Garden – Page 3 – Wineberry Wood Press

13Feb 2023 by catbird No Comments

A Valentine for your Babies 3 Ways

Craft Project, Foraging, Garden, Nature Art, Nature Collection, Valentine's Day

I have always found Valentine's Day to be kind of a weird holiday (full disclosure, its also my birthday.) I mean why do school children give each other valentine's about romance? I have shifted my thinking about it somewhat by diving into winter birds and the start of nest making season, but this year I wanted to make something for my own little guys too and was inspired by some research I was doing for the floriography valentines I made earlier. As it turns out moss is symbolic of maternal love-- and it makes for an adorable nature crafting material so what better jumping off point? The plants I picked out to use are: Moss: maternal love Pansy: merriment Pussywillow: motherhood Cinquefoil: beloved child Fern: fascination & magic Juniper: protection…

13Feb 2023 by catbird 2 Comments

Printable Floriography Valentines

Craft Project, Free Printable, Garden, Nature Art, Valentine's Day

Floriography is the art of communicating with flowers, with different types of flowers having particular symbolic meanings. Some form of floriography has been practiced for thousands of years across Europe, Asia and Africa, but the best known floral code today is the Victorian Language of Flowers. In the 19th century, particularly in the UK and the United States, it became all the rage to send coded messages with flowers. There were floral dictionaries published and you could convey just about anything with the flowers you exchanged. (Although there are often multiple meanings for the same plants) Floriography was the emoji of the Victorian times, and like the emoji, it can be used to send coded messages. I put together the printable valentines below from some of the words that jumped…

29Jan 2023 by catbird 1 Comment

Seed Clouds

Craft Project, Garden, Midwinter, Nature Art

After making the Edible Meringue Clouds I was still thinking about Frau Holle shaking her feather quilt and making it snow. I love the image of the feathers turning to snow and wanted to do something more literal with it. I came across some writing about the goddess version of Holle that talked about her flying over fields at Midwinter to make them fertile. My rather practical scientific mind was immediately struck by the idea of seed starting in relation to this myth. Most native seeds require a period of cold to germinate, gardeners call this cold stratification. This is why I paradoxically love seed projects in the winter, there are many plants that actually grow better when planted in the cold and snow. So I came up with another…

21Jan 2023 by catbird 2 Comments

Garden Planning with Kids at Midwinter

Garden, Learning, Midwinter

Midwinter is when I start to organize and sort through my seeds. In the fall when I’m harvesting everything I’m more focused on collection than organization. During the winter solstice season I take a break and by midwinter I’m usually itching to jump back in and sort seeds, plan gardens and look through all the seed catalogs. This is the snowiest time of year in my area and not at all the time to start seeds, but it’s the best time to dream and scheme for spring which is honestly one of the best parts. It’s also the time of year that I invariably find a bunch of random bags and jars of unlabeled plant parts that I swore I would remember the purpose of but which I promptly forgot.…

06Jan 2023 by catbird 1 Comment

Wassailing the Trees and 2 types of Toasts

Garden, Learning, Nature Art, Play, Recipes, Twelfth Night

For years we have wassailed our fruit trees on the Twelfth Night to ensure a bountiful fruit harvest, because who doesn't want a bountiful fruit harvest, right? My kids were little and I never really went into too much depth though... until this year when I went down a rabbit hole and became obsessed with wassail toast. More on that later. For years we stuck a cinnamon stick in a cup of apple juice and sang songs about wassailing or fruit and it was a good time. Actually only my 7 year old ever remembers the words to "Here we come a Wassailing" so he's generally in charge lol. They also sometimes make up songs about specific fruit trees in our yard. It's fun and you should try it! As…

28Dec 2022 by catbird No Comments

Hibernating Seed Bears

Craft Project, Garden, Hibernation Celebration, Nature Art, Play, Winter

Many animals hibernate this time of year, and while plants don't hibernate exactly, many of them do go dormant which is similar. We observe a "Hibernation Celebration" each year in December as school winds down and we prepare for our quiet period of sorts. This year we made these sweet little seed bears with seeds tucked inside sleeping away the winter and waiting for spring. We chose seeds that are food for or have value to small mammals so that they wouldn't just look like sleeping animals, but actually help animals! I couldn't find a sleeping bear mold so we made these by hand which is time consuming, but feels right for this sleepy season. You could also try using bee friendly plants with a bee mold or swampy loving…

28Oct 2022 by catbird No Comments

Milkweed Skull Seed Bombs for Samhain/ Dia De Muertos

Garden, Nature Art, Samhain

Samhain is the time of year that most plants die. The trees are starting to look bare and skeletal and in olden times it’s when many animals were slaughtered for the winter. It’s not really hard to put together why this time of year is often associated with death and spirits. There is some kind of primal anxiety this time of year left over from when we worried we wouldn’t have enough food for the winter. I used to always find myself overwhelmed and sad. Then I had an epiphany of sorts… about soil. Soil is made of millions of years worth of decayed organic matter. Leaves, plants, animals, microbes have all died and become soil. All of this death gives rise to new life. New life couldn’t exist without…

Category: Garden