Sierra Foothill Garden

Decorating with natural elements for a fresh New Year!

After the holidays, I like to decorate my house in a fresh new way sometimes.  I bring out my favorite cobalt blue and aqua glass combination and if it’s snowy and cold, I lay the furry sheepskin over the back of the couch. This year I’m using the insulators that I found last spring at a yard sale and mixing them with a new color,.. red!

Bowl of berries
These Pyracantha coccinea or Firethorn berries are a bright spot on the steep bank to the south of the house.  Why not bring some inside, I thought? I put on gloves and gathered a few sprigs along with some cedar and a bit of blue to match the Rainbow bowl used as a low vase. I also spotted some myrtle berries I could try.

The painting here was done by my grandmother. It goes, doesn’t it?

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Create a cool centerpiece
Down the center of the redwood table over a plaid blanket, I placed an old barn board to hold the insulators, each with a small light inside from a string of battery powered lights not used last month. Mixed with cedar branches and the berries pleases me next to the lit aqua glass.

Cobalt and myrtle
The myrtle berries fill a cobalt blue vase of my Grandmother’s, perfect for a small corner somewhere.  The myrtle, M. communis ‘Compacta’ is evergreen here and just now big enough to produce berries for the first time.

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Brighten up a window Then I spied my large glass canister which had held terrarium plants until recently. Filled with the berries displayed like fine specimens, it will jazz up the windowsill this month.

Here are more berries that could be used:
Christmas berry or Toyon
Nandina
Holly
Redberry
Rose hips
Madrone
Snowberry
Cotoneaster

It is said that every room should have a bit of red in it and I agree!