A non-commercial guide to organic gardening in the mid-Atlantic states, with some specifics to central Virginia..and some information applicable across the country! Or to other time zones! Across the seas! Who knew? "No occupation is so delightful to me as the culture of the earth, and no culture comparable to that of the garden." Thomas Jefferson
Central Virginia Organic Gardener
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Grow Your Own, and Dry 'em
I greatly prefer natural dried flowers, leaves, seed pods, grasses, pine cones, etc., to any of the artificial ones, even silk. Last fall, I hosted Thanksgiving and had lovely arrangements of dried flowers at the table, on the mantle and around the house. Some I dried myself- marigolds keep their deep color when they dry, and I also dried river oats (this is an invasive plant, so be careful if you plant it) and other grasses, roadside rye and buckwheat, and grape vines. A kind friend gave me some lotus seed pods. I also found some discarded plants that had lovely seed heads for drying and collected those as well (yes, I took them from a trash pile). But I had to purchase some dried flowers to round out the arrangements, so, this spring, I decided to try my hand at growing my own.
First off, I grew gomphrena or globe amaranth (top photo)- it was an easy seed to start and transplant. If we hadn't had such a hot a dry season, I expect it would have taken off, but I got sufficient quantities to use for dried arrangements from a few plants. I also grew out the seeds from the trash-picked plant (if you know the name, fill me in!) which grew like gangbusters (second photo).
Next season I will expand my drying flowers group and will report back!
Happy Gardening!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment