5 FREE WINTER CONTAINER DESIGNS

There is no Christmas tree in my house. That, of course, was not the plan. The plan was to be ahead of the game this year, but once again it's the last minute and nothing is done. I'm tempted to just skip the tree at this point, but we did that last year and I feel like skipping a tree one year is fine, but skipping it two years in a row is positively scroogelike.

But the outdoor decorations are finished so that's something. And I'm happy to report that I met the challenge I set forth for myself to not spend a penny on any holiday containers and use only what I already had or what I foraged. I did buy some garland at Costco for the pergolas, but that puts the entire budget for everything I did outside at $30. I'm calling that a win.

The trough planter by the garage is big enough that moving it without removing the soil would be impossible. And because there are two clematis in there (they are group 3 types so they'll be cut back in spring, but for now I've taken the foliage and tucked it behind the holiday decorations) the soil can't be removed. Really simple decorations here: dogwood and evergreens just stuck in the soil with birch logs from the big tree that fell in our woods just leaning against the garage and a simple garland wrapped in lights.

The urn in the middle of the garden got a similar simple treatment. The snow came so quickly after I finished it that I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it before it was covered in the white stuff. 

The large planter by the front door got an unusual treatment that I thought played off the ring in the window box. Again, no sooner did I finish it, than a big snowfall did some of its own decorating. The small lit rings are metal rings from the inside of rotted wagon wheels that I wrapped in tiny LED wire light strings. (You can see what I did with those rings in summer here.) And yes, there is a sad and formerly lovely rosemary plant in a pot next to it that was forgotten when I brought plants in, so now it serves as sculpture of sorts.

Of course you've seen the window box already.

I had to throw in a picture of our special 'Hudsonii' spruce, planted in honor of our first Newfoundland Hudson. It's the only thing that gets colored lights and it looked so perfect with the snowfall against the otherwise black-and-white winter landscape. 

I also very quickly did the container at the office. I hate to admit it, but I really threw this one together with what I had left around and in about 15 minutes, so it isn't quite as neat as I would like. The trellis lives in another container there during the summer but I thought it added a nice touch. The big ornaments sort of look like they are waiting to hatch in their little nest.

So there you have it: five winter containers all done without spending a penny. There is actually one other small pot I did on our garden bench but I didn't manage to snap a picture before it was mostly covered in snow. I'll shoot one when it emerges.

Where are you at with your holiday decorating?

HOW TO MAKE A HOLIDAY WINDOW BOX

I got a lot of questions recently about how I constructed my holiday containers and window box so I thought I'd share a quick tutorial. I can't say that I invented this method, but I've gotten pretty close to perfecting it after several years of tinkering with it. The inspiration for it came from the professionals, mostly Deborah Silver. 

Just a reminder, my challenge this year was to only use foraged materials and things that I already had, so I did not spend a single penny on this window box.

I try to leave about three-quarters of the potting mix in the window box after I remove all the plants and to do this before that soil freezes, because it's much easier when it's soft. The foam—3-inch-thick large sheets that I purchased at Michael's several years ago—is saved an reused every year because it's an investment. I hot-glued smaller pieces of foam as supports underneath the main foam layer, which is several pieces doweled and glued end-to-end to fix the window box. You can also use green waterproof tape (affiliate link) to tape pieces together, which is what I do for other containers. 

Small pieces of foam hot-glued to the bottom of larger foam pieces adds stability.

Once I have the foam fitted in, which sometimes requires moving some soil around, I use two bamboo stakes at an angle pushed all the way through to help hold it in. These stakes will freeze in the soil.

I use two bamboo stakes at angles to help secure the foam foundation.

The next step is the ring, and this is the bit I've had the most questions about. Detroit Garden Works sells pre-lit metal rings for hanging or staking, but if you're looking for a less expensive option, you can look in a few places. My metal ring came from a local metal worker, who made me several rings of different sizes a few years ago at the same time we had him make a fire pit ring (two of them ended up as art). I don't recall the cost, but the rings were incredibly inexpensive, so if you can find a person like that, it's a good option.

I've also retrieved rings from rotted out wagon wheels (of which there several inexplicably kicking around my neighborhood) and the metal bands from old whiskey barrel planters. As an alternative, I think you could double up a pair of hula hoops or even PVC tubing and paint it black.

My metal ring (covered in pine needles) came from a local metalworker.

There is a small hole for a stabilizing stake in the middle of my ring, so I used that to hang the ring from my basement ceiling and I could easily wrap the lights around the hoop. The key to keeping the ring look is to wrap the lights (I used a string of 200) around the outside of the ring, instead of wrapping them in and out through the middle of  it. Make sure that the male plug is at the what will be the bottom of the hoop. When the lights are wrapped, I used zip ties (see my trick for managing the little buggers here) in a dark color to secure the lights in various spots around the ring. 

Hang the ring to make putting the lights on easier.

Putting the ring up is the trickiest part because it requires a bit of lean. I use a stake through the hole in it to keep it from rolling around but you could fashion a method of pinning it down with a bend wire hanger or something else if you don't have a hole. 

A stake helps hold the ring in place. Lights behind it help it "glow."

I like the window box to look like it's glowing from within, so take another string of lights and just lay them behind the ring. I wish I had added another set of lights or used a light garland (the kind that are nothing but lights) because I would have preferred more glow. You should also hook up your extension cords at this point because it's much easier to get to before all the greens are in.

Next I make the dogwood bundles. For this window box I wanted the red dogwood to have a lot of punch and that's difficult to get with individual branches, so I pick out the nicest, straightest branches and bundle them together. Then I take a bamboo stake (the same ones I used to prop up my dahlias in summer) and stick it in the middle and tie the whole thing together with zip ties. I actually needed two ties for each bundle because they were too fat for just one.

Insert a bamboo stake in the center of a bundle of twigs and secure very tightly with zip ties.

I try to make all the bundles the same size and height and I leave a little bit of room at the bottom to make the sticks shorter if needed.

Make the bundles about the same size.

When I put the twig bundles in, the stake holds them in place and I made sure to drive it all the way through the foam into the soil. 

After the twigs, the next step is the greens. I try to cut all the pieces roughly to the same size for some uniformity, but that's not required if you like it to look a little bit more natural. When I put them in I start with the branches sticking straight out, coming from the side of the foam, and starting from the bottom, I work my way up to more angled greens. Because this is a high window box, I don't worry if there is foam showing on top because you'll never see that either from the ground or inside. 

A little foam showing from the top doesn't matter because in a window box this high it will never be seen.

With the greens in, it needs a little color.

With the greens filled in and trimmed a bit here and there, I added faux red berries, purchased several years ago at a Black Friday sale and saved every year. Make sure you buy faux branches specifically labeled for outdoor use or they will lose their paint or completely dissolve quickly. I also had some short pine branches with adorable little pine cones still attached that I used to fill in near the dogwood. I don't like to fill in too much too high because I still want to see out the window from inside.

Make sure to use waterproof faux berries labeled for outdoor use.

And, of course, a good snowfall doesn't hurt either.

And even from inside, it's a lovely view.

A WINTER CONTAINER CHALLENGE

One of my favorite projects to do this time of year is decorate outside with winter containers. In the past I've used a combination of found and purchased materials. I always cut my own red twig dogwood because the even though the dogwood you can buy is brighter, straighter and, by all accounts, prettier, it's also incredibly expensive. I also usually find greens as well, be it from trees in the yard or by raiding the cart full of branches cut from trees at Home Depot, which are free for the taking, but I occasionally supplement that stash with fancy evergreens purchased in bundles.

In the past, though, I've purchase a lot of other elements of the outdoor containers. I bought birch branches a few years ago that I save from year to year. I have also bought huge bundles of beautiful eucalyptus which really do make for stunning displays. I've purchases giant pinecones and faux berries, all of which I've saved. I'll be honest, buying some materials helps make really stunning displays and it is certainly easier and less time consuming than foraging for materials

This year, though, I'm not going to spend a penny on outdoor containers. I'm looking at it as a challenge. I'll allow myself to use items I've saved from year to year, but I'm not going to spend any money on anything that goes in the containers.

I spent a good amount of time over the weekend collecting materials, probably about four hours. My grandma's house has foundation plantings (perhaps come kind of arborvitae) that have gone nuts, so I spent a lot of time pruning the worst of them. That netted a lot of material for containers and a fair amount of dead wood to be disposed of. I also went to one of my secret dogwood gathering spots to collect what I could. Unfortunately I didn't come close to getting the amount I needed and I'll have to go back to a spot I found last year for more. 

All of that led to a rather ridiculous scene in my car.

With all foraging and a case of frozen fingers (I cannot find my winter gloves; where do they go every summer?) I only got as far as doing two containers for a neighbor and, to be honest I was in a bit of a rush and chasing daylight. Still, I think they turned out OK and the neighbors will enjoy them. The design is pretty simple: a thick bundle of dogwood circled by 'Limelight' hydrangea flowers as the centerpiece, with prunings from grandma's house and a bit of some kind of pine (also from grandma's) to fill in.

There are many more outdoor containers to decorate. And with my found-materials only pledge, I'll be testing my creative mettle. 

Do you do winter container designs?

2014: A YEAR IN REVIEW

Wow, how did it get to be December 31 already? It seems like the year just flew by. Come to think if it, since I was 25, they all seem to have flown by.

It was a good year on the blog. I've been doing this since April 2009 and I wrote (a few) more posts this year than any other. I hope to keep that up in 2015, but I never like to set a schedule because I don't want to start writing stuff that you don't want to read.

Anyway, let's take a look at the highlights of 2014 on The Impatient Gardener.

JANUARY

To keep myself busy during the cold winter months before I allow myself to really start dreaming of gardening, I made this really simple little magnetic chalkboard for the inside of the pantry.

FEBRUARY

I wrapped up what was probably the biggest indoor project of the year when I put the finishing touches on the small hallway outside the kitchen. For such a small space it sure was a pain to fix up. In the end it got smooth walls, a fresh coat of paint all over, a fun blue planked ceiling, a new light and a new thermostat. It wasn't pretty, but in the end it was so worth it, even though I still find drywall dust in odd places.

MARCH

The ugly vanity in the ugly bathroom got (another) coat of paint. I still hate it but it's much better navy than it was pickled pink. I'll be happy the day that the vanity, and the rest of the bathroom, are tossed out.

APRIL

Finally, after what seemed like the crappiest winter in history, it was time to garden. Indoors, anyway. For the first time, I started a lot of things from seed last year. Overall, I really enjoyed it because it helped the gardening bug a little and I had a lot of success with some of the things I grew from seed (and not so much from others).

MAY

The garden finally came to life (albeit slowly) in May. I was rejoicing in every swelling leaf bud and bit of green I could find.

JUNE

I showed off the wood planter we built. It ended up being heavier than heck and way more expensive than we planned, but it was still a fraction of the price we would have paid for something similar. It was a really satisfying project.

JULY

In July I finally finished up the back yard garden renovation I'd been working on. By creating a little more form in the shape of ovals, I defined the space much better and finally made the edge of the property much nicer to look at.

AUGUST

It was a pretty good year for containers and I shared some of the progress in August.

SEPTEMBER

I grew a perfect tomato. I grew very few tomatoes last summer, but this one was damn near perfect.

OCTOBER

Thanks to growing parsley from seed, I had a welcome abundance of it. I saved the harvest in a variety of ways and we're still enjoying it.

NOVEMBER

I experimented with a new way to ward off deer this winter. So far it's been successful, but since we've had no snow, the deer have plenty of other food to eat. We'll see what happens the rest of the winter.

DECEMBER

I added a little color to the drab landscape by decorating the outside containers. I'll enjoy them until March.

Not bad for a year. How was your 2014?

A CHRISTMAS CARD

Ever since our first dog was a puppy, we've done a personalized holiday card featuring the dogs. Sadly I can't find that card anymore, but last  year I showed you many of our previous cards (and this one).

This was the first time in 11 years that we made a card without Hudson on it, which is sad, but we were able to include him but taking a shot by the tree we planted for him.

Young Odin was quite patient (for all 146 photos that I took), but by the end, he was just done, hence the photos on the back of this year's card.

Happy holidays everyone! I hope to be back later with some more photos from my house, but all of a sudden Christmas Eve got a little crazy.

PUCKER UP; HERE'S HOW TO MAKE A KISSING BALL

I didn't bother to look up the history of the kissing ball, but I imagine it goes something like this: Mistletoe is ugly but people still need an excuse to kiss, so someone invented a ball covered in greens, called it a kissing ball and people started smooching under it.

Works for me.

Anyway, I recently took a class on how to make a kissing ball. Other than a few small tricks that make your life a little easier, this is the biggest no-brainer project ever.

Here's what you'll need:

1. 4-inch oasis floral foam, really well saturated (overnight or all day).
2. A chopstick, sharpened pencil, skewer or something else long and pokey.
3. A 12-inch chenille pipe cleaner, preferably green.
4. A bit of string, anything will do.
5. A 1-inch piece of a twig, or a cut from the previously mentioned poking device.
6. A selection of greens.
7. A length of pretty ribbon.

I think it's probably easiest to prep everything first, so start by preparing all your greens. You want them cut into about 4-inch lengths, with the end of the "stem" part (the part you'll be sticking into the oasis) clean of needles for at least a half-inch. For the balls we made, we used white pine, port orford cedar and seeded eucalyptus. You can use anything, including flowers. Boxwood would be great and if you really want to guarantee some kisses you could also use mistletoe.

Then take your soaked foam ball (work over a sink or something because this bit is messy) and find the seam and think of it as the equator on a globe. Take your chopstick or pokey thing and stick it through the ball from the north pole to the south pole. If you're using a skinny tool, you may have to wiggle it a little to get a big enough hole.

Then take your chenille pipe cleaner and stick it through the hole. At the bottom of the ball, take your inch-long piece of twig or a cut from your poking device, and wrap a bit of the pipe cleaner around it to create an anchor. Hole up your ball by the other end of the pipe cleaner to make sure it's secure.

On the top of the ball, create a small loop, maybe an inch or so, and twist the rest of the pipe cleaner around the base of the loop.

Take about 8 inches of string and just tie a loop into the small pipe cleaner loop. You'll be cutting this off later so it doesn't have to be fancy; it's just so you don't lose track of the pipe cleaner loop when all the greens are in the ball.

The rest is easy. Starting at the top, stick in your prepared greens. Because we were using several kinds of greens, we started with the white pine as the base, spacing them out about 3/4-inch. Work around the ball, rather on one side, to keep it uniform, and cover the whole ball. Don't forget the bottom.

Then go back and start filling in with the other greens in the spaces you left between the first group of greens. You don't need to cover every last bit of the ball, because you won't see the oasis once it's hanging, but you do want it full. If some extra long greens sneak in there, just trim them off.

We also added a few gold-dipped greens to the very top, but you could also put pinecones or ornaments up there too.

When you're finished, find your pipe cleaner loop and string a piece of pretty ribbon through it, tying it into a loop (as long as you like) with 3-4 inch ends on either side of a square knot. Work the knot under the loop, cut off the piece of string you used as a place holder earlier, and you are finished.

Easy, right? There's no reason not to have a reason to smooch now. You're welcome.

The winner of the Uncommon Goods gift certificate was Laurin, who shared the worst gift she ever received: "The worst gift was from a previous M-inlaw. It was a hideous green and white polyester top that had clearly been on sale! That was well about 35 years ago and I still remember."

Buy yourself something nice with that gift certificate, Laurin. If you wore that top even once, you earned it. 

AN UNCOMMONLY GOOD GIVEAWAY

Who couldn't use a little help with their holiday shopping at this time of year? I don't do a lot of giveaways on the blog, but I was excited to do one for a very cool company: Uncommon Goods. This is the place to go when you need something interesting and different for a gift. I picked a few of my favorite things from their catalog, but you will get to choose anything you like if you are the winner of a $50 gift certificate to Uncommon Goods (entry at the bottom).


FOR THE TRAVELER ON YOUR LIST

I just gave this to my 12-year-old nephew for his birthday. The kid has been lucky to go to a few places and hopefully will do much more traveling throughout his life. It's a scratch off map (they have it in regular and deluxe but I prefer the deluxe map), so you can scratch off the places you've been. I think it's beautiful and fun and for $31.95, it's budget friendly.

This is sort of funny. I have to do a gift guide at work every year and I actually picked this for our editors' gift selections for the magazine I work at. Suffice to say, I think it's really cool and I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't enjoy receiving this. It's custom map ornament. Basically, you pick a spot, and they create an ornament with the nautical chart of your location for the front of the ornament. On the back you can put a custom message that could be the latitude and longitude coordinates of that location, a sweet message or just a notation of which Christmas it is from. I think this would be a great way to remember a special vacation. $75.

I think these hand-embroidered state pillows are fun, beautiful and just kitschy enough to be super cool. At $158 they aren't inexpensive but 1. They are hand-embroidered and 2. Have you looked at the cost of throw pillows?

FOR THE PERSON WHO ENJOYS A COCKTAIL

Moscow Mules are THE hot drink right now and I'm convinced it's at least partly because in order to be a true Moscow Mule, they have to come in a very cool copper mug. These are stainless on the inside and copper-plated on the outside for good lucks and good taste. At $16 each, a set of four is totally within reach. And here's my little gift to you: A can't lose Moscow Mule recipe.

MOSCOW MULE
Fill a copper mug with ice and add half a lime. Add two ounces of GOOD vodka (save the swill for your regular glasses) and top with cold ginger beer. Give it a stir and toast to good friends.

Sometimes it's nice to give a gift that DOES something. How about one that makes whiskey and rum? I'm not sure how it will turn out but I think it would be fun to give it a whirl with the Whiskey and Rum Making Kit complete with a wooden keg. $75.

Beer connoisseurs are everywhere these days and they take their brew seriously. The Beer Tasting Flight is beautiful and I think it will look just as good sitting on the bar empty as it will when it's full. $59.

FOR THE JEWELRY LOVER
Uncommon goods has some beautiful jewelry that I think would be difficult to find elsewhere (and you're certainly not picking this up at the nearest department store). Among my favorites are this Mixed Metals Hinged Cuff bracelet ($115), the beautiful Sake Bottle Earrings ($54) and the Raw Quartz Birthstone Necklace ($88), which I think is a really different take on birthstone jewelry.

FOR THE PERSON WHO JUST LOVES FUN STUFF
Let's be clear, these are not practical gifts, and that's OK. Sometimes these are the best gifts to give (and receive) because they are things a person probably wouldn't buy for themselves.

What cat (or cat owner) wouldn't want a little wool cave that's this cute? $60.

Some days it's just too hard to make a decision. Let this cute stocking stuffer do it for you. $15.

Nobody really needs a paperweight, but I know lots of people who should have this one. Let's just say I have the mouth of a sailor, and while I try to keep the salty language to a minimum at the office, sometimes it just slips out. Maybe a paperweight like this would temper that a bit. F-bomb paperweight, $45.

When we were in Napa last year, Himalayan salt was a big deal. From plates to planks to shot glasses, it was all salt. Here's a plank that screams foodie and looks cool too. Himalayan Salt BBQ Plank $29.95.

Those are just some of the cool things you can pick up at Uncommon Goods. They've come up with a few lists to make your shopping a little easier too. Check out their gift list, stocking stuffers and gifts under $50. And it'll be even easier to do that if you win a $50 gift certificate to use on whatever you like.

I've given you lots of ways to enter. If you want to keep it simple, just do the first one, where all you have to do is click. But if you want to increase your chances of winning, make sure to do the rest! This contest will only run through Monday so that the winner will have time to use the gift certificate before the holidays.

a Rafflecopter giveaway