Foraged Fall Decorating

With fall in full force here in Minnesota, we are offering up a few ideas for repurposing your old flower bed remnants into easy and affordable DIY fall home decor projects. 

Our blooms may have faded from yellow & pink to orange & brown, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find beauty in them. From the fiery red dogwood branches to crisp, green Norway Pine boughs, there is beauty all around us this time of year. If your home has an outdoor brick planter or basket, those can be filled with arrangements of your own creation. Start by taking a walk right outside your door and see if any of your old ornamental grasses or flowers have dried and could be repurposed as part of your planter design. Pumpkins, gourds, twigs, and dried flowers can all be collected and utilized both in and outdoors. Have fun getting creative!

It’s the time of the season when many of us like to start our yuletide decorating. Natural items such as birch twigs, pinecones, branches adorned with red or white berries, and boughs of all varieties are plentiful outside. Take a family walk through a park or in the woods and do a little foraging for a few of these items, or pick them up at your local nursery and make an event out of designing your fall and winter arrangements. Then, reward yourself with a cup of cocoa (or mulled wine) fireside when your project is complete! 

Flower boxes aren’t the only thing you can “spruce” up this time of year. Bedeck your mailbox with some ribbons and bells. Dig out your old, rustic wooden skis, sleds, or ice skates and place them on your front porch alongside a blanket-clad rocking chair. Hang a wreath on your door that you made yourself. Here’s how! There are numerous ways to spread a little holiday cheer as we enter into late fall and winter. Rather than composting or letting your summer flowers be reclaimed by nature, give them a second life in your DIY seasonal decorations.