Here's one of the wife's wreaths which I refered to in another posting. Claimed there that she only required 30 minutes to turn one out but she said that it was about 45. So I kept an eye on her and it was more like an hour.

Not a small accomplishment that she can put something like this together but the process is quite simple: Gather a bunch of material as tho' you are making a tiny, hand-held bouquet; tie it together, then: tie it to wreath base (florist wire works best). Our wreath bases are often grape vines but it could be something like raspberry vines. I taught her but that took all of about 30 minutes (maybe that's where I got that idea) - she took it from there and goes far beyond my capabilities.

The wreath in the picture is composed of statice, gomphrena, and nigella. She also uses strawflowers, moonflowers, larkspur, acroclinium, and ect. (Highalttransplant and Charlene can use that achillea they are planting now.) Another wreath will utilize the wheat and millet you see there on the lawn. These 2 can be used together but don't work quite so easily used with the dried flowers - tend to hide the smaller material.

Hoping you'd like to consider these plants when you are planning your 2007 gardens. ItÂs probably best to put your cutting garden in with the vegetables  easier to harvest without concerns about damage to your landscaping. The enterprise really just requires weekly harvesting of material, bundling, and hanging to dry out of the sun. After the growing season comes to an end - the material is all at hand for use in wreathes or dry flower bouquets.

You can also run outside right now and gather all of your herbs - thyme, oregano, tarragon, sage, etc. Maybe you could even include some bright rose hips. It will probably take more than youÂd think necessary  rather than less. Hang the material to dry for a couple of weeks. If you have straw or styrofoam wreath bases available to you, florist picks are probably easier to work with these larger bases.

Steve