Mid-Atlantic Gardening: Christmas Greens, Arrangements and Holiday Decorating, 1 by claypa

claypa wrote:
I want to say "but stupid", but I like fir trees!

Making that cone star was a real mess. It reminds me of when I used to harvest balsam fir boughs in Maine ( "tippin" ). We'd get all cold and wet (or hot and sweaty, depending on the weather, it could happen) and get the balsam sap all over. It would stick like crazy and we'd smell like balsam for days. It's astringent and burned your eyes. I don't remember what they paid for a pound but it wasn't enough to keep at it for long. I switched to making wreaths, which was only slightly better. Not much in the way of job opportunities there, sometimes.

Teri that's a neat Santa. I just got some beautyberry seeds in swap, I hope they grow.

Here's my baby dawn redwood. I only put lights as high as I could reach. Two years ago it was 40" tall, now it's maybe 12'.