We can all feel the weather starting to change, right? The mornings are becoming crisper and the days are getting shorter. Hopefully you still have a lot of colour in your garden right now. I want to share with you my top three things that you can do right now in your garden that you’ll thank me for later.
1. Start Collecting Seeds
Now is the time to start thinking about collecting seeds from your favourite flowers. I’ve let some of my Echinacea go to seed as they were definitely starting to fade with the change in temperature. Some of my other plants aren’t at that stage yet, but now is a great time to start collecting. I always use a paper envelope, don’t forget to label it! If you’re short on time just snip off the whole dry seedhead and pop it in. You can separate the seeds out when you’ve got more time. Make sure you store them somewhere cool and dry. Oh, and did I already mention to label them, well here’s your second reminder.
2. Make Wreaths
Now is the perfect time to make wreath frames from living greenery and dry them out in time for, well I’m not going to say the C word. I’ve experimented this year with using Wisteria and they’re drying out really well so far. You can literally use anything that is soft enough to twine round into a circular frame. Make them as big and full as you like and pop them somewhere cool to dry out. I’ve got mine in our small greenhouse but you can dry them out indoors too.
3. Cut Flowers for Drying
Another thing to do now, especially when your flowers are still looking their absolute best! Think how great they’ll look on your handmade wreath frames too. There are quite a few different methods for drying flowers so find a way that works best for you. I do two different things depending on the flowers. For Echinacea and small Dahlias I place them in empty vases with enough airflow around them to dry properly, so leave a bit of space between them. For dinner plate Dahlias and fancier flowers I hang them upside down with a piece of string. You can bunch a few together this way to save space too. Then for things like Amaranthus and grasses again I just pop them in empty vases.
We live in a tiny house, but we’re fortunate to have a dark pantry where I can dry my flowers. You want the room you store them in to be kept fairly dark to prevent the colours fading too much. The colours will fade, but personally I think they look so interesting and sometimes quite unexpected.
I hope you’ve found these reminders helpful. I know I’ll be glad I’ve done this preparation now when I’m making my dried flower wreaths and sorting my seeds out in the winter months.
Have you got any tips you’d like to share?
