Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Pretty May Day Basket - Easy and Inexpensive!

One of the stops that mom and I made on our sunny Saturday out treasure hunting was at a local plant nursery.  I filled a little wagon with cheerful pink snap dragons and tiny lavender and white pansies.
Most of these pretty little blooms were added to a small flower bed in our front yard, but I put a few aside for a special project.
I picked up this lovely vintage basket at a garage sale that same day.  It set me back a whole quarter!  It didn't take me long to decide what I wanted to do with it.  My mom supplied me with moss from the wooded area on my parent's property.  I love the look of the real moss, but it was crawling with insects!  If you want to put together a May Day basket for indoors, I recommend faux moss which you should be able to find at the Dollar store or your local craft store.  My basket will stay on the front porch...so the spiders are welcome to stick around, I guess.

I gently pressed the moss around the inside of the basket, with the pretty green side facing out.  Next, I made a simple liner out of aluminum foil to hold the dirt that I would soon be adding.

I then added a small amount of potting soil and started arranging my little plants inside the basket.  I filled in the gaps between the plants with more potting soil and then topped it off with a few small pieces of moss.  Done!  A pretty May Day flower basket for my front porch!  Given that the moss and potting soil I used were free, and I already had the foil, my only expenses were the flowers and basket.  The whole project cost me a little less than $5. 

According to my mom (the master gardener), my flowers should do just fine in the part shade, part sun of my covered porch.  The moss will eventually dry out and turn brown (after about two weeks).  Spritzing it with water will help it stay green a little longer.  My mom has shared memories with me about May Day traditions from when she was a little girl.  She would put together little floral arrangements, set them on neighbors porches, ring their doorbells and then run away!  Doesn't that sound like fun?  I am thinking we should bring this tradition back!  Don't you?  She did the same thing with mud pies...I doubt that would go over as well with my neighbors!



Thank you so much for your sweet visit!  Happy May Day!

Best Wishes and Blessings,
Amanda

Sharing at these fun parties:
Transformation Thursday at The Shabby Chic Cottage
Vintage Inspiration Friday at Common Ground
Show and Tell at My Romantic Home
Feature Yourself Friday at Fingerprints on the Fridge
Saturday Spotlight at Craft Envy