The Bad Hair Lavender Wreath

Today I knew I had to do it. I had to cut back my lavender.

It was difficult to do--I have had indifferent luck with lavender over the years and now I finally have a few strong, established plants. I have never cut them back, afraid that by doing so I'd jinx them and they'd die over the winter. But this summer it was apparent that they desperately needed a pruning. An herbal website recommended cutting them back now, before winter sets in, to give them the dormant season to develop good roots and be ready to take off in the spring.

So I steeled myself, found the clippers and went to work. The plants do look better. But on the ground was all this heavenly smelling lavender--it's not just the flowers that smell good, as most of you know.Could I just leave it there to slowly wither away? Of course not, or at least not all of it.

I grabbed a handful and brought it inside to put in water in a brown crock. Ah, the kitchen smells wonderful now! The lavender combined with the smells of the chicken noodle soup I'm making makes me sigh with pleasure.

Then I hunted up an old grapevine wreath. It's been hanging out on the porch with nothing on it and nothing much to do so I put it to work. I shoved clippings into the twisted vine, creating a pretty wild effect. When I hung it on the porch I thought the wreath needed something more. Back into the house I went. I was thinking about using something seasonal--pumpkins, Indian, that kind of thing, but my eyes rested instead on two little rocks and my fairy.

This is what I ended up with:

It's certainly wild-looking. I kinda like it. How about you?