Potpourri and Fragrant Crafts Wonderful ideas for preserving aromatic gifts from the garden, including gathering, drying, storing and blending herbs, flowers and spices. Step by step photographs plus detailed instructions for a variety of craft projects.
Homemade Potpourri
by Jane Lake
Beginning with the first show of spring daffodils, you can start making a simple and fragrant kitchen windowsill potpourri. You will need a large clean jar, and scissors to cut an assortment of coloured and fragrant flowers as they appear in your garden.
Shown here is a jar of homemade potpourri packed with daffodils, lily of the valley, violets, bleeding hearts, roses, geranium, sweet william, pansies, viola, veronica, lavender, lemon balm leaves, citronella leaves, phlox, clover, and, just to add tang to the pot, the cut up dried peel of oranges and lemons. If you have some sprays of eucalyptus that is past its prime, wash off the dust, pull off leaves, and add these leaves to your potpourri flower jar as well.
I simply cut a few blossoms off each flower when they arrive in the garden and add to the mason jar. The drying process is simple...you just let the blossoms dry out in the jar with the aid of the sun shining through your windows.
As you add more blossoms, you should stir the lower layers of potpourri with a kitchen fork or spoon, and add the new blossoms on top. Don't pack the blossoms and leaves down too tightly- you want plenty of air space to encourage quick and complete drying.
By July, you could have several of these potpourri flower jars starting to fill to capacity; it is up to you whether you continue to add the August phlox or the fall asters. You might like to have one jar of predominantly roses, or another packed with mostly lavender; the fun is in experimenting to find the one you like the most.
I chose to add lots of citronella and lemon balm, as the smell was so fresh and pleasing that I couldn't resist it. It also had the added benefit of not requiring the addition of essential oils; the fragrance was aromatic enough to stand alone, although I did add some chopped up orange and lemon peel, after I had used the fruit. I might add an essential oil later, to refresh the potpourri when the first natural fragrances begin to fade.
That's it: a kitchen windowsill homemade potpourri of spring and summer flowers from your garden. What could be easier?
Scented Treasures: Aromatic Gifts from Kitchen and Garden
