Fall Containers with Dried Materials

Create an outdoor fall container made of items harvested from your landscape.

Take a walk through your landscape and look for items that look good during fall and winter in your garden. These will make great additions in your fall container.

Fill a plastic, fiberglass or other weather-proof container with sand or soil. Use wire to anchor heavier items. Stick colorful twigs of the red and yellow twig dogwood and birch or contorted branches of Harry Lauder’s Walking Stick and corkscrew willow into the soil to provide structure.

Add some color with the red fruit of sumac, rose hips, orange berries of mountain ash and crabapples. Fill in with seedpods of Siberian iris and daylilies as well as coneflowers and Rudbeckia and dried hydrangea flowers.

Add a bit of texture and motion with airy seedheads of ornamental grasses.

A bit more information: Use a basket or decorative container to hold your seasonal collection. Add more seasonal interest by wiring some ornamental corn, gourds, or fall decorations to the basket or arrangements.