Each year to get into the holiday spirit I put up a small Christmas Tree.  I am familiar with the debate on whether a live tree or artificial tree is better.  Artificial can be used over and over, but the production requires manufacturing facilities and they eventually go into the land fill.  The live trees are biodegradable but they are cut at the base and will die.  Also, dry pine needles are a fire hazard.

I have skipped this debate by using small potted plants in the place of a tree. Some years I use a small potted evergreen but this year I went in a different direction.  This year I started planning ahead for what I want to plant in the spring.  One of these plans is for more lavender in the birdbath garden.  From there I went and looked till I found a small potted lavender plant already trimmed into a tree shape. 

If you do not like lavender a rosemary plant works very well. Other plants such as small evergreens work great too.  There is really no rule here on what type of plant someone may want to dress up.  It could even be cactus if that is what someone wants to use.  Personally, my only rule is that I plan to relocate the plant outside in the spring.

The secret to turning a potted topiary into a Christmas tree is just decorations. Each year I reuse the same miniature ornament set I picked up at a craft store years ago.  This set came with tiny plastic ornaments, battery powered LED lights, a plastic bead strand, and a little star for the top.

The plant sits in a bowl to catch any water that runs through.  It gets moved occasionally to sit with the other plants in the grow lamp.  The rest of the time it sits in the dining room being festive.  It also has its own hardware cloth cage to keep the cats from digging in the dirt.

I have noticed it has grown a bit since I first bought it.  There are shoots of new growth sticking out at the sides. I could trim these to keep the plant in a tree shape or let it go since we are only a few days away from Christmas.  After the holidays I will remove the decorations and store them for next year.  Then I will put the plant in with the citrus trees  under the grow lamp.  As soon as it is warm enough, I will plant it in the garden.

Some plants cannot be brought in during the winter.  Some are planted in the ground but still benefit from a little help over the winter.  One of these is our fig tree.  I have had this tree for many years and each winter it dies down to practically nothing.  This means it has to start all over again in spring.  This year I decided to try to help it keep some of its size over the winter. 

I took some metal plant supports a friend of a friend gave us. I also took the familiar hardware cloth and florist wire from the indoor plant project. I placed four of the plant supports around the fig and drove them deep into the ground with a sledge hammer.  I then took the hardware cloth and florist wire and created a low cage around the base of the fig tree.  I only had enough hardware cloth for the two longest sides.  The two other sides I created with multiple rows of florist wire. I also tied a line of wire around the top of the supports to add more strength to the whole structure.  I then stuffed this cage with leftover straw from the fall decorations and some oak leaves from the yard.  Hopefully this adds enough protection and insulation from the elements that the fig will start out bigger in the spring.
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I did drive the four plant supports rather deep.  And that is OK as I do not plan to remove these for a long time.  While I do plan to remove the insulating straw and leaves in the spring, these metal posts will serve as great supports for a tall covering of bird netting come summer. 

Just in time for another DIY Wednesday post, I realized we had found another use for a part of the old grill.  Like all grills this one had a large grate they you place the food on to cook.  We have used this part to solve a utensil storage problem we had.  Now instead of an unorganized drawer of hard to find cooking utensils we have a hanging storage rack.

This was not the hardest of upcycle projects so this post is rather short. We simply cleaned up and painted the grate.  We then attached it with some spacers so it was not completely flat against the wall but it is secure.  This does not move or swing or even wiggle.  We then took some heavy gauge copper wire and turned it into hooks.
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From these hooks we can hang most of out utensils and of course a braid of garlic from the garden.

Not all the gardening comes to a halt in winter.  I addition to growing garlic and other winter crops, some of the plants come inside.  I have dwarf citrus trees that I knew would not survive a winter outside. Also, both the lemon and cumquat had large unripen fruit that I did not want to waste.
I will give one warning here. Indoor gardening requires a little more advance planning and some additional gear compared to outdoor gardening.  I planned out where the plants would sit.  I cleared a warm spot in one corner of the house.  Being inside will keep the plant from freezing to death. But plants need more than just warmth to live.  They also need light. Even inside near a window, there would never be enough sunlight during the darker winter months to keep citrus plants growing strong all winter.
The solution was to set up a grow lamp. 
Grow lamps do not have to be expensive to work well. I saw plenty online for a lot of money. Instead I bought one for about 20 bucks at the local garden store. It is a simple LED bulb on a clip-on heat lamp base.  But something tells me the plants will not care how the lamp looks compared to how it works. The LED bulb means it never gets hot and it does not use a lot of electricity.  I can leave this lamp on during the day and not worry about the power bill. And the fruit trees will still get enough hours of light to stay alive and maybe mature some fruit.
An additional preparation I had to make was to protect the plants from cats.  Anyone with house cats will know that some like to dig in potted plants.  This will kill the plant. It will also make a huge mess.  In order to prevent this. I built some screens to keep the cats out of the dirt.  These are built onto the planter with chicken wire or hardware cloth and florists wire. I cut the chicken wire and hardware cloth into strips and connected them over the pots and around the plant with small pieces of florist wire. This forms a small cage over the pot and around the base of the plant. I then fastened the “cage” to the pot with more florist wire.  This last step prevents the cats from lifting the barrier off the plant and digging under it.  I made sure to tuck in the ends of the wires so there are no sharp parts sticking up.
The cages are not very attractive but they are functional. I suppose I could have painted these a darker brown to make them blend in if the look really bothered me. Also, I do not think the plant is concerned with the look over the function of the cat barrier cage.   
The cats do still get something from this indoor garden arrangement.  I have been able to extend the lives of their cat grass by placing it in the lamp light.  And, I often find a cat “sunning” itself next to a fruit tree.
 

​This post is about 90% DIY and 10% garden.  Again, this year for Thanksgiving I made a cornucopia bread centerpiece.  This is a fun DIY project that makes an amazing yet affordable display.  This costs only a few cups of flour and other ingredients if you make the dough yourself.  The cornucopia itself takes about three hours from start to finish.  I usually set aside some time the night before to create this. While three hours may seem like a lot of time, remember that bread spends a lot of time in a bowl rising and requiring no direct attention.  So, there are parts of the process where we have an hour or half an hour to do almost anything else.  I would suggest setting a timer and using that time to relax, watch TV, or do anything else.
Step 1. Create the bread dough.  I simply looked up an ornamental bread dough recipe and backed off on the salt so it tastes a bit better. Homemade dough is more frugal than store-bought ready-made dough. Also, I can control the ingredients and amount of dough with a homemade option. Let the dough rise in a covered bowl.
Step 2. Create a form out of aluminum foil.  I made a cone out of foil, curled one end, and filled it with balls of wadded up foil. If the dough is ready, now is a good time to spray all the outside of this form with non-stick cooking spray. Set this on a cookie sheet that you will bake it on later.
Step 3 Get the dough after it has risen once and is ready to be worked.  Begin to roll pieces of it out on a floured surface. A rolling pin is a great tool for this step. Cut one big flat piece into the shape of the bottom of the cornucopia. Cut the other flattened pieces into strips.
Step 4. Set the form on the large flat dough piece.  Starting at the tail end and wrap the other dough strips around the form overlapping a little with the previous strip.  You may need water to “glue” the ends of the strips together.  Work from the tail toward the wide end.  Once the strips are at the part of the form that touches the cookie sheet, start placing the strips between the form and the large dough piece under the form.  Again, water can be used to stick them together. Work the strips all the way to the large end.
Step 5. Make three long round ropes of dough and braid them together into a long braid.  This will go around the opening on the large end.
Step 6. Let this all sit for another hour to rest. I would suggest covering this with a flour sack towel to keep dust off the raw dough.
Step 7. Baste the whole cornucopia with a beaten egg.  This will create the golden color as the bread bakes.
Step 8. This can now be baked per the dough instructions. Mine was to bake at 350F for 30 minutes. I usually check the temperature with a meat thermometer to see if the bread is at 200F.
Step 9. Once the cornucopia is baked it can be removed from the form.  While the bread is still warm, carefully remove the foil from the inside by pulling it out from the large end. 
This can be cooled and then stored covered till the next day when it can be arranged with other food for the centerpiece.
The small portion of this post that is garden related is inside the pumpernickel bread.  The recipe uses a little dried fennel seed and those were from the garden.  The garden is still present here even when it is not visible.