Friday 7 December 2012

Dress up your doors (again!)

Ooh - so much fun to be had with this wreath making lark.  Decided after the previous post that I needed something brighter to go with my dark green front door.  A quick peer into my shopping bag of foragements, soon showed me the way to go. Variegated holly for starters - very splashy and bright. Next,  those lovely yellowy green dogwood stems had to figure largely, along with their festive red cousins.  Poked them into the wreath frame and wrapped them around it, wiring them to hold them in place.



For some added texture, pushed some fir cones between the stems (am hoping my children don't slam the door too hard and make them fall out!) and then went a wander round the garden on the hunt for more bright stuff.  All those angular bits of lonicera Baggensen's Gold seem to fit the bill, so spiked them around the inside and outside of the frame to break up the outline.

The only downside to this well-dressed front door is that our visitors will need to be hard-fisted door knockers throughout the festive season as we don't have a bell. Maybe such activity will restore circulation to their frost-bitten fingers?




On a softer and more scented note, played around with twigs and herb leaves to make an indoor wreath.  Made a base of sage, rosemary and lavender sprigs, then added the birch twigs, silvery honesty seed heads and a bit of blue spruce to fill in the gaps. I now get a lovely herby, resiny whiff every time I walk in the dining room.

I may have to adopt year-round wreath making as it is such a satisfying thing...

6 comments:

  1. O, this is a real stylish wreath on your frontdoor, love the variegated holly and the fir cones.

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  2. Amazing what you can find in the local park!!

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  3. Lovely. I wish I had thought more about winter foraging for wreath making when I chose shrubs for my gardn.

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  4. I'm always torn between the need to leave large empty pockets for colourful annuals/biennials and the desire for year round structure. The former have always won out, so apart from a Cotinus, a Physocarpus Diablo and small loniceras dotted through the main flower border, the borders tend to be a bit of a mudbath in winter (apart from any seed heads I leave standing for frosty interest). Enjoy your spring and summer instead and go foraging in the local park and hedgerows!

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  5. I love your small herb indoor wreath. I'm going to put this in my do tofolder for next year, so I remember to harvest enough sage leaves and such next summer. The aroma must be wonderful.

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  6. Maybe I should experiment with dropping it in a cauldron of soup as a giant bouquet garni when the festive season is over....

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