Detroit Garden Works | Deborah Silver & Co.

Making A Holiday Wreath

Wreath making is one of the great pleasures of the holiday season. Relative to other holiday decor projects, a wreath is small. A 30″ wreath will amply fill the space on a front door. A 30 ” diameter evergreen wreath can be decorated with all kinds of materials. A collection of pine cones or wood bits can be displayed on a wreath. Greens from the garden can be added to a purchased wreath. A wreath is a very personal expression, and anything from the garden that adds to that personality will make the end result all the more interesting. Green and beefy is a great base from which to start.

What happens next is up to you. White pine cones from the yard, a particularly interesting branch, a dried stem or leaf, a leftover hank of jute twine-you get the idea. Though the garden is in a dormant stage right now, there are so many beautiful bits waiting to be collected. In my yard, I have hellebore leaves, rose hips, dried fern fronds, boxwood, dry magnolia leaves, dry hydrangeas, arborvitae, rhododendron leaves, dogwood twigs, wisps of grass-you get the idea. In my garage at work I have boxes of other bits-stray pine cones, leftover stems of eucalyptus, random strands of string, leftover moss, wood plant stakes, sticks, and kraft packing materials. None of them are so swell on their own, but in concert with other like materials, something beautiful may emerge.

I will admit that I am a fan of birds in wreaths. Corn husk birds. Feathered birds. felted birds. Stick birds. What I like so much about them are their eyes-their expressions. Those birds looking back at me from their perch in the wreath is to me a symbol of gardening. Making eye contact with nature is what gardeners do. This wreath-chopped up birch branches, canola berries, bark wire, pine cones-and the birds.

I have a client for whom I make close to 20 wreaths-she sends them to friends and family for Christmas. I like the assignment. It gets me in the wreath making mood. Meaning that I set up my work space, I cover it with all sorts of materials. I also am sure I have wire, and florist’s picks. Materials that are too heavy to glue directly to a wreath need an attachment vehicle-a pick. I like some materials to float off of the wreath surface. I pick these materials too. Fresh twigs I wire up in bunches, and wire yet again to the wreath frame
.

Wreaths that I make for clients has every element wired in or glued. I use a professional grade glue gun with a type of glue that never lets loose. Be so careful with a glue gun. That melted glue can produce really nasty burns-I speak from experience. I keep a glass of cold water on my worktable. The moment I feel heat, I quench. At home, I stuff my materials in. Should they fall out in a storm, I can make repairs. The wreaths that go out tomorrow to California, Vermont, Maryland and Florida have been glued up, and will be zip tied into the floor of their boxes.

A wreath holiday wreath is the size of a dollhouse. Make sure the scale of your materials look comfortable with the scale of your wreath. I buy handmade wreaths from my local farmers market. If you are in my area, Dan Prielipp is a regular exhibitor at the Oakland County Farmers Market. His wreaths are fresh, and exuberant. They are rarely perfectly round, but any green holiday item can be tamed with your pruners, should you feel the need.

Once I start this wreath project, I rely on Detroit Garden Works to provide me with special materials. In January, Rob and I will shop for materials for the 2014 holiday season. Those little bits that are perfect for wreaths will be on my list.

There are those gardeners that hang a wreath on their front door every season. I am not one of them. I save all of my energy for the wreath I will hang at home for the holidays. The winter. Making that once a year wreath in December does me a world of good. Welcoming my company at the front door with a remembrance of the garden is my idea of saying hello.

The wreath tutorial will have to wait until this project is finished and shipped. But pictures can help to spark an idea or direction.

Little holiday projects can have enormous impact. What you hang on your front door for the holidays should express your own special point of view about nature. A wreath might provide a display venue for a year’s worth of collecting from the garden. This wreath features a bracket fungus from a tree in my tree lawn. Though the tree was dangerously rotted, and had to be cut down, I saved this. Though I was shocked at the loss of the tree, I was pleased to place this remnant of the story in a wreath.

If you have never made a wreath from the bits and pieces from your garden, I would highly recommend it. Making something beautiful of a collection of memories is satisfying indeed.

Posted on: December 2, 2013 9 Comments

The Details: A Story Board

Part 3 of my tutorial about the construction of winter containers has to do with bringing the special details to life. Evergreens stuck into a foam form the base of the winter container. A structure upon which to build. A centerpiece, no matter whether it is tied up tight and of a piece, or stuck individually, provides an element upon which to focus. Up next-the details.

A blank canvas can be lush in and of itself, but it asks for those details that make for an individual design. The third element of any winter pot-those thoughtfully constructed and expressed finishing details. Pistou is a vegetable soup of French origin, , made with vegetables, various beans, and small macaroni. This is an overview- their are many individual recipes. Upon serving, the soup is topped with a large dollop of basil pesto which is showered with grated parmesan cheese. The addition of the pesto and its parmesan is an individually imagined finish. Pistou has no end of recipes, should you look it up on line. Individual chefs individually imagine and cook the soup, and finish it to their taste. The finish of your winter containers should reflect your own particular point of view.

A winter container has several elements, each of which are interpreted by the gardener in charge. The finish is about the fine tuning. The little bits that take construction to another level. Those little bits can be imagined, and sorted out in the shelter provided by the garage. These winter pots included light rings on stands of Rob’s invention, stout cut twigs, garland lights, big C-9 light strands, and glass drops.

Summer topiary forms which provides a climbing venue for mandevillea vines in the summer are strung with garland light vines for the winter.

A thick evergreen garland is wrapped with grapevine. Loose and loopy. The materials are as subtle as they are simple.

This container features one of Rob’s light rings constructed on a stand. The branches we cut from a tree at our Branch property. The glass drops will pick up the light from a string of 50 clear C-9 lights. Part of the story board of these winter container involve light. No, you cannot see the wires or the bulbs. The big idea detailed on this story board-the twigs, the glass, and the light. A story board is a group of images representing an idea. Any creative expression should tell a story-from start to finish.

winter garland

The story? Welcome to winter.

Posted on: November 27, 2013 5 Comments

Filed Under: Detroit Garden Works, Winter, container planting, Holiday Tagged With: the winter garden, fresh cut twigs, winter lighting, winter containers, holiday lighting, holiday decor

Sticking It: A Foam Story

Our late fall weather took a nose dive a few days ago. Just yesterday, it was 15 degrees when I came into work. Bitter cold like that over a period of time can make any soil left in a container turn rock hard. I have had gardeners in, wondering how they will get their winter containers done. We do not stick any of our greens into the soil in a pot. Evergreen boughs installed in the soil have only one direction possible-that is straight up. We build forms from florist’s foam that fit tight into the pot. The foam will stand above the rim of the pot, enabling the placement of greens to the side, and on an angle. Once a form is built, you can reuse it, or patch it. But another great feature of working in foam is the fact that frozen soil is not a problem.

I try to remember to take 4 ” or so of soil out of the pot when doing the fall cleanup. The bottom layer of the foam will sit down into the pot. The top layer gets the evergreen stems. Very large pots may ask for more layers of foam. Given very large pots, or very tall centerpieces, we may wrap the foam with steel wire.

We glue our layers of foam together with hot melt glue. Since the glue cools and sets up fairly quickly, we usually have 2 glue guns going at once. If this sounds like way to much work, we make forms to order all the time.

There are plenty of variations on this theme. A long window box may ask for 3 forms that can be wedged together upon installation. Odd shaped containers may ask for foam bricks that can be glued up, rather than sheets. Some forms are thicker at the back than the front, if the materials at the back will be heavier in the back. This material enables the actual sticking of the greens to be done indoors. I would dread having to insert branches into half frozen soil when the temperature is much below freezing. This would make the job miserable.

Gardeners are routinely victimized by the weather, but in this particular instance, there is no need. Being comfortable means the ability to concentrate on the task at hand, rather than the wind chill. Should you want to move a branch over or up an inch, that adjustment is easy. You can control the angle and direction of the placement with ease. If you make a move you don’t like, you can try a different move.

Much better this mess on the garage floor, than on the front porch. This is easy to sweep up.

This is the third year for this form. We actually don’t make so many holes in the foam. We sharpen the woody stems of the greens with pruners. This makes for a tight fit. We look at the green topside of a branch to decide on the placement of the next. We do not place the woody stems close together. This helps to conserve material without sacrificing a lush look.

Transporting an arrangement this large takes some doing. And the heaviest stems or centerpieces are put in once the foam is in place. Once you get the hang of sticking the foam, there will be no stopping you.

If you haven’t done your winter containers yet, don’t despair. A little simple technology can help make it happen. I did post lots of pictures of winter pots on the Detroit Garden Works facebook page today, should you be interested.

Posted on: November 25, 2013 23 Comments

Filed Under: Winter, container planting, Holiday, Detroit Garden Works Tagged With: constructing winter pots., winter container arrangements

The Dogs At Chase Tower

My company Detroit Garden Works is in the garden ornament business. We buy and sell ornament for the garden – new, vintage, and antique and repurposed, from sources in the US and Europe. What is a garden ornament? Any object deliberately placed in a landscape or garden. This definition would include pergolas, sundials, sculptures, bird feeders, benches, trellises, staddle stones, topiary forms, grapevine or stone spheres. Fountains and water features. Found objects, fencing, topiary plants. Espaliered trees, arbors, and stone cisterns. Tables and chairs. Rain water collection barrels and boot scrapers. Containers are garden ornament. They may be handmade Italian terra cotta, or galvanized buckets. They may be old apple or tulip crates. They may be contemporary Belgian stoneware, or cast stone versions of classical garden urns. They may be lead, or steel containers from Branch. They may be concrete, or wood, or cast iron.

A garden ornament may be as modest as a gazing globe on a steel stand, or as elaborate as a waterfall and pond. No matter the subject or scale, a garden ornament makes a statement about the taste and interests of gardener in charge. The inclination to ornament or decorate a space is natural. People decorate their houses with objects that help to create that atmosphere which feels like home. How a home is furnished says something about the taste, values and priorities of the person who lives there. There may be objects treasured for their history. One person might decorate their place with art, and that art could be sculpture, or paintings, or quilts or hand painted china. Buck collects vintage doll heads, typewriters, scientific instruments, and accordions. His personal spaces are just like him, as they reflect who he is, and how he sees things.

A landscape or garden is no different. A garden endowed with ornament says something very personal about the garden maker. An ornament can infuse a landscape with an atmosphere of history, mystery, or whimsy. There are no end of gardens where roses are growing. But the garden that has roses growing in profusion over a picket fence has a much different feeling than the garden that features roses trained as single ball topiaries, planted in orangerie boxes. A 19th century cast iron bench is not just a place to sit. It is an expression of an aesthetic much different than what is created by 3 rough hewn slabs of granite assembled as a bench.

So why this discussion of decoration? Once the plants in the garden shed their leaves and go dormant, a landscape with no ornament can be bleak place indeed. I am thinking about this, as we have just begun our winter and holiday decorating. Topiary forms, arbors, and pergolas will get lights wound around them. Doorways will be festooned with garland. Containers will get winter coats and hats. Wreaths will be decorated, and hung on the front door. Lights in every shape and color will be hung from the eaves, or stuffed into the pots. A bench will get a cushion of fresh greens. The trees will be hung with grapevine and light garlands. A Japanese maple decorated with glass drops will glitter all winter long. A sundial will get a wreath boa.

As for the dogs at Chase Tower, they have a carpet of greens. The dogs look like they have just paraded through a stand of yellow twig dogwood, their leashes trailing behind them. They have topknots and collars that are one part holiday, and 2 parts winter. Is this really what was in my mind when we decorated these pots? Yes. Decorating that tells a story will have an impact. There is an amusing and charming story being told that will make the winter a little easier to bear.

See what I mean?

I do see the decorating outdoors for the holiday and winter as a form of gardening. A trowel or garden spade is useless this time of year. The sight of them on the shelf, dusty rather than dirty, is irritating. On the other hand, a pair of pruners and a spool of good garden twine might be all the tools you need to decorate the garden for winter.

Woof!

Posted on: November 17, 2013 15 Comments

Filed Under: Detroit Garden Works, Winter, container planting, Holiday, Garden Ornament Tagged With: seasonal decor, winter containers, Garden Ornament

Making A Holiday Wreath

The Details: A Story Board

Sticking It: A Foam Story

The Dogs At Chase Tower

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