GATHERING NATURE'S DECOR
Mary Ann Walz

Several months ago our home was open for a studio tour to show the furniture my husband builds. I had arranged hedge apples in a big Nambeware bowl on the coffee table. Those hedge apples generated as much, if not more, commentary as did the furniture. Very few visitors had ever seen them here in New Mexico. For those of you who have not seen them, they are the size of a large orange and have chartreuse colored skin that resembles an orange but is much more knobby. Hedge apples grow on the Maclura pomifera (Osage Orange) along country roads in the Midwest and are considered a bit of a weed tree but the inedible fruits are truly beautiful. I’ve been told they are easily propagated so I hope the seeds germinate and grow into my own source for hedge apples.

Many other fruits, vegetables or plants can be used for decorative items in your home. Best of all, they are usually low cost and often free, if you are so inclined to go out and look for them.

I love gathering pinecones during a fall hike through the mountains. I try to find as many different varieties as possible and look for some that are immature or not perfectly formed. When grouped together, the variety is especially pleasing. I even carry this over to vacations to other parts of the country, bringing large pinecones back from the Lake Tahoe area and a rest area in the Southeast when we were on our way to Atlanta. As a compliment to my pinecone forays, my husband hikes in the spring to look for shed antlers. He gathers both elk and deer antlers and has never seen one he didn’t like so we have all sizes and shapes. A couple of small antlers placed in a basket of pinecones makes a nice accent piece for any time of the year and is also weather resistant so could be used indoors or outside.

Gourds, pumpkins, and squash are great seasonal accents in a bowl or basket or just arranged across a table or mantle. They last a long time so you can put them out as soon as they are harvested and they should last to Thanksgiving. Some gourds will dry nicely although the color will fade. Use a bit of wax shoe polish to refurbish the color for use next year. The dried gourds will be light enough to wire to a wreath.

Combine some branches with dried dill or Autumn Joy Sedum. A few branches with berries would be nice too. If the color is not bright enough to suit you, add a few stems of silk flowers. Try to choose a variety that normally blooms in the fall or that has a color complimenting the dried material. I like to use either a metal or stoneware container for these arrangements.

Lots of other natural materials can be used. Take a walk through your yard, along a country road, or in the forest to see what you can find.