For the fall, I plant decorative cabbages in my outdoor planters.  The variety of colors and textures makes me smile every time I approach the front door of my house.  This year, we had warm weather deep into December, but alas, winter is finally here and my cabbages have wilted and faded due to the frost.

I walk most mornings and could not help but notice that one of the neighbors had cut down a small cedar tree.  The cut branches of the cedar were bare of foliage but dense.   They had been left at the curb for pickup by the town, but our town had already completed leaf and garden debris pickup for the season. For the past week, every time I passed these branches, I couldn’t help but contemplate how to use them.

On two consecutive days, I carried a few large branches home with me from my morning walk. I placed the branches upright in the center of the two tall planters on either side of my front door, anchoring them in the winterized planter soil.  I then rearranged the shrunken decorative cabbages around the cedar branches, revealing large gaps between each of the decorative cabbages.  I looked around my front yard, trying to decide what would fill the empty planter spaces and stay fresh throughout the long upcoming winter.  I snipped a few branches off of the blue spruce tree near the front door and buried those branches between the cabbages.

Voila!

My planters were filled and the variety of colors and textures simply worked, even highlighting the faded colors of the frosted cabbages.  I hope that they will last until I can plant my pansies in the spring.