Friday, December 6, 2024

Holiday season perfect time to decorate with natural materials

By Kendra Raymond

Now that Thanksgiving has come and gone, many people switch their mindset to the next holiday season. For many that includes Christmas, Hanukkah, or Kwanza. No matter how you choose to celebrate, there are endless opportunities for holiday decorating. While many people focus on the inside of their homes, others enjoy stringing up lights. Others find joy in using natural materials to beautify the exterior of the home.

Collecting natural materials to beautify and
decorate the exterior of your home can be
more economical and rewarding during
the holiday season, 
PHOTO BY AMY ALEXANDER
While lots of options are available at local big-box stores or greenhouses, it can be more economical and rewarding to collect materials from nature to embellish the exterior of your home.

Raymond Beautification Committee Chair Sharon Dodson is a bit of a local expert on seasonal decorating. The group recently gathered to collect evergreen boughs to fill the barrels located throughout the town.

Evergreens

Most holiday wreaths and porch décor start with evergreen boughs. These can be collected in the woods using a small set of hand pruners. Both balsam fir and white pine tips make great choices for planters or garlands. If you see any fallen evergreen trees, these are great resources for branches, and it won’t compromise the health of the living trees. Keep an eye out for pinecones on the ground that can be incorporated into your arrangements as well.

Artificial greens

Maine Garden Center and nursery Estabrook’s offered an alternative solution in their recent newsletter: “While some people will say that the look and fragrance of fresh greens and holiday blooms can never be duplicated, today’s high-quality greens are coming closer and closer. Artificial boughs, wreaths and garland can be swapped out or recombined to create a new holiday look every year without purchasing new materials each time. Artificials are also great for homes that aren’t conducive to live greens such as those with working fireplaces, warmer than normal rooms, or other conditions that may adversely affect fresh plant material. By using artificials, you’ll be assured that your holiday decorations will stay up longer, look great all season long and eliminate the mess that comes from dropping needles.”


Red berries

Have you ever driven past a boggy area or wetland and noticed one or more people wearing Muk Luk boots with clippers in their hands? This is a common practice where ambitious decorators attempt to obtain the coveted “red berries” which are almost always found in wet areas.

Dodson can attest to the challenges of obtaining the highly sought after red berries.

“Yes, we used to work really hard to find winter berries and collect them, no matter how wet we got. We also had a couple of volunteers with legal access to them, which we don’t now. Currently, we just put red ribbons around the barrels,” she said.

No greenery-filled arrangement is complete without these brightly colored accents to fill in the spaced and give a pop of color. So, what are these highly sought-after branches, and where can they be obtained?

Coastal Rivers Conservation Trust of Damariscotta offers this concise lesson: “Winterberry shrubs are easy to spot in Maine this time of year, when its red berries are often the only bright color on the landscape. Look for it in roadside ditches, in and around wetlands, and in soggy spots in the woods. From March to October this shrub is cloaked with dark, glossy, oval leaves, but in the winter the red berries stand out and draw us to take a closer look.”

Unlike its southern relatives, winterberries are deciduous. Sometimes called black alder or northern holly, it ranges from Newfoundland to Michigan and south to West Virginia. It is a tough plant that grows well in average soil and can tolerate regular wet roots. Pests and disease are few, though its leaves can turn yellowish in alkaline soils.

Winterberries spread not only through seed dispersal but also with suckers and by layering. Layering is when branches are bent down to the soil, as they are by heavy snow, and then sprout roots. Eventually these branches break off and become a new plant. This is why you will often find thick pockets of Winterberry where it has both spread by suckers and layering over time.

An important late-winter food for flickers, crows, robins, and cedar waxwings, these native shrubs are a wonderful backyard habitat enhancement. There are many non-native cultivars now available at nurseries but be aware that some of these produce berries that seem to be less attractive to birds than native winterberry.

Lucky for area residents, there are plenty of areas where the berry branches can be harvested, such as Claman Wildlife Sanctuary located along Route 302 in Windham.

Supplies and Receptacles

Holiday wreaths and swags don’t require a lot of materials, just some basic twine or wire and a metal form if you’re making a wreath. Cheerful planters can be created in many types of containers such as plastic plant pots, an old wooden crate, or metal buckets – to name a few. It can be fun to keep an eye out for creative containers at antique shops, flea markets and yard sales.

With a good dose of creativity and a little bit of effort, just about anyone can beautify the outside of their home this holiday season. Best of all, some of the best decorations can be created on a very small budget. My friend Amy Alexander always has the most festive and welcoming decorations outside her home. She recently said, “Do what brings you joy!” – which makes a lot of sense.

Plant Perfect offers some beautiful suggestions for decorating with evergreens here: https://plantperfect.com/fresh-ideas-for-decorating-with-evergreens/ <

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