Spreading the cheer outside

Holiday decorating is a slow process at my house. I’m so amazed by all the holiday home tours on the Internet … I haven’t even really thought much about the inside.

I love doing my outdoor containers though. I leave them decorated (sans lights) almost all winter because I love looking at them.

I take no credit for the design of my containers this year. I was highly inspired by Deborah Silver’s amazing winter container designs. My execution is not nearly as nice as hers, but I think I like how they turned out more than most years. The secret is a tip from Deborah herself. Last week she did a little series on her blog about the construction of her winter containers. One tip I knew already: zip tie the branches to a main stake to make them easier to install as well as stay in a nice little bunch.

The other one I learned this year. One word: Styrofoam. Turns out that’s what Deborah Silver uses to get those full “skirts” of evergreen boughs. Styrofoam is crazy expensive though, so over the course of a couple of weeks and lot of trips to Michael’s and Joann’s with 50% off coupons, I finally had enough and jammed it in all my pots. It is so much easier to stick stuff into foam than it is to try to chip away at half-frozen dirt.

I also added silver dollar eucalyptus. I had to order it in bulk online but I’m glad I did. I quite like the effect and it seems to be holding up great outside. We got a bit of snow yesterday to make everything look extra festive.

The window box looks like it might need a little trimming on some of the white pine. There are some lights in it and then I jammed a bunch of lights at the base of the branches for a nice glowy effect.

I love how it looks from inside at night.

It does look pretty great at night though.

Of course there are parts of the garden that look pretty great all on their own too. This is why I always leave all the flowerheads on the hydrangeas in winter. It adds so much texture to the garden.