Round and Round the Garden

One tradition that we came up with while growing up took place during the fall clean up out in the yard. Every fall we had fall clean up days, compared to a single fall clean up day... really. It takes the whole fall season to get the yard ready to sleep for the winter. One of those days would consists of trimming the grape vines. Mom would clip and trim the vines off to where she needed them to be for growing back in the spring, and the kids were in charge of hauling away all the clippings. These were the cool clippings because they could be up to eight or ten feet long. We would find all sorts of things to do with these amazing vines, one example being a game of jump rope. Eventually jumping around wore off and I figured out how to make wreaths out of some of the vines. The last couple of years that I lived at home this was my tradition. I would make a wreath for my mom and hang it somewhere in her yard, on a fence or on a gate, to add some home made character to the yard for the winter season.

This year was no different. I was actually excited for our fall clean up day (yep, just one for us this year- smaller yard). To be outside, and smell all the autumn flavors, and hear the leaves being raked off the grass. I ended up cleaning out a garden that must have had some beautiful lilly's this summer, all the stiff stems were still standing tall. They were about waist high. I decided they were perfect for my tribute to the fall and winter seasons....among whatever else was in the "to be collected by the city" pile of clippings. The stems were a little stiff, I just bent and cracked them to get them to be where I wanted. I usually use long vines wrapped around each other to hold the wreath all together, but these little guys were kind of stubborn. I had to use twine to get it to stay! Oh well. So, here you have it, my winter wreath. It's decorating the shed this year.