Arts & Crafts


Fall color on Wildwood Farm's dogwoods, ginkgos, and maples is building to its peak.  Every year, the intensity and brightness transforms the landscape.  The display never ceases to amaze.

Perhaps, the leaves don’t last long enough for us to get used to the display.  Whether it’s the rain or wind, it seems the leaves drop to the ground just as soon as they turn.  Forgotten for another 11 months.

Unless, that is, you save some. Salvage them from the leaf pile or pick some before they drop.  Choosing a half a dozen or so of the best leaves to ‘press’ saves them for many seasons.  Once they are off the ground and free of moisture, they can be placed between the pages of a book [blogs aren’t great for everything].  Make sure to write the page on the cover so you can find them later with damaging them.  Then, weight down the book to keep constant pressure on the leaves.

During the winter, when there are no fun gardening activities you can personalize greeting cards.  It’s just a matter of arranging the leaves in a pleasing pattern and pressing contact paper over everything.  Easy to do on your own, with friends, or with youngsters.  Experts will say leaves from spring growth are better than those from fall.  Ignore them now for now.

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