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 in 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!