Gardening : Winter : Holiday Window Boxes : Home & Garden Television

Decorating your window boxes is a great way to change your home exterior with the seasons. In the winter, here's how to turn dreary bins into colorful containers:

Liven up the holidays with vibrant, colorful window boxes, using garland, ornaments and ribbon.

Materials

window box(es)

twigs or cuttings from trees and shrubs

garlands (artificial or live)

eyebolts (two for each window box, for cold climates only)

wire

embellishments (such as ornaments and beaded garland and sticks)

ribbon (at least four yards long)

floral or hyacinth sticks, dowels or popsicle sticks

First, clean out the window box. Rather than pulling out all the plants, just chop off their tops. This will keep your plants in place and leave your soil intact.

Figure A

If you live in a cold climate, here's a great tip: stop by your hardware store and pick up some eyebolts. They're little metal bolts with a loop at the top. Stick one in the soil (eyehole up) at each end of your window box and water them (figure A). They'll freeze right into place, creating solid anchors. Then take wire and run it through the eyebolts. Now you have something to hang your embellishments on.

Figure B

Next, put in the foundation, which is the greens. You have two choices--using fresh greens that you'll throw out at the end of the season or buying artificial garland that looks real and can be reused every year (figure B).

Fluff the greens, manipulating the branches to create fullness. Secure the garland using floral sticks, popsicle sticks, a dowel or twigs from the garden. Place the sticks into your soil and wrap a piece of the garland around each stake. This will secure the greens in place. Make sure the garland spills over the edge of your window box so that it creates a more dramatic effect.

Once the greens are in place, you're ready to embellish. Weave beaded garland into the greens, making sure it drips over the side. Secure them by wrapping a portion of the strands around a sprig from the greens and bend the sprig to secure the beads in place.

Figure C

Once the base is complete, add embellishments (figure C). Start with your largest items and secure them in place using wire and a floral stick. Draw the wire through the ornament, then wrap it around the stick. Anchor the stick into the soil.

Once the largest ornaments are placed, continue adding your embellishments, down to the smallest size. To help add some height and to help bring out color, add some beaded twigs. Separate each stem to give it volume, then insert it in and around the box.

Figure D

Make the final bow

The bow is the hardest part. It can be expensive to buy, but if you do it yourself, you'll save a lot of money. To make your own, take a piece of ribbon about four yards long. Figure out how long you want the tail. Measure that out; then make the first loop about six inches long and gather the ends of the loop together, holding it tightly (figure D). Then make a second loop, gather it together and twist it at the base. Lay it flat, adjacent (at a 180-degree angle) to the first loop (figure E).

Figure E

Figure F

Figure G

Figure H

Continue making loops and twisting them at the base until you have five loops altogether (figure F). Wire the center of the bow to a floral or hyacinth stick (figure G). Wrap the excess wire around the stick, and drive the stick right into the window box. Fluff the bow up a bit, and you've got a beautiful bow to add to your window box (figure H).

Now this takes some time and effort, but it's well worth adding a festive flair to the holidays!

Also in this Episode

Rebecca's Garden : Episode REB-664
•	Holiday Window Boxes
•	Forcing Paperwhites
•	Say 'Hello' to the Holidays With a Festive Wreath
•	Fire-Starting Kit from the Garden
•	Pressed Flower Gifts From the Garden

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