Create Stylish Outdoor Planters for the Holidays without Spending a Penny

materials needed:

• the pot, trough, or planter from your yard, patio, or garden, already filled with soil (if starting with an empty pot, fill with garden soil not potting soil, which is too loose for holding the branches)
• evergreen cuttings from your yard
• berry-laden branches from your yard
• interesting-looking bare branches and long twigs
• large pinecones
• weatherproof bows, stars, bells, small patio lanterns

basic instructions:

• if the soil in your container is frozen, use a screwdriver or other similar tool to poke holes about 4 to 6 inches into the soil
• insert evergreen branches and bare twig branches into soil first, then add berry branches
• finish with pinecones or other ornaments, if desired

From my own yard, two pots filled with evergreen cuttings, berry-laden branches and bows. As simple as cutting a few branches and poking them into the existing soil in winter-bare pots.

More artistically done than my own -- a pot on my neighbor's driveway. They've included several types of evergreen branches, pinecones, tall cuttings of red twig dogwood in the back, and the remaining flowering kale from their fall pot.

Another neighbor -- not a pot, but some evergreen branches tied onto a brick lamp pillar, with star embellishments and a red bow.