Dried Floral Baubles

On a December afternoon before Christmas, our grandmotherly neighbor, Miss Norma, invited us into her home to make nature-inspired, dried floral bauble ornaments. It is always a treat to spend time with someone who is curious, continually learning something new, and eager to share in their creativity! We enjoyed sipping hot cocoa, listening to Christmas music, and adding bits of nature to simple holiday designs. We brought them home, hung a few on our tree, and used several as Christmas gift decorations. It is the most fun when a packaged gift is equally thrilling on the outside as on the inside!

Try making your own beautiful, dried floral baubles this Christmas season. The key to making these small ornaments is to use the tiniest dried plant materials: flax seed heads, mountain daisies, rosehips, and berries—to name a few. You can also add some shiny coordinating beads to create a pleasing, contrasting color scheme.

A few tips for crafting your dried floral baubles:

1. Create festive shapes. Buy ready-made plywood shapes at your local crafting store or be bold and make your own.

2. Apply the glue to the wood ornament and use tweezers to add your dried nature and beads.

3. Be creative. Use whatever bits of nature inspire you and have fun creating your festive, one-of-a-kind ornaments. 

Invite your own family, friends, or grandmotherly neighbor over to spend a cozy December afternoon crafting these simple dried floral baubles. And don’t forget the music and treats! Happy Christmas! xo

Plant Your Perennials in the Fall!

We were living in Minnesota and it was late, late fall. My mother had recently offered a few of her flower plants as she was reconfiguring her garden. We trekked over and divided up several of her flowers and placed them in buckets for their short journey across town. We spent the next afternoon transplanting them around our property and watering thoroughly. A couple weeks passed and an early snowfall arrived. I was leery of their survival, having planted so late in the season, but my mother is a fearless gardener and assured us we got them in just in time. And sure enough, after spending the winter blanketed in cold and snow, little green shoots revealed themselves in the spring. They had survived! 

Fall is really the perfect time for planting and establishing your garden perennials. After thorough watering, the roots are given time to rest and emerge in the spring when weather conditions are favorable and they are more likely to survive the harsher temperatures of summer. Planting perennials is also an efficient way to start your garden as they return year after year. An added bonus,  most plants are sold at a discount when fall rolls around.

Here are my tips for planting fall perennials:

1. When purchasing plants I always like to buy at least three of the same kind. This creates a more harmonious look to your garden and lessens the “dotty” feel when using single plants.

2. Think about your color scheme. Reds, yellows, and oranges have a bolder feel, pastels are softer.

3. Water is key. I always like to think of the roots being comforted and eased into their new surroundings. I water daily as they are being established.

4. Remove what you don’t like. Plants do not have to be permanent. If I feel like a plant is not working out for whatever reason, I will dig it up, and offer it to my neighbors or friends. Be fearless as you establish your garden! Mistakes are how you learn.

Your next year’s garden will thank you for adding all the blooms in the fall. Head to your local nursery and find your favorites. Happy fall planting! xo

Potatoes!

Do you want to know the easiest crop to grow? Potatoes! At this point, we can’t even stop growing them. Let me tell you our story.

One spring, we were cleaning out our pantry and found a small bag of forgotten potatoes. They were not rotten, but each potato had plenty of “eyes” (small dimples where sprouts form) and many had formed green buds. What did we have to lose? We decided to try and grow our own potatoes. We cut the potatoes into smaller sections, ensuring each section had a bud or eye, then designated two garden beds for potatoes and planted them throughout. We would water the beds whenever we watered the other garden sections, but otherwise left them alone. Within weeks, small leaves began to appear and eventually, both beds were full of robust potato plants. After they flowered and the foliage began to die back, we harvested our potatoes. So many potatoes! We had enough to eat for the season, plus an abundance to store away. In the next growing season, potato plants began to form in the garden from potatoes we had not unearthed, and even now, a few years later, we will find potatoes growing in the garden. They can’t be stopped!

We had a pretty good inkling that potatoes were an easy crop to grow. Our neighbor in Minnesota grew his potato crop in a barrel of dirt and he had so many potatoes.  Another friend grew potatoes in a bag. So whenever anyone asks which carbohydrate crop is the most fail-proof, I always suggest potatoes. Fun fact: A potato isn't a root but an underground storage stem called a tuber.

Although we did very little to grow our crop, I will suggest a few things to ensure success:

1. Plant your seed potatoes 12 to 14 inches apart.

2. Water regularly.

3. As the potato grows, cover the green shoots with soil. This is called “earthing up.”

4. Harvest after flowering and when the plants begin to yellow and die back.

5. Move next year’s potatoes to a different garden location to prevent pests and disease.

We have continued this process from year to year and it feels like we have created a perpetual gardening machine. Please consider growing this very successful crop in your garden. Happy planting! xo