DIY Rosemary Wreaths

DIY Rosemary Wreaths bring a bit of the outdoors in and give you the glorious and fresh smell of Rosemary during the long cold winter season.

You probably already know that I’m really big on taking  ordinary things and making something out of nothing, as they say. After all I am the girl who, just last month, took those fallen logs and turned them into a cake pedestal. And one of my favorite things to do is gather botanicals from the yard and incorporate them into the decor.

Usually I’m just gathering up random bits that happen to grow along our roadsides way out here in the country of southern Georgia. Like last fall when I created that entire floral arrangement from my roadside finds. But this time I actually grew something. Which is pretty amazing because the art of growing Rosemary, which all of the cute little trees that you see for sale this time of year will tell you is easy, has always eluded me.

Even when we lived in our first house with all of that dark black and nutrient rich soil. I’d pick up one of those ill-fated Christmas tree shaped plants every year hoping for the best and every year it would die just like the last. Then when we moved out into the country with our sand for soil someone actually gifted me one. I quickly tossed it out back just outside of our kitchen window. Here it would either A) die in peace or B) be very convenient for me to trim a few sprigs when cooking. I didn’t allow myself to hope for the later.

But wouldn’t you know it, apparently Rosemary favors sandy soil and desert like heat. All these years I’d been pampering it to death. The minute I toss it out the back door it starts to grow like Kudzu and now I have so much of it I don’t know what to do with it. Well that’s not entirely true. I could eat enough Rosemary bread to feed a small country. That and I just really like the look of it so I bring it in as often as I can. Today I’m going to show you the little Rosemary wreaths I have sprinkled all throughout our home. If you don’t have Rosemary most any other plant will do.

First you’ll want:

• some pruners or herb scissors
• floral wire
• ribbon or decorations of your choice

The size of the sprigs you’ll be using is dependent on the size of wreath you want. Small sprigs for smaller wreaths and larger sprigs for bigger wreaths. If you try using too large a spring to make a small wreath you’ll find that it will just never sort of round itself out and you’ll be left with something more egg shaped. Try to choose the most pliable sprigs especially when working with Rosemary since the stems tend to get woody. You can work your sprigs by bending them to make them a little more pliable.

Once you’ve gotten several sprig together for your wreaths start by attaching them end to top while continuing to worth in the same direction.

Then you’ll just add a bit of floral wire to each of the sections to hold them together. Also, be prepared to smell like Rosemary for at least the next 24 hours. It’s kind of like glitter except less messy and it smells a lot better.

Keep working until you have a nice rounded shape. If you find that your wreath is getting bigger in diameter than you’d like remember to use smaller sprigs. Using larger springs and trying to bend them into shape without a wire frame will just result in a wonky looking not very wreath-y like shape.

Not only are they adorable but they smell amazing and once you’re done using them you’ve got some dried herbs ready to be used up in that Rosemary bread recipe that you are more them welcome to send to me.

We’ve placed them all throughout our home. Even our boys love them and insist on having some in their rooms.

And of course I keep some in the kitchen, too. I’m a big fan of putting up not only Christmas decorations but decorations that can carry me through the winter too. Because I love taking down all the Christmas decoration the minute Christmas is over and leaving the house like a cold barren wasteland, said no one ever!

And remember, it doesn’t have to be Rosemary! These cuties that I’ve added to our gifts this year were trimmed from the side of our dirt road. I just loved the crisp green leaves against the red stems, don’t you?

For more on what you can do with those humble roadside botanicals…