Secret To Make Fresh Cedar Garland

Do you like to use fresh cedar to decorate for Christmas? Want to know the Secret to making Fresh Cedar Garland that stays together and doesn’t fall apart?

I’ve made my fair share of Fresh Garlands, and although I follow all the instructions, they simply don’t last; they will fall apart. This year, I had another idea, and it worked like a charm.

This technique will work with pine or other fresh greenery. Today, I’m using cedar for my garland.

I’ve made this before using floral wire, and it always looks good to begin with, but later, it will start to droop. Has anyone else had this experience?

I had another light bulb moment while making this dried fruit and fresh herb garland.

I was asking myself why I felt the need to use floral wire, and the answer was it’s what I’ve been told to use.

Here’s the Secret Fresh Cedar Garland

The secret to making fresh cedar garland is to use twine instead of floral wire.

You may be asking if will it be visible on the garland. If you cut the excess strings, the answer is no. The color blends with the bark of the cedar stems.

Twine

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Prepare Your Fresh Cedar

First, you want to water your fresh-cut cedar to make sure it lasts through the Christmas Season. Here are some other tips that will make any fresh greenery stay fresh longer.

How to Make Cedar Garland

Begin by gathering a large amount of fresh cedar and cutting your pieces approx. 12 inches long.

Gather approx. 3 of the 12 inches pieces together into a bundle and tie the at the top of the stems with a piece of twine cord approx. 6 inches long. This will allow enough extra twine to tie the bundles onto the garland twine.

You will need to repeat this process several times until you have the desired amount of bundles. However, this will vary depending on the length of your garland.

Lay Out the Twine Garland

Next, spread out a length of the same garland, which is slightly longer than you want your finished garland.

Begin to tie the bundles onto the garland approx. every 8 inches. You will use the ties from the bundles to attach.

Note: The good thing about this method is you can slide the bundles if needed to adjust their placement.

The Final Secret to Making Cedar Garland

Now that you have all the bundles attached, you can begin the final simple step.

Start in the middle, fold the bundles at the center away from each other, and tie them to the main garland twine at approx. the halfway point.

Continue to fold down each side until each bundle tip is running toward the end of the garland.

You only need to attach the largest of the stems during this step because you want some of the stems to drop down.

If you need to add more bundles to the center, do so at this time. I am placing a wreath at the center, so it was not necessary for this project.

How To Hang Your Cedar Garland

Finally, cut off any excess twine from the ties and hang the garland.

You can see how some of the stems hang down and how I failed to cut off the excess twine. LOL. It’s up so high no one will notice.

How To Hang A Cedar Garland Inside

I used this same technique for the indoor cedar garland above my sink.

For this smaller garland, I used a heavy jute rope and added a dried orange garland and jingle bells.

It had three cup hooks attached to the window sill to hold it in place.

See Farmhouse Kitchen Christmas Tour for all the details.

This technique also works well for draping around a door or a porch swing.
See the Christmas Porch tour for more details.

Add Fresh Cedar To Existing Pine Wreath

In addition, if you have a wreath that needs extra fullness, you can add fresh cedar to a faux wreath. Here is an older pine needle wreath, and I filled it with extra cedar.

See all the details about how we built our Greenhouse.

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The garland has been up for over two weeks, and even after a heavy rain and wind storm, it looks great. See a complete tour of the Greenhouse Decorated for Christmas here.

Don’t miss How to Make Cedar and Orange Topiaries here.

Also, how to make a Kissing Ball here

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Thanks so much for stopping by! I look forward to sharing my next adventure with you!

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