Along with my Christmas wreath I love to make my doorway look extra festive. My summer plants have died back by now and the spring bulbs won’t make an appearance for some time yet, but I still want my planters to look good.
This little project takes no time at all and gives a great effect. It also helps to insulate the bulbs sitting in my pots over winter.
First you need to don your best gardening gloves and grab a pair of secateurs. At this point I would offer a piece of advice. Find yourself a good set of leather gardening gloves. The pretty floral ones you buy in the garden centre are all very well for gentle weeding, but for anything else, you will find thorns, and other spikey plants will poke straight through. These leather gauntlet gloves we more expensive than the pretty floral ones, but will last years and will protect your hands. Nothing gets through these!
Now take a walk around your garden or out in nature and forage some nice foliage. The Christmas tree branches can be sourced from a local tree grower or garden centre.
Next is the really easy and fun part. Just start jabbing the pieces of foliage into the old compost. I start by poking a few smaller branches through the bottom of this planter as it helps make it look more full later.
Then I start on the main part of the planter. First I add in whatever I am using as height.towards the back middle section and fan out towards the edges.
Next I add in the softer branches to add drape and soften the edges a little. Then comes the fancy ( read anything with thorns! ?) I start adding in the holly and rosehips to add a splash of colour, and this year I popped in some gorgeous dried thistle heads.
This can be done in any kind of planter. I have an urn by my door and the exact same technique looks great in that too.
Next I give them a good watering in. This has 2 benefits. Firstly it will give your foliage a good ring and hopefully keep it fresh until after Christmas. The second is that with the colder temperatures it will hopefully freeze and hold all of your branches in place so any wind won’t blow them out.
I hope you will share your creations with me and I hope you have fun creating them.
Merry Christmas
Sam x