How Does Your Garden Grow?

Mini Gardens.... Just a Beginning.....

Ever since last Christmas when I was given a tiny Bonsai plant kit by my Secret Santa at my workplace, I have been nurturing the long held dreams of creating a truly mini garden..... with real plants growing in real soil..... surrounded by a tiny picket fence..... perhaps enclosed in a little glass garden pagoda......... It is still a LONG way from being realized..... but recently I Did FINALLY plant the seeds for the tiny bonsai plant kit! It came with a tiny planter and seeds and scissors for trimming..... but so far we are just watching the newly sprouted plants as they germinated in the tiny planter. I say "WE" because Pollyanna has taken a keen interest in this little planter and really likes the whole idea of a little garden..... she thinks it should be right next to the Lovely Old Dollhouse....... but we shall see.

For now, there are only tiny sprouts.... can you see them?

Here, maybe you can see better in this picture......

they have a long way to go before we are even thinking of pruning them!

So, in the meantime, you can forgive me for thinking about making some little flowers for the dollhouse out of paper..... like so many talented bloggers do! I even bought some punches recently that had leaf shapes..... so that I could give it a try! And finally, just last weekend I had the perfect opportunity because my Sister was visiting and I wanted a mini project that we could both work on that wouldn't take too much effort. So I pulled out the paper and wire and paints and beads and the new little punches and we jumped right in! I had never made any of these flowers before, but I had read a tutorial or two on other blogs so I had a vague sense of what to try. Once I had explained the basics to my Sister, she was off and running!

And I must admit she is a real Natural when it comes to making mini plants!

We started by gluing a bead to the top of the wire to act as the stamens.

Then we added the punched out circles.......

And bits of green for sepals.......

Before I had even started mine, my Sister had completed several lovely poppies and had moved on to her real Creations......
Remember the Cottage I sent to her that had a space in the yard for a garden? Well, she wanted her garden to have some Corn plants.... that is American Corn... Maize to you Europeans.......

And she started with the ears of corn made from beads.... like so........

And then attached some leaves....... and a tassel that I helped her make from embroidery floss.....

Isn't it just amazingly beautiful?

And as if that weren't enough.....
She wanted to make an old Oak tree stump that had sprouted a few stems of new growth............. so she could use those lovely leaves from the oak leaf paper punch.......

Like so.........

And the corn needed to be a little taller...

so she added another ear of corn and some more leaves.........

Isn't it just absolutely GORGEOUS???

So, while she was so busy making her plants..... I was trying to get the bead to stay glued to the wires for my Roses..... and trying to make the petals behave like rose petals..... and having to WAIT for the glue to dry.......... so I didn't get very far........ and my roses don't look much like roses yet.........
I am not going to get discouraged! But I am not going to hurry to get them done either! In fact, I packed up all the punches and the wire and the paper and sent it home with my Sister so she can finish HER mini garden! My flowers will wait. I have plenty of other projects I am working on......... maybe I will just get going on the Mini garden with the Bonsai tree in the center.....
And for now, I will just enjoy my REAL Roses .... overflowing my Real garden........

I'll get to the mini Garden.... Someday......

How Does Your Garden Grow?