Flower Arrangements from the Flower and Vegetable Gardens

by Carol Kagan, Master Gardener

A few miniature eggplants and a red onion

Look what you can do with flowers from your garden and a little time. Oh, and vegetables, too!

Perfect centerpiece of a picnic table

This lovely centerpiece is made with hydrangeas, different kinds of tomatoes (and  tomatillos) as well as a sunflower. Hosta leaves were used as a base for the basket.

From your yard-zinnias, hosta leaves, Queen Anne's lace, hydrangeas

Master Gardeners of Franklin County created these floral arrangements from flowers and plants in both the demonstration gardens and their own backyards.

Check out the zucchini used for a base and container. Add some greens with different textures, a few colorful flowers and a sprig of parsley.

Zucchini as a base and container

Also, a bell pepper and watermelon. Perfect for this time of year.

There's enough peppers in the veggie garden to eat so use one as a flower vase.

Watermelon with corn, eggplant and lollipop cherry tomatoes

Flowers found in most yards: hostas, zinnias, cosmos, black-eyed susans, Queen Anne's lace and beautiful grasses (if not in your yard, certainly in a nearby field!), hydrangeas, blanket flowers, garlic chives, and petunias.

Hearth basket uses dried grasses for texture

A beautiful hearth basket, or to use by the front door, has sunflowers, dried grasses, blanket flowers and black eyed-Susans.  The stems are not that long but are discarded stems added to the arrangement.

Vegetables and herbs with a few blooms and grasses tucked in

And here's an attractive basket full of vegetables with some herbs tucked in as well as a few dry grasses.

Go out in your yard and find a few blooms, a few green leaves, and maybe a vegetable or two and put together you own celebration arrangement of summer's bounty.

Transitions

The end of the growing season has arrived.  I was admiring my zinnias last week, cut a few to bring in, but that was before the frost arrived.

Zinnias before the frost

It only took one night!  Every zinnia is brown and crumbling now.  I went out this morning and pulled them out, but not before rescuing the seeds for next spring.

...And after the frost

Even though they froze, the seeds are still good and available to you to save for next year.  I just break the seed heads off, then lay them on an old cookie sheet covered with newspaper in the garage.  I leave them there for a week so they dry out well, then put them in a paper bag (NOT plastic), and hang them in the shed until spring.  Freezing doesn't hurt them, just make sure they are dry.

In the spring, just crumble the seeds from the seed heads and sow them wherever you want some color. (CAUTION: there is a very sharp needle in the center of the flower, be careful you don't stab yourself when you take the seeds off.  I hold the base and circle the flower with my thumb and forefinger, turn it slowly around and the seeds just fall off when they are dry.)  And if any of this is too tough for you, just call me and get some seeds from me - I usually have several grocery bags full...