Holiday Decorating With Larry

Now that Thanksgiving is over, my attention turns to Holiday decorating. As has been the tradition for several years, I head to southern Minnesota to set-up my niece Kelsey’s Dept. 56 North Pole Villages on the Friday after Thanksgiving. This year we both came back up to Minneapolis on Friday night and she and I did a wreath decorating segment during Saturday Morning 5 Eyewitness News. After that it was two days of decorating my house inside and out – something we both love doing. I’ll show you some of what we did during the week ahead.

Here is an easy project that Kelsey did on Sunday afternoon and took home with her when she was done. She started with a whole bunch of left over ribbon that I had in a box. She cut 12” lengths and made simple loops that were tied off with floral wire. Those loops were wired into the wreath with the round part of the loop facing towards the center and the tails facing out.

She mixed about 8 different kinds of ribbon together until she had the wreath completed.It was easy to do and can be completed in about an hour. Now she just has to figure out where it is going to get hung.

Make your day a good one.

Winterizing Your Outdoor Pots

The mild weather has made it perfect for getting my outdoor pots and containers ready for winter. It’s time to spruce up the planters with spruce tops.
For those of you not familiar with what these are, spruce tops are swamp spruce. They are cut in northern Minnesota and Canada. These spruce don’t grow very tall and once cut; grow back allowing them to be cut again in the future. They’re a great renewable resource. They are sold in bundles.

I like to take the bundle, cut an inch or so off the bottom of each one and put them in a bucket of water overnight to hydrate before I push them in the soil of my pots and containers. Once you have your container “planted” with the spruce tops, there are any number of things you can to do give them unique finishing touches. You can add other evergreens such as cedar to soften the look, branches of red twig dogwood, curly willow, dried hydrangea stems, bright red permanent berry stems or even branches of magnolia.


You can mix and match any of these for an endless list of combinations. Here are a couple of pictures of some fun and different planters – these are not at my house. The one is loaded with hydrangea, pomegranates and magnolia – some of the items were sprayed with just a hint of gold floral spray paint to give it a different look. The other planter has bright weatherproof balls in with jewel tone accents.


For my window boxes, I used a few jumbo spruce tops (jumbo means taller) and some standard spruce tops. I left these plain since I will add lights later on. By my side door, I added some magnolia, and on the patio some clumps of red twig dogwood and cedar branches were added.


It is my front door that I “funked” out this year. I wanted something totally different and new there - something that I had never seen done before. I started with 3 rolls of copper tubing. One was 1/4” and two were 3/8” inch. I pushed one end into the soil in the pot and then bent and twisted it into a unique shape – it bends really easy. I pushed the second piece in the soil and sculpted it around the first. That step was repeated with the third piece. I then took the standard spruce tops, cut each one in half and filled the pot. I wanted the spruce tops low so they didn’t block the tubing. I will add some lights to the pot later on.

This was quick and easy – it really does look like more work then it was. Now that should give my neighbors something to talk about.

Make your day a good one.

Turn the Water Back On

The last two days have felt nothing like November – driving around with the windows down…nice!

I chatted with 5 Eyewitness News Meteorologist Dave Dahl about the warm weather and the fact that October was the driest in 30 years. So far this year we are 2.5” of rain below average.

If you planted trees, shrubs or evergreens this year or last year, I would highly recommend that you get out the hose and give them a good watering on Thursday before we see some snow fall.

It’s very important that plants – especially those recently planted go into the winter hydrated and that the soil is moist. Don’t think for a moment that whatever snowfall we get that melts will do the trick. These plants need a good watering.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but that may mean dragging the hose out again and turning the water on to the faucets. All that effort will be worth it.

Make your day a good one.

Dinner Party

It’s been a while since I posted here. Now that it’s November and the yard and garden has been officially put to bed for the winter, my postings will not be as frequent. In the weeks ahead, I plan on posting tips on outdoor decorating for the winter, holiday decorating tips and even some tips on throwing a party or two.

Speaking of which, I had a dinner party for eight friends last Saturday. I’m always looking for something unique to make the table stand out. Good food becomes great food with the right presentation and nothing sets the mood like a creatively set table. I like mixing old and new or traditional and contemporary to create a table setting with unpredictable interest. My inspiration often comes from nature.

In the setting shown here, which is the one I used last Saturday, I took large landscape paver slabs, put little felt protectors on the bottom to keep them from scratching the table and put one at each place setting like a place mat. The center of the table was filled with an assortment of pumpkins, squash, gourds and bittersweet. The simple white dinnerware, flatware and such were all placed on the landscape slab. It was not much work, but created a big “wow”.

If you want more great decorating tips, this Saturday from 10:00-4, I’ll be making a rare public appearance at Bachman’s on Lyndale during their Project Holiday Event. I’ll be showing some more great ideas for table settings, tips on decorating a mantle, Christmas tree decorating tips, plus a number of other ideas. So grab a girlfriend or two and stop by, it should be great fun.

Make your day a good one.

Bulb Planting in Small Spaces

The weekend is here and I need to finish planting the rest of my spring blooming bulbs that I didn’t get to last weekend. If your space is limited, here is an easy way to get more blooms in less space – it’s called layering. Since various bulbs are planted at different depths, this is how it works.

First, dig a hole about 11” deep. Place tulips in the hole, cover with some dirt. On top of the dirt, place some daffodils which are about planted about 9” deep. Fill with more dirt and put crocus at about 4” deep.
Come spring, you will have lots of blooms in not much space – so think spring now! You have several more weeks to get those spring blooming bulbs planted, but don’t wait – who knows what the weather will bring.

Tomorrow (Saturday) I will be on during 5 Eyewitness News Weekend Morning between 8 and 9 a.m. showing some techniques and ideas for pumpkin carving.

Make your weekend a good one.

Bringing the Fall Indoors

Last night I got around to bringing a little fall indoors. Usually I have this done earlier in the month….so I guess I’m just a bit behind this year. I strongly feel that the key to bringing the outdoors in and creating great looking indoor displays is keeping it simple and using just a few items to create impact. This is true not just during the fall, but any time of year.

Here are four examples of what I did. All of these combined took about 15 minutes to complete.

In my dining room, I took a large white platter with some grapes on it – any oversized platter will do and anchored it with one large decorative squash. A pile of small gourds were placed on the platter and two of two different small squash. Some bittersweet was tucked in to finish the look. Note how the gourds and each squash are grouped together – this is what creates the impact - far more then just placing everything randomly.

On the buffet in the dining room is an amber compote filled with mini pumpkins.
A small squash anchors the display at the foot of the compote. Most people think of putting fall items only in wicker. They look great in glass or ceramics too.
On the kitchen table, I grabbed a handful of oak and linden leaves from my yard and sprinkled a few down the middle of the table. Three brown bowls were placed on top of the leaves with three identically sized pumpkins – one in each bowl. All the stems of the pumpkins face the same direction. Very simple and the repetition creates the impact.

On my kitchen counter I took a tall vase, dropped in a couple of the mini pumpkins and then some larger stems of bittersweet were added. The bittersweet starts inside the vase and extends out. The vase was then filled with mini pumpkins all the way to the top. You could do this in any size vase or large glass bowl.

Wow….it took me longer to type this then it did to actually do the projects.

Enjoy your day and bring a little fall indoors - it’s a great way to forget about the snow that’s in the forecast.

Clean Up Time

…and all good things must come to an end. That’s what you can say about this gardening season after two nights of very cold weather.

This weekend it is time to clean up – removing the now dead annuals and getting the leaves raked up and into the compost.

I like to think of this time of year as not just the end of the 2006 garden season but the beginning of the 2007 gardening season. Nothing kicks off spring like beautiful tulips, daffodils and crocus. Now is the time to get those planted. The most important thing to keep in mind and most often done wrong is not planting the bulbs deep enough.

Review these caresheets for planning your spring bulbs:
Success with Tulips
Success with Daffodils
Spring Bulbs Spacing and Depth

Also, create clusters of one color of bulb for impact when they bloom in the spring.

I guess I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.

Make your weekend a good one – warmer weather is on its way.