Christmas on the Terrace

December 9, 2009 · Filed under design · Tagged Christmas, holidays

It was a fairly warm weekend, and  I thought that I had better get the terrace in Toronto tarted up for Christmas/winter. It has been a very mild autumn, and my ferns were still not dead.

But it was getting colder, and there is a chance of snow this week, so I decided that I should get it done while it was still warmish. It is also getting very busy at work (equals more hours) and I might run out of time before the ground freezes.

I like a very clean simple arrangement in my two big urns. This year I chose to have a mass of curly willow. The key is to have it really full, most people under buy the quantity needed. There are 50 branches per urn in these arrangements. By using just the branches I am avoiding that age-old problem of evergreens lasting all winter. You know, the one where the branches look old and dry in March, but it is still too early to plant for spring. These urns will look good right till April. I could add some forced forsythia, and some pansies at the base in April, and I wouldn’t have to completely redo it.

We also put out a few Christmas baubles. These are just a mix of gold and silver plastic balls from the dollar store. These can take the harsh winters, this is actually the third year I have used them, they have held up really well.

We also hung some  icicles from the tree.  These also are plastic, from the dollar store, they can take the cold and it does not matter if the wind smashes them against the tree or each other,  they will not break.

I would like to have hung more, but our ladder only goes so high.

Here it is, just as it started getting dark. The light shines on the icicles. Prettier in person, of course!