Flower Gift Kays

Wreaths, those attractive and fragrant decorations, can be displayed on our front doors at Christmas or indoors any time of year. You can easily make your own unique and lovely wreath to show off your home grown herbs and flowers, or to display the pods, cones and seed heads you can find in the woods or roadsides in fall.

The first part is fun - collecting the materials. Start in your own back yard, and look for interesting flower heads that may have dried, seed heads with unique shapes such as poppies, tulips, columbine or iris, or feathery heads of grasses. Silver dollar heads and Japanese lanterns will have dried, and are ready to pick. Clusters of cones can be found on and under evergreen trees, and nut trees will have shed the seed husks from filberts, oak or chestnuts, or maples their winged maple seeds, just waiting to be collected.

Your wreath will be more interesting if you plan for some contrasts in texture and color - shiny chestnuts next to a fringed hemlock cone cluster, or a deep brown walnut shell next to silvery feathers of ornamental grasses. Place the same item in different positions - a cone can sit on its base, lie on its side, or even be placed stem up. Just make sure your pods, cones, acorns, seed heads and foliage are ripe and dry. Green material can get moldy and destroy all your hard work.

Cut a sturdy corrugated cardboard into a doughnut for the base. Use white glue or a glue gun to attach the materials to each other and to the base. Strip a large pine cone, and glue the pieces shaped like petals around the edges of the wreath to form a border. Once it has dried, start building up the wreath with the largest pieces you have collected - the largest cones, teasel heads, large pods, and so on. Glue them in place around the wreath.

Next, add the medium sized pieces - acorns, thistle heads, small cones, seed husks or dried flower heads. Make sure you keep a variety in your arrangement, and again, think of contrasting color and texture as you glue the pieces in place. Finally, add your smallest pieces to fill in any spots where the cardboard still shows. If you have some feathery grass heads or dried flower heads, these can even be broken apart and used to fill in small spaces, adding even more texture, color and depth.

Once the glue has dried, take your wreath outside and spray it with clear varnish. If you like, you can add some ribbon, beads or berries to make a Christmas themed wreath. Glue a hanger to the back, and your wreath is complete.The mellow natural tones make this an appropriate decoration for fall and winter, and even year round, a memento of enjoyed hikes and garden treasures.

Gardening expert Nicki Goff offers a free e-mail starter course all about her main passion... herb gardening. For access, visit her website, .

to find more great tips and articles about herb growing, and her new comprehensive e-book, on creating, maintaining and enjoying your own home herb garden, along with bonus e-books on specific aspects of herb lore.