My come early- stay late routine came to a close beautifully. The shop garden needed some dressing up for our evening event; we wanted the outside to say welcome, and encourage a festive mood for anyone walking to the door.
Out at the street, an old iron cistern is stuffed with poplar branches, and finished with a groundcover of various sizes of white lights. Holiday light strings in groundcover, or in containers is an easy, portable and inexpensive way to light your winter landscape. This pot-our greeting.
A pair of cast stone pots atop the gate piers feature steel spheres wrapped in a single ring of pearl lights. Poplar branches were sunk in the soil, through the openings in the sphere. The Saturn pots, as I call them, take the every day in ground landscape lighting at the base of the piers skyward.
Wrapping the lights on the form can be accomplished quickly; we use the smallest zip tie available. This makes the removal of the lights much faster, when you need the sphere to support a vine, or provide a sculptural element in a container. The light ring reads clearly from below.
Lining the driveway with tables dressed in white linens in mid November has the element of surprise going for it. This very traditonal symbol of a party to come gets a big boost from being placed outdoors.
Candlelight endows any event or gathering with a little romance. However many candles you set out, a few more would probably be good. Votive candles are much like the mini light strings-readily available and inexpensive, they can ornament a party indoors or out like nothing else.
Straight sided votive holders are just as inexpensive, and reuseable-our trick is to put a teaspoon of water into each glass before we light the candles. This makes popping the used candles out for cleaning easy. Adding the votives to larger glass containers, pitchers and vases greatly magnifies the light; we did a collection of glass on each table.
The candlelight did much to illuminate the glass icicles in the lindens. A few white laser cut plastic lanterns with a votive inside contrast with the icicles. The walk to the door was warmly and invitingly lit.
A pair of garlic shaped steel tuteurs covered in pearl garland are illuminated courtesy of a light sphere at the bottom. The surface of the pot is mulched in white recycled and tumbled bottle glass. Very dressy. It was a good day to stay late.
