Reuse The Leftovers From Your Ground Cherries To Make Ethereal Fairy Lights

With a name like "Chinese lantern", using husks from this plant as an accent for lighting is pretty on-the-nose. You often see these orange papery pods as part of fall decor. Interestingly enough, they are cousins of ground cherries and tomatillos. You can see the resemblance once you compare the different fruits of the genus Physalis. Once you've processed a crop of tasty ground cherries, you're left with a similarly delicate sheath that once surrounded the fruit. While ground cherry husks aren't quite as lovely as fiery Chinese lantern pods, the feathery translucent tissue is no less graceful than its relative's. They're too pretty to sacrifice to your compost pile. Instead, attach them to low-temperature LED string lights as a glowing reminder of your garden all year long.

Before harvesting ground cherries, do note that unripe fruit is poisonous. They are only ripe and edible once they fall to the ground. So, if you have a crop of nearly-ready fruit that won't ripen before your first frost, salvage the pods for fairy light embellishments. Whether the husks come from mature or unripe fruit, affixing them to a string of LED lights is an easy and enchanting DIY. Get out your glue gun and some Mod Podge, and in no time you'll be decorating with nature in your home!

This project will work best with fairy lights connected with thin, pliable wire; you'll be twisting the wire around each light to fit inside the husks. A product like Karlling USB Plug In LED Fairy Lights is made up of bendable wire, and the LED lights will stay cool while operating.

Carefully remove the fruits from the husks. Unwind your fairy lights, and twist the wires on each side of the first bulb into a point. Repeat this for each bulb. Preparing all of the bulbs beforehand will eliminate unnecessary manipulating once you've attached the husks and will hopefully prevent damage.

Once your glue gun is piping hot, place a dot of glue inside your first pod at the point where the fruit was connected. Press the first bulb twist on the string into the glue. Close the portions of the husk gently around the light, and repeat for as many lights as you're covering. After assembling your Physalis fairy lights, coating the husks in a light layer of Mod Podge applied with a delicate brush can help them keep their shape. Although LED lights don't put out much heat, it's wise not to leave your ground cherry string lights illuminated when you're not nearby or while you're sleeping for safety reasons.

If you're a fan of biophilic interior decor, a trend that's centered on the beauty found in nature, you might be satisfied with lights decorated with ground cherry pods as you'd find them in your garden. However, despite their loveliness as-is, ground cherry pods can take on different and intriguing looks with a few additional steps.

You can "skeletonize" your pods, a process that removes much of the plant tissue and leaves a lacy network of veins behind. It may be easier to skeletonize pods that are still green. Add 2 tablespoons of lye to 1 quart of water, bring it to a boil, and process the pods for 40 minutes. Rinse them under cold water, and very carefully brush or rub away the tissue on individual sections of each pod. This is painstaking, but the results are beautiful.

If dealing with lye and delicate plant matter sounds like a drag, you can actually paint the pods. Stick with floral dye that you can dip your plants into. Give your ground cherry husks the look of Chinese lantern plants with a dye in orange. Follow the directions on the package: Dip the husks, and let them dry before adding them to the fairy lights.