1 week Ago By BBC Gardeners' World Magazine
In the depths of winter, fresh greenery from the garden is just the thing to lift the spirits. This blue, gold and green Christmas wreath combines materials that can be foraged from the garden or on winter walks. Don't forget to follow the forager's code: don't pick on nature reserves, only pick from abundant patches and only pick one in 20 seedheads you find.
Don't worry if you can't find the exact plant materials used here – you can improvise using seedheads, foliage and branches from your own garden and beyond. Follow these easy steps to make your own blue, gold and green Christmas wreath. You Will Need Step 1 Go to a well-ventilated area, or outside, to spray your foliage.
We sprayed olive twigs and half of the pine cones with gold spray paint and the eucalyptus and sea holly with blue paint. Ensure they're properly dry before you start assembling your wreath. Use spray paints that contains low or no VOCs (volatile organic compounds), to minimise the impact on the environment.
Step 2 For the base, take the birch twigs and flex them into a round shape, the size that you want your wreath to be – ours was about 40cm wide. Wrap reel wire around the bottom-right third of the circle, so the ends of the twigs are secure and the tops of the twigs form an upward spray of shoots on the top right. Step 3 Lay the sheet moss over and around the bottom half of the birch base and then bind it in place with the reel wire.
Spray this with water so it's moist. Step 4 Take small mixed bunches of the foliage and place onto the wreath. As each bunch is placed along the moss, secure the ends of the stems with reel wire.
Bind around each cluster six times to make sure it's secure. Lay one bunch slightly facing into the centre and the next one facing out. Pack them in quite densely for a full appearance.
Any gaps can be filled by poking loose foliage directly into the moss. Step 5 Take a piece of the florist's stub wire and wind around the base of a pine cone, leaving a long stalk. Poke this stalk through the wreath and when the wire comes out of the moss on the reverse side, fold it back on itself to attach it securely.
Repeat with more pine cones..
