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I like to keep a tablecloth on my little table in my secret garden, but I’m not a fan of plastic ones. I have a few inexpensive cotton tablecloths, and I alternate them. I toss them in the wash and hang them on the line when they get soiled or when an al fresco meal calls for a fresh tablecloth
A cloth table covering adds a touch of refinement to the garden. I don’t mind if the fabric fades or even grows a bit tattered. It’s a garden, after all, not a white tablecloth dining room.
I like they way a fabric tablecloth versions flutter in the breeze. But I don’t like when the winds come up and the tablecloth flies up, battering whatever plants happen to be holding court on the center of my courtyard table.
Tablecloths weights solve this annoying problem. I purchased these pewter tablecloth weights at a winery in Sonoma last summer. Appropriately, they are shaped like a bunch of grapes and remind me of a marvelous vacation along California’s Sonoma coast. These pewter weights are plenty heavy and keep my tablecloth in place even in strong winds.
Before I found these great grape numbers, I made my own tablecloth by gluing seashells to wooden clothespins. I clipped the clothespins to the corners of the tablecloth; and they did the trick in breezes, but not winds. The seashells lack the necessary heft. But if you used glass or stones or a heavier material of some type, I’m sure you could do-it-yourself.