The Crafty Gardener. Becca Anderson

I was pronounced to have a green thumb.

      One of the daintiest joys of spring is the falling of soft rain among blossoms.

      —Mary Webb

      A Bed for Your Flowers

      I found an old bed in a neighbor’s trash. It was wrought ironwork that was very intricate and just too pretty to be thrown away. I set the footboard and headboard at each end of a row of flowers in one of my gardens. When a passerby asks me why the bed is in the middle of my garden, I reply with, “Haven’t you ever heard of a flower bed?” I now have an herb bed, too. I’m looking for an old crib to set around my seedlings, and that will be my nursery bed.

      The first gathering of salads, radishes, and herbs make me feel like a mother about her baby—how could anything so beautiful be mine?

      —Alice B. Toklas

      Trumpeting Joy with Tulips

      I love tulips better than any other spring flower. They are the embodiment of alert cheerfulness and tidy grace, and next to a hyacinth they look like wholesome, freshly scrubbed young girls beside stout ladies whose every movement weighs down the air with patchouli. Their faint, delicate scent is refinement itself; and is there anything in the world more charming than the sprightly way they hold up their little faces to the sun? I have heard them called bold and flaunting. But to me they seem modest grace itself, only always on the alert to enjoy life as much as they can and unafraid of looking the sun or anything else above them in the face.

      To dig one’s own spade into one’s own earth! Has life anything better to offer than this?

      —Beverly Nichols

      Sound Gardening

      If you want a more sophisticated sound for your garden than wind chimes normally offer, consider garden bells. They are a set of cup-shaped metal bells on wires that comes with a base. Like chimes, they peal when blown by the breeze. Unlike chimes, however, the tones change when they are filled with rain, and their sound can be adjusted by bending the wires.

      Wind Chime Feng Shui: Inviting Good Energy into Your Home

      Make a wind chime of “shiny objects” such as old keys, bits of jewelry, and other items from your decluttering. For example, I have a lot of “mateless” earrings which I love even though they are only one of a pair. These chimes abet gathering up the good energy of those unseen that can help protect you and drive away the not-so-helpful energy. Take a stick (a small piece of sea-smoothed driftwood is perfect); tie string around the shiny objects and hang them from the stick where they can tinkle gently in the breeze and make contact with your garden’s guardian angels for you. Hang it in a window in your home or wherever you want to hear the lovely music of your wind chimes.

      And all it lends to the sky is this—

      A sunbeam giving the air a kiss.

      —Harry Kemp, “The Hummingbird”

      A Spring Reverie

      In the enclosure, the spring flowers are almost too beautiful—a great stretch of foam-like cowslips. As I bend over them, the air is heavy and sweet with their scent, like hay and new milk and the kisses of children, and, further on, a sunlit wonder of chiming daffodils.

      Before me are two great rhododendron bushes. Against the dark, broad leaves the blossoms rise, flame-like, tremulous in the still air, and the pear rose loving-cup of a magnolia hands delicately on the gray bough.

      May all your weeds be wildflowers.

      —Gardening plaque

      Put a Wreath on It

      Oftentimes, your kitchen is the heart of the home. Something about cooking and sharing food brings people together. An herbal wreath hanging on the kitchen door can be a source of love and luck. You’ll need the following for your creation:

      •Freshly cut herbs of your choice

      •A wire wreath frame, available from most craft stores

      •Either string or florist’s wire, ribbon, and a hot glue gun

      This is truly one of the simplest craft projects you can ever make—simply use the wreath frame as a base and use string or the florist’s wire to anchor the fresh herbs into place. Finish it off with a colorful ribbon, or other magical decorative touches you may want to add.

      Healing Wreath: The ideal herbs for a wreath that brings curative properties include lavender, barley, comfrey, rosemary, peppermint, borage, olive, eucalyptus, and apple blossom. Brown and green ribbon adds a touch of healing color.

      Protection Wreath: Hang this guardian wreath on your front door using heather, holly, dill, foxglove, garlic, sandalwood, snapdragon, mustard, foxglove, mistletoe, and/or mugwort. White and blue ribbons add security and serenity.

      Abundance Wreath: Greet prosperity at the door with herbs associated with money magic, which include clover, chamomile, sunflower, apple, cinnamon, myrtle, basil, and bay leaf. Weave in gold and green ribbon to add to your luck.

      Love Wreath: Don’t wait until Valentine’s Day to try this; love should be 24/7, 365. Invite love into your home by hanging a wreath full of love herbs on your door. Any combination of these will work beautifully. I recommend using herbs that personally resonate for you among these options: allspice, clove, catnip, fig, bleeding heart, periwinkle, tulip, peppermint, violet, daffodil, lavender, and marjoram. Adorn with pink and red ribbons to let the universe know you’re ready to welcome love into your life.

      For Love of Weeds

      As I work in my vegetable garden, tenderly planting seedlings of peppers, cucumbers, and tomatoes, I suddenly spot the weeds and regretfully rip them out by their roots. Regretfully because I’m a great fan of weeds. Weeds are the wonder workers of the world. Weeds covered the hellhole of Hiroshima with a living green carpet of hope. Within a year after the volcanic explosion, weeds brightened the miles of volcanic ash around Mount St. Helen’s. As I stood in Yellowstone, disconsolately peering at a desolate forest of giants blackened by the great fire, my eye fastened on small clumps of green—patches of weeds whispering on the winds, “We will be back.”

      Rain in spring is as precious as oil.

      —Chinese proverb

      Surprise Guests

      I strive to be an urban gardener, but rarely do much better than a pot of basil and a few annuals in my window boxes. However, I discovered a toil-free pleasure in my back patio. Since we live in an older building, there are a bunch of old planters filled with dirt and scruffy remains of plants. One day, I decided to water these planters and was pleasantly rewarded a week or so later with a profusion of mostly weeds but some flowers. One box even yielded a red tulip this spring. Even the weeds are pretty, and one bunch has tiny orange flowers on spindly branches. All it took was a little time and a little water. I enjoy the daily anticipation as new things reveal themselves, and, besides, it’s far prettier than the brown scruffy stuff.

      To win the secret of a weed’s plain heart.

      —James Russell Lowell

      Bottle Your Own Basil Infusion Oil

      Infusion is a trendy cooking method that brings the flavors of one food, in this case, fresh herbs, to another, such as oil. Basil oil is unbelievably easy to make. You’ll need:

      •¾ cup virgin olive oil (you can use safflower oil or canola)

      •2 ounces fresh basil

      Ideally, you gather your fresh herbs in your own kitchen garden, but any farmers’ market or organic grocery will have green herbs. For the best and purest flavor, use fresh herbs at their peak. Rinse thoroughly in cold water.