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December 20, 2012 · Leave a Comment

This Holiday Decoration is for the Birds

How to

holiday decoration finished

Not perfect, but fun.

twig ballsSince the summer, when I went on a garden tour in Hudson, Wis. (a highly recommended tour) and saw these twig balls, I’ve been interested in making some kind of twig decor. You can buy them in many nurseries and garden centers, but I wanted to try my hand at making them. First I checked youtube, where I found one decent video, but when I tried to replicate the instructions, it was a complete fail. My twig circles kept boinging open.

orb with greeneryI gave up until I went to the Rice County Master Gardener holiday party, where one of the gardeners (Karen) showed me how she did the circles. Using large branches (willow or red twig dogwood work well), she lashed two branches together at the thick end using 18 gauge wire. The branches should be facing the opposite direction, so you have one very long branch, which is tied in the middle.  Then, bend the branches around so that they form a circle. You can twist them around each other and then lash the ends together, using wire. Make four circles using this method. The circles need to be very close in size. Then, fit the circles together to make an orb. You may need to use a bit more wire to keep everything together. My orb was not nearly as neat and shapely as Karen’s but it was an something close to an orb.

computer and grapefruit ornament for holiday decorationI decided it might make an interesting outdoor ornament, if I dolled it up into a bird feeder. I started by adding greenery, which was pretty easy to wind into the twigs. Earlier this week, I watched a video from the Daily Connoisseur on making ornaments using dried citrus. This was very easy to do and cute. I took my dried grapefruit ornaments, added dental floss, so they could be hung from the orb, spread them with peanut butter (make sure the citrus slices are not too thin — one of mine broke during the peanut butter speading), then dipped them in bird seed. I also used a margarine tub top in the center of the feeder/orb. The top is also spread with peanut butter and covered with bird seed, and I used duck tape to attach the tub top to the branches in the center of the orb.

holiday decoration with bird seedI added a thick holiday ribbon at the top of the orb so it could be hung from our maple tree out front. I’m not sure how long this will last and I plan to monitor it today because the wind is supposed to pick up. What fun projects have you done this holiday season?

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Are you trying winter sowing this year? Now is a g Are you trying winter sowing this year? Now is a good time to sow perennials. Winter sowing is a way to get more plants at less cost by sowing seeds outdoors in mini-greenhouses in winter. The best greenhouse is a one-gallon milk jug. (Edit: leave the caps off! This was my first attempt at winter sowing and I did it wrong. The podcast episode explains why.) 

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A few photos all reeled together that mostly weren’t on instagram. Wishing you all a Happy New Year and a bloom-filled, homegrown 2023. 

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#holidaydecor #holidayhouseplants #amaryllis #norfolkislandpine #paperwhites
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#lemoncypress #holidayhouseplants #houseplantslover #coldclimategardening #mngardener
Extra! Extra! My latest newsletter for cold-climat Extra! Extra! My latest newsletter for cold-climate gardeners is out. About every six weeks, I send seasonal info on plants and garden tasks plus lots of links to gardening resources, books to read and more. 

The current issue includes a cute idea for a hostess gift for the holidays (pictured), a free download on recommended tomato varieties for northern gardeners and some musings on talking about gardening with folks suffering from dementia (lots of memories grow in the garden!) It's free, not too long and only comes out once in a while. 

Link to the current issue in bio plus stories. 
Pix: the hostess gift, my mom's amazing blue hydrangeas, one of the recommended tomato varieties (can you guess which one?) 
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#holidaydecor #coldclimategardening #mngardening #besttomatoesever #gardeninspo
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The book is about 85 percent how-to for gardeners in USDA Zones 3 and 4 and 15 percent history of organized horticulture in Minnesota. It's still available and selling. It's always a thrill when gardeners tell me that they read the book and it helped them. That's why garden writers write garden books (believe me, it isn't the money!). 

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