How To Make Garland Using Fresh Greenery
Learn how to make a garland out of fresh greenery for the holiday season! Plus tips on what evergreens are best to use and how to make your fresh greenery garland last.
Yield: 1 garland
Cost: 20
Equipment
- 1 Burlap Twine
- 1 Florist Wire
- 1 Wire Cutters Used to cut the fresh greens
- 1 Garden Gloves
- 1 Tree Nippers
- 1 Wilt Pruf Available at Canadian Tire
Materials
- 5 bundles Various Fresh Evergreen Branches
- 5 bundles Additional Greenery of Your Choice
Optional Garland Decor
- 1 pack Pinecones
- 1 pack Berries
- 1 pack Dried Orange Slices or Dehydrated Fruit
- 1 pack Burlap Ribbon
- 1 pack Brass Bells
- 1 pack Eucalyptus Branches
- 1 pack Twinkle Lights
- 1 pack Cinnamon Sticks
Instructions
- Begin by cutting the ends of your evergreens and letting them soak for 4 to 24 hours in buckets of water or submerge them in a bathtub full of water.
- Before bringing the greenery into your house, spray thoroughly with the Wilt Pruf, this will provide a protective coating that will help the product hold water in and last longer.
- Cut your burlap twine to the length of the garland you are wanting. Lay the twine out on a table or workbench.
- Collect a few stems of evergreen that are similar in length and place them along the twine.
- Wrap the florist wire three times around the base of the stems and twine tightly!
- Collect another bundle of greenery, then overlap the bunch about half ways down the secured bunch and wrap them tightly with wire. The top bundle must sit high enough on the bottom to secure a good portion of its stems.
- Continue layer and attach your bundles until you reach the end of your twine.
- For the final bundle, turn it the other way around and tightly wrap the florist wire three times around it to secure the end. This will give you a nice finished look at the end of the garland.
- Once you have finished wrapping the bundles, go back through the garland and add sprigs of evergreen or optional decor items to the garland. Pay attention to the areas that are showing exposed stems, wire or twine and try to cover those spaces with additional evergreen or decor elements.
- The next step is deciding where you want to hang or display your garland. Use a couple of large nails at the top of the trim so you don’t have to patch the holes but the garland will be secured by the nail.
Notes
- When soaking your greens, you can use a product in the water, such as the sugar solution or Miracle-Gro for Christmas Trees. This is just to give the garland a little bit more life.
- Make sure you wear gloves at all times. The evergreen branches can be very hard on the hands and cause you to get needle pricks. Your fingers will also end up covered in sap depending on what type of evergreen you decide to use.
- Use a floral wire that is coated with green plastic. This is the least likely to show when you add any extra decor to your fresh garland.
- Spray your garland with a spray bottle full of water every day around the same time to prolong the freshness.