Eco Friendly Yuletide
Have you ever wondered what happens when you miss the tinsel in the tree in your front yard after the holidays are over? Or why your outdoor lights always seem to get broken faster than the ones in the house? If there is anyone that deserves the gift of consideration this year, it is the world outside your door. Keep going to discover environmentally-friendly holiday decorations for the great outdoors that won’t break the budget.
Why not combine decoration with a touch of migratory assistance? The ingredients are right at hand. Mix peanut butter, cooking grease and birdseed and smear the thick mixture into some pinecones. Tie the cones at the top with some biodegradable garden hemp and hang them liberally from a tree in your yard. These feeders are decorative and assist the birds that don’t usually find freely-offered sustenance, such as crows and ravens. Add a squirrel feeder and a stop for hummingbirds to the tree and your happy holidays rest stop is complete. Increase the holiday spirit with a wood-burned sign, or one painted with environmentally safe paints. These signs have the added benefit of being large enough that they are hard to forget when you are putting things away.
Do you or someone in your neighborhood have a holly shrub? Try this one: Don’t trim it in the spring, summer, or autumn. Wait, instead, until about three weeks before the holidays. Tie the resultant sprigs of rich green and brilliant red into bundles along the railings of your porch or make a seasonal arbor for your freestanding swing. These can also bring a bit of holiday cheer if you choose to re-root a few in an outdoor pot, and you’ll have your own supply for next season. Mixed in with some decorative squash, these bright and cheerful branches can also demonstrate the changing of the seasons.
Utilize some of the longer holly whips to create your own earth-friendly wreath. The branches are flexible enough after cutting to weave them together into several different sorts of wreath, from small to large, and they will stay green for several weeks with no chemical assistance.
If you have other seasonal berries or foliage available, mix it in. Hang bunches of elderberry from your porch railings or stud your home-made wreath with russet apples. Put out colorful mixed corn for the displaced deer in your area. Consider, just for the winter, even leaving food out for the less desirable animals, such as raccoons. You can utilize ceramic or hollowed pumpkins as food and water bowls for your new friends. If you feed the critters in your area, consider decorating the bowls you use with holiday themes. Remember to do your research! Some plants are poisonous to animals if they are accidentally ingested.
Consider gathering leaves as they change and collecting the pinecones when you go walking. These can be utilized in your decorating efforts as well. You can create breathtaking garlands for your posts by stringing holly berries with a needle. Use these to tie some well-preserved pinecones to the corners of your light post or around the columns at your porch entryway. Alternatively, press the leaves and string them along with the berries, either weaving the thread through the leaves so that they hang flat or puncturing them at the stem so that they dangle and sway in the wind. This can leave a beautiful effect in viewers’ minds.
There are many more sociable ways to bring the holiday season out of doors this year. Look around you, see the beauty of the world, and set out to bring the holidays to your yard in an environmentally conscious, eco-centered way this year. The rewards are worth it, if only in terms of watching your yard become a winter oasis for the creatures within range. The benefits of being environmentally sound in your decorating habits can offer reward year-round, with the added benefit of being beautiful.
