porch 'er barn pots

Have you ever noticed how bare entrances look when flowers fade, pots are emptied and stored away? Boring. I have always admired the rustic inspired evergreen winter arrangements that grace the entrances of some dwellings.

I learned they are called Porch Pots. In my case, they are more like Barn Pots. I've never gotten around to making my own. Until this year. 

I waffled between the idea of trying to decorate our barn pots, or not. I looked for natural things among our tree lines that could potentially be added to an arrangement. Red dogwood branch accents look so nice, but all we have are purple prickly branches. Not dealing with those!

We have plenty of pines to choose from and I spotted a few remaining milkweed pods. I knew those would make pretty accents. I had visions of red or wiggly, or some kind of cool stick natural thingee as an accent. Nothing caught my eye.

After looking at garish floral picks and really expensive natural decor meant for indoors, I found one last package of willow branches on sale. Hmmm? Those might work. While standing in the checkout line, I noticed a second package behind the counter and asked if I could buy it. I have two barn pots. I lucked out, someone had returned a package of sticks willow branches. I cannot believe I bought sticks at a store, even if they were cheap!!
 

I made the first pot with Cedar branches that still had blue berries on it, and cut some smaller white pine branches to mix in. I added the brown willows to the pot. Blah! That didn't work for me at all.

So I did this:

red willow branches

Cedar & Pine branches alone are kinda boring

my winter barn pot/s

I dressed both pots up the same with willow branches, milk pods & dried sedum heads from my garden. I also repurposed a couple larger pine cones on a stick. Not bad for a rookie. 

It was once again a creative learning process. Next year I plan to start gathering natural accents much earlier and keep my eyes open for any down birch branches. I would much rather use natural red accents, then spray paint them. Note to self: add Dogwood to my planting list!!