Last night, I was presenting at the Newmarket Garden Club – a demonstration on making simple flower arrangements using materials from your (in this case, mostly my) garden. It was a fun 50 minutes, during which I did five designs.

The materials weren’t all from my garden. It’s the mini Microgarden, after all. There were five kinds of Hosta, a couple of Heuchera, coleus (Solenostemon) including ‘Wasabi’ that has reach shrublike proportions, and various Begonia.

I also scrounged from friends (such as pruned Sambucus nigra and Physocarpus shrubbery, which I particularly love in arrangements, plus Hydrangea). Sarah and

I did a foraging trip for weeds (including Solidago or goldenrod, Queen Anne’s lace aka Daucus carota and wild grasses). And I swiped some of the invasive Artemisia from our local guerrilla garden. Everything came from within a few kilometres of home. Slow flowers, indeed.

The demo went well. Lots of smiles and nods from the audience. They laughed i

n the right places. Afterwards, many came up to the table and photographed my arrangements.

Except me.

In my post-demo haze of relief, I forgot to take pictures. What’s more, as they were hard to transport, I gave them all away to audience members.

So after I came home, I made this with the bits and pieces I had left. Creating arrangements is like making a garden in a jar. It doesn’t have to be all about flowers. Try it with whatever you can find in your garden!