Crafting In The Garden

Earlier this week I visited another of the metro parks, this one is in the middle of the city of Dayton. The reason I was there was to attend a meeting regarding crafting natural holiday items to sell through the gift shops. We hope to get volunteers at several of the parks interested in this project. Since I had not visited this park before, I wanted check it out before I left.

This is an amazing oasis in the middle of a bustling city.

  

 Much of this park is a sculptured formal garden, but there are natural hiking trails through the woods to the left of this photo. I was amazed at the beautiful areas and the landscape archetecture there.

 This lovely arbor is the site for many weddings and informal gatherings. This park features a wonderful edible landscape. The bright greens and reds surrounding the boxwoods is lettuce! In another area they are training beans to grow up the sides of a wire arch. There were banana trees and orange trees growing here also.  

 Parallel to the formal garden is the Children's Discovery Garden. The moss covered cottage houses the public restrooms and stores gardening equipment.

This is the sensory garden for the children. Here kids can touch plants such as lavender, lambs ears, a few cacti, and other fragrant and tactile plants. 

Bright flower pots and topiary trees were scattered along the paths. 

 Even a teepee was built in the Prairie Garden. Life sized buffalo toparies were grazing nearby.

Even a happy cactus rabbit!  

And a larger than life llama, or is it a dog?  

I came home inspired and eager to get to work on a project or two. This is a large tag that could be used to label packages or even to use as a greeting card. I used a purchased tag which I covered with handmade paper imbeded with dried leaves. I then adhered some pressed marigold petals and a fern from my own garden. I finished it with a strip of tree bark. On the reverse side I will adhere another piece of torn paper for leaving a message and signature.

The metro parks offer a plethora of flowers, grasses, nuts, pinecones, etc., all at our disposal for including in our items. I have some other ideas that I will present to them as well. This is just a starter.