Blogs by Year

Whether you're going all out for the holidays or you just want to keep it simple, blooming houseplants are a great way to put the finishing touches on your yuletide decorating. Christmas plants are one of the easiest ways to show your holiday spirit, and you'll find more varieties this year than ever before. And, as you get ‘wrapped’ up in the frenzy of the holiday season, remember plants make the perfect gift too. Placing any flowering plant in a gift bag, wicker basket, or decorative foil is a quick and easy way to decorate or use as a last-minute gift.

There’s something intoxicating about decorating with fresh and fragrant greens. And when it comes to holiday decorating, nothing says Christmas quite like boughs of fresh-cut foliage. Living greenery adds organic texture and straight-from-the-forest fragrance, while adding a little yuletide spirit both indoors and out. There are plenty of ways to use fresh greenery for the holidays. Place greenery on walls, tables, mantels, the hearth, on the floor, and on chandeliers. Heap them in vases, garland your doorways, banisters, and mirrors.

As we kick off the Thanksgiving season, we'd like to bring to light the importance of spending time with our loved ones and take a moment to pause and be thankful. Each year, families across the world participate in their own unique and time-honored family rituals that hold a special place in their hearts. Some of our fondest memories as a child were created out of the traditions our parents and grandparents taught us.

Rosemary- it fills the air with an assertively pine-like fragrance, adds flavor to holiday dishes and even masquerades as a tree! Legend tells us that the Virgin Mary spread her blue cloak over a white-flowered rosemary bush when she lay down to rest. When she arose, the flowers were blue. It was then called the Rose of Mary, hence, its link to the Christmas season. HEALTH AND WELLNESS BENEFITS

Thanksgiving is knocking on the door, with Christmas just around the corner and this holiday season, family meals mean more than ever. So, what better way to set the scene for making memories at home than with a beautiful holiday tablescape. WHAT IS TABLESCAPING?

Holiday decorating- it's a ritual that we at McDonald Garden Center just love, and we’ve been doing it for more than 75 years! So, in the spirit of the season, we've picked our top seven yuletide themes to help get you and yours in the holiday spirit.

A rain garden is a shallow planted depression in the landscape that is designed to retain water runoff from roofs, driveways, roads, parking lots (asphalt) and other impervious surfaces. Just like natural wetlands, these retention areas hold water from storms and give it time to soak into the ground or evaporate back into the atmosphere rather than enter directly into lakes, rivers, wetlands, and storm sewer systems. Even if the retention area overflows, a great deal of the contaminating materials have time to settle out before the water escapes into the bay or other bodies of water.

Fall is clearly the season for pumpkins- pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin pie, pumpkin candles, pumpkin butter, and of course, pumpkin decor. And when it comes to fall decorating, these colorful orbs are the universal symbol of autumn. Who hasn't carved a silly or spooky face into the orange-colored squash to light the way for trick-or-treaters on Halloween? But pumpkins aren't just for Halloween. In fact, they can be used and displayed in a variety of different ways.