Bring the Bounty this Thanksgiving with Tablescaping!!

We’re always talking to you about landscaping, but did you know you could apply the same principles of layering colors and textures to a smaller scale? This is Tablescaping, and it’s the best way to decorate your Thanksgiving table this year. 

Ike sits at his festive, freshly 'scaped table

In this post, you'll learn:

• All about Tablescaping

• How to gather and harvest natural materials for your design

• The Tablescaping order of operations

• About some of the best plants you can use in your design

• How to Tablescape with fragrant herbs

A sleek Tablescape full of fresh Fall foliage, pumpkins and Poinsettias

Tablescaping allows you to combine your love of plants with the bounty of Fall to create something truly special both you and your guests will adore. When planning out your tablescape, it’s important to consider what kind of focal points you want to use, or what style you’re going for—maybe something really bountiful, or maybe a little more minimal. Let’s work through a few examples together! 

A basket of freshly-found greens, branches, dried herbs and pinecones--our craft kit!

For our first tablescape, let’s recreate the look and feel of a classic Thanksgiving spread—all those really warm tones and deep greens that make you think about Fall. 

Snipping some Blue Vervain for our naturalistic tablescape

Let’s start out with a base layer that looks like a forest floor, and a lot of the materials you need are most likely waiting for you in your own backyard or nearby park! Grab a pair of snips and take a walk to find your favorite Fall colors and textures! 

Picking just the right pumpkins for our arrangement

If you really want to bring the bounty, make sure to grab some mini pumpkins and gourds for festive pops of Fall splendor. We’ve still got plenty here for you! 

Christmas trees are a great source of greens for the tablescape--just trim from the bottom!

If the holidays are your thing, you may already have your Christmas tree, which can serve as a great source of greens for the table—just trim from the bottom! If you don’t have your tree yet, we just put out our first cuttings of the year for you to choose from! 

Harvesting your own tablescaping ingredients is easy and fun!

Now that we have our pinecones, Arbor vitae, Oak and Pear branches, some Mountain Mint, a few Sensitive Fern fronds and a little bit of Blue Vervain, we’ve got everything we need to get started on our first tablescape!

This tablescape starts with a foundation of cut evergreen twigs

Let’s start out by creating the base layer of the forest floor with some of these forages Green Giant and Fir branches. They’re nice and flat, so you can just lay them down across the center. Trim any stems that you think are sticking out too much. 

Stagger your planters however you like over your bed of evergreens

Now that we have our green table runner, let’s lay out some of the planters we’ll be using. We’re using some wicker baskets and beautiful ceramic pots that are made to resemble wicker baskets.  We’ll just stagger them evenly across the center. 

Add some Fall foliage for festive autumnal colors

Now that our planters are in place to give us a little more structure, we’ll go in with another layer of the forest floor using Oak and Pear branches. 

Place your pumpkins an gourds throughout your arrangement

Next, it’s time to add our Pumpkins and Gourds. You can also take this time to add some pinecones or other accents.

And there you have it! A festive Fall bounty, ready for Thanksgiving Dinner

Then, add in your Cabbages and Spruce to your planters and see how it all comes together! 

For an extra rustic touch, you can wrap your planters with Raffia fiber

To hide the edges of the Spruce and Cabbage pots, you can add grasses or Raffia fiber for a softer, more naturalistic look. 

Create glowing focal points with plants like Poinsettias

It wouldn’t be a Bountiful arrangement without flowers, so next we’ll add in some stunning Golden Poinsettias to really balances out the greens of the Spruces.  

The cherry on top! Use your dried herbs and wildflowers as final accents

Finally, add in the finishing touches of texture and color with your foraged wildflowers and grasses. And that’s all there is to crafting a table overflowing with the bounty of Fall! 

All the "ingredients" we'll need for our contemporary terrarium-inspired tablescape

If you’re looking for something a little less traditional and a bit more contemporary, this next tablescape is the one for you! 

Placing the centerpiece plant in its pot

Maybe you want a look that shows that you’re the designated plant expert at the table. For the centerpieces of this one, we’ll be creating three dish gardens. We’ll go with some fern, a few terrarium plants and some dried, preserved moss. 

Raise up your base with some decorative gravel

To help get all your feature plants on the same level, you can use some gravel as a base layer in your dish garden and adjust height to your liking while anchoring your plants in place. 

Tuck some moss under the foliage for a naturalistic vibe

Once your plants are all in place, you can cover up any exposed pots with the preserved moss, giving the arrangement a truly naturalistic touch. 

Place your completed dish gardens equidistantly on your dining table

Once your dish gardens are planted up, you can lay them out on your dinner table and surround them with some fresh evergreen cuttings to create a nice green base. Here’s a tip: tuck any exposed twig ends under foliage for a more organic look. 

Add little Calandivas for a flash of bright white

This time of year, we get tons of little Calandiva plants in, and they make the perfect accent for this type of Tablescape. Just pop them in small terracotta pots, and you can even write your guests’ names on them as party favors and place settings! 

Don't forget the pumpkins!

For a burst of color, you can’t go wrong with an assortment of decorative pumpkins! The best part about this Tablescape is that all the plants are individually potted, so once the plates are cleared, your guests can take home a little living keepsake! 

Fragrant herbs bring extra aroma to your Thanksgiving table

Looking to enhance the aromas of the feast? Why not make a Tablescape using fresh herbs as your focal point? By combining the warm hues of the terracotta with the grace and airiness of kitchen herbs like Rosemary, Sage and Thyme, you’ll have a Tablescape that smells just as good as it looks. 

Stagger your fragrant herbs across the dining room table

This Tablescape will be more structured and clean, so we’ll start with three distressed terracotta pots equally spaced in the middle of the table. Next, we’ll stagger our potted herbs on either side of each pot. Keep an eye on heights—we think taller plants look better in the middle. 

You can even create little aromatic bundles to use as tablesettings for your guests!

You can fill the terracotta pots with anything you’d like, but for this arrangement, we’re going with some golden Poinsettias. For a nice minimal finishing, place some white pumpkins throughout your design.

Place your pumpkins however you like

For the cherry on top, you can make a small bundle of fragrant herbs for an extra pop of fragrance. Once dinner is served, you can brush the leaves of your potted herbs, releasing their fresh scents. 

There are no limits to how you can tablescape. Get creative!

Thanksgiving is all about Bounty, which is probably why we like it so much! If you want to show off your landscaping skills in miniature form, you need to try Tablescaping this year! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAw3xXiARrw