-offs from people’s Christmas trees at a few places like I did last year.

http://www.deborahsilver.com/blog/the-installation/
Deborah Silver photo

As usual, the best place for inspiration when it comes to holiday containers is Deborah Silver’s blog, and this year she treated her readers with step-by-step articles on how those works of art come to life. I’ve been using foam to stick branches in for a couple years now and it makes such a difference, and not just because the soil in a lot of containers is frozen already. I highly recommend spending a little extra to get foam for containers.

http://www.deborahsilver.com/blog/constructing-the-winter-pots/
The crew at Detroit Garden Works creating the bases for winter containers. Deborah Silver photo

Here are Deborah’s tips:

  • Constructing the base of the containers
  • How to make the centerpieces
  • Putting it all together
Deborah Silver photo
Of course, having a big building to do all the main work in (along with a lot of helpers) would certainly make this process easier, but one must make due with what they have.
Bleached pinecones on garland. Deborah Silver photo
I’m also loving bleached pinecones (Deborah uses some on her amazing garlands), so I’ll be following this tutorial on how to do that. 
I don’t have a real vision on exactly what I want to do this year, inside or out, but maybe that will make it more fun. The plan is to finish up the outside this weekend.
Do you decorate outside as well as inside?

containers deborah silver winter
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
7 Comments

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

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previous post: 3 GREAT BOOKS FOR GIVING AND GETTING
next post: THE REAL-PERSON’s GUIDE TO RENOVATION

Comments

  1. Stephen Andrew says: December 1, 2015 at 6:20 pm

    I knew what this was by the title alone! I want a big workshop like that! So inspiring! I love making wreaths and go nuts with indoor decor. Trying to tone it down though and spend more time sitting enjoying them than making them.

    Reply
  2. Garden Fancy says: December 1, 2015 at 6:37 pm

    I'll just drag out the same artificial wreath and hang it on my front door as usual…. I suppose the idea of holiday pots could be done in a simplified way with materials found at home (not the "spend thousands of dollars to hire a designer to make huge outdoor arrangements" way). Perhaps I'll look around and see what I can come up with…. Thanks for the ideas. -Beth

    Reply
    • Deborah Silver says: December 19, 2016 at 3:11 pm

      Dear Beth, I am a garden designer who would not be able to survive without clients. But I have also been writing my blog Dirt Simple since 2009 with the express purpose of explaining my process in great detail-so gardeners have a method to make containers themselves in every season. I don't think anyone should or has to do without the pleasure and satisfaction planting containers bring to a gardener. Go for it! all the best, Deborah

      Reply
  3. Debra Phillips says: December 2, 2015 at 3:28 am

    just did a post on the containers we have completed for clients….so far. my home ends up getting, nothing!
    agree, deborah silver is the best!
    debra

    Reply
  4. Ms. Wis./Each Little World says: December 2, 2015 at 4:30 am

    Just started indoors and am trying to buy nothing new and to be more restrained and less obviously Christmassy. Usually do a wreath outside but think I will take an indoor pinecone swag and see if I can put it on the 3-seat bench by the front door where I hope it will be safe from the weather. Aren't Deborah's staff amazingly talented?!

    Reply
  5. Heather - New House New Home says: December 2, 2015 at 12:00 pm

    Wow! Those urns are gorgeous!!! I just finished mine yesterday – it was warmer outside even though it was wet. Mine pale by comparison, but I used the same methodology of filler, thriller and spiller. Can't wait to see yours!

    Reply
  6. Kristin Fast says: December 4, 2015 at 6:12 pm

    I love Deborah Silver's blog- her photographs are so beautiful and even if I don't create something of that scale, I just love to look and read what she is thinking. She does such a great job of conveying the magic of gardening.

    Reply

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The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

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Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
I fell in love with gardening through container de I fell in love with gardening through container design and it’s probably still my favorite type of gardening. My trip to Philadelphia area gardens was full of so many excellent ideas. For several years I’ve been enamored with clustered pots, but in my opinion they work best when they are able to stand alone in a space. And you probably know me well enough by now to know that as far as I’m concerned, the bigger the pot, the better. Feast your eyes on these beauties and use your zooming fingers to really get into those nooks and crannies. 

Don’t forget to save your favorites because you know you’re going to be looking for them come next spring. 😀

Photos 1 & 2: Amazing container cluster at @longwoodgardens  that works particularly well because of the restraint used in the design. Also how many different ways is the universe going to tell me I need to grow agave before I actually listen?

Photo 3: This was probably favorite display I saw the whole time and of course it’s from the masters at @chanticleergarden This is a master class in texture. It’s also probably not attainable for the average home gardener because it relies heavily on tropicals that need proper overwintering in order to reach a good size. But there’s no reason why I (or you) couldn’t use this as inspiration to create a similar feel with other plants. 

Photo 4: Strappy foliage, bright orange and colorful pots create such a good doorway collection at @chanticleergarden 

Photo 5, 6 & 7: Similar colors were used at a patio doorway at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm home garden. A pot is perfectly framed by an arbor off a side patio. The front entrance has a pink theme (and an amazing feature pot that I couldn’t show here because all my shots are vertical). 

Photo 8: Back to @chanticleergarden where I could have studied this container planting for an hour just to soak up all the detail. 

Photo 9: And while I love a pot with a lot going on, never underestimate the power of a simply planted, gorgeous pot, like this one at @abunting64 garden Belvidere. 

#gbfling2023
I think every garden probably needs a little bit o I think every garden probably needs a little bit of water, even if it’s just a bird bath. All of the fabulous gardens I saw recently in the Philadelphia area incorporated water into them. Here are just a few examples of how lovely these water features were. 

@paxsonhillfarm @northviewgarden @brandywinecottage @longwoodgardens #gbfling2023
Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the vi Gardens must have places to relax and enjoy the view even though we all know that most of us rarely take the opportunity to use them. The seating I saw in gardens in the Philadelphia area reflected their gardens and all were special. 

Make sure to share your favorite!

Photo 1:  I adored these perfectly lichen-covered chairs at @brandywinecottage

Photo 2: Great lichen game on this bench at Wayne Guymon’s mind-blowing garden WynEden. 

Photo 3: Perhaps my favorite seating moment of the whole trip was this chair in @jennyrosecarey @northviewgarden . Not only was it perfectly lichen covered (are you sensing a theme here?) but a volunteer cleome was growing right up through the middle of it. Unfortunately this photo of it isn’t grata because by this point in the trip my phone (I didn’t want to use my DSLR in the middle of the tropical storm so I switched to my phone) was getting very grumpy about the rain. 

Photo 4: I’d be happy to hang out on these chairs in @abunting64 ‘s gorgeous garden Belvidere. I loved this space. 

Photo 5: Color was the name of the game on this patio at Steve and Ann Hutton’s Owl Creek Farm. 

Photo 6: The most original table and benches I saw were at @abunting64 garden. This was a portion of the garden that was actually on the neighbors’ property adjacent to Andrew’s. It had been a vegetable garden but is getting a bit too shady so it will soon have a new life. 

Photo 7: We visited Barbara Tiffany’s Mill Fleurs in a deluge, which is a shame, and dotted throughout the property are examples of her husband Tiff’s amazing furniture. This was, called the Centipede was upholstered and quite different from the others. All were amazing works of art. 

Photos 8 and 9: The @scott_arboretum at @swarthmorecollege had some excellent seating, from brand new @deebenarc chairs to more lichen-covered charmers.

#gbfling2023
*** I can already see that some people do not unde *** I can already see that some people do not understand humor so let me just say this: 1. I was fully aware of the escaped convict situation (I’m an avid follower of the news, which is common for us journalists). 2. It’s ok to laugh about the fact that I’ve missed the Longwood meadow twice through weird circumstances while being a rational adult and realizing that I’m not making light of the situation that led to the meadow being mown. ***

I missed seeing @longwoodgardens beautiful meadow the first time I visited so I was excited to see it the second time. Not so fast! Turns out it had to be mown down during the search for an escaped convict who was hiding out there (at least that’s what I was told was the reason for the mowing). He’ll never see goldenrod the same way again! 😀

That whole situation was really unfortunate for @longwoodgardens (not to mention everyone who lives in the area), which had to be closed for about a week while the hunt was on!
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