Use Your Garden to Decorate the Thanksgiving Table

Overview

Thanksgiving is a holiday about being thankful for the small blessings in your life. It is a simple holiday, with a focus on family, friends and good food. There's nothing like a Thanksgiving pumpkin pie made from fresh pumpkins that were grown in your own garden, but don't limit your garden's offerings to the meal. Use nature's bounty to decorate the Thanksgiving table as well as to enhance the dinner plates.

Step 1

Decorate the center of your Thanksgiving table. Create a simple, attractive centerpiece by filling a vase with mums or other autumn flowers from your garden and encircling the vase with miniature pumpkins and gourds. Or, hollow out one large pumpkin, insert a short vase or wet floral foam into the pumpkin and fill that with colorful autumn flowers.

Step 2

Use dried corn husks as napkin holders. Roll up the napkins and tie on the husks in a knot with the ends hanging loose for a rustic, natural look. Decorate the napkins by sliding a colorful maple or oak leaf under the knot.

Step 3

Add candles to your Thanksgiving table on either side of the vase of mums. Create tapered candle holders by carving out the tops of miniature pumpkins. Set a votive candle and candle holder inside a glass bowl or on a plate and surround it with cranberries, acorns and other nuts from your garden. You can also use pine cones or a combination of all three items. Make sure that the votive candle is contained in a votive candle holder and is not touching any of the dry materials.

Step 4

Harvest the fruit from the fruit trees in your garden. Place one piece of fruit (a golden pear, perhaps, or a shiny red apple) on each guest's plate and attach a place card printed with the guest's name to the front of the fruit with a decorative straight pin.