Living Herbal Wreath

Wreaths with living herbs make wonderful decorations indoors and out. Better yet, a culinary herb wreath provides a continual source of fresh herbs for cooking and healing. Depending on the herbs you have growing in your wreath, they can also work well to repel insects.

Combine plantings of herbs with colorful aromatic healing flowers, such as alyssum and lobelia, mint. To keep your living wreath in good shape, pinch the tips of the herbs when you plant them and regularly after that. Occasionally clip errant stems and trim the wreath overall to keep it growing lush and looking good. Use the herb clippings in cooking.

What You Need:

• Sphagnum sheet moss
• 18-inch concave wire wreath form which you can make out of old wire clothes hangers, or any other wire you have.
• Potting soil
• Water-retentive polymer crystals
• Herbs in six-packs or 3-inch pots
• Annual flowers in six-packs (optional)
• Floral U-shape pins or twisty ties from old bread bags, hair pins, etc.
• Green spool wire
• Sturdy hook or nail

Instructions:

1. Soak fresh or dried sphagnum sheet moss in a bucket of water for a few minutes. Work on a flat surface, such as an outdoor table, that won’t be damaged by water and dirt.

Squeeze excess water from a piece of sheet moss.

Line an 18-inch wire wreath form with generous pieces of moss, overlapping the pieces slightly, and letting them drape over the sides of the frame. Press the moss into the frame, making room to add potting soil. Moisten potting soil and combine it with water-retentive polymer crystals following package directions. I don’t use the polymer crystals, I just cut up sponges into small pieces.

Mound the damp soil in the center of the moss as high as possible. Unpot plants and spread their roots on the soil. Space the plants 3 inches or so apart, working around the ring and alternating plants for variety. Pull moss up around the soil balls of the plants and pin the moss in place using U-shape pins (available from florist or crafts suppliers).

Tuck in additional moss to cover any bare spots, securing with U-shape pins. Wrap green spool wire around the wreath, working from the outside to the inside of the ring and winding around from front to back. Lift only the part of the wreath that you are wrapping.

Herbal Wreath Step 2

Wrap the entire wreath. Twist the wire ends together. Water thoroughly. Use a strong hook or nail to hang the wreath.

This is an excellent way for people with limited space to grow some herbs and also decorate their living area.

Display the Wreath
Hang the wreath from a hook on the back of a door, over a window, or on the wall. I don’t recommend hanging one on an outside door, as the wind and rain will destroy the wreath.

This herb wreath will last for three to four weeks if you do nothing else to it.  I mist mine a couple times a day to keep it happy and fresh, and I’m always adding something new to it to keep those bare spots filled.

When the herbs on the wreath dry out, pluck them from the wreath and use them in cooking or store for later use.

You can do this as a topiary too!  Get creative!

Source: BGH