FlowerHenge! Function stacking weirdness

May 27, 2020 17:48:38

This started fairly innocuously, I fenced off the garden area I just made at the rental we are living in, and there were gaps under the fence. I cut some wire and made little tent stakes and tied some of it down. Then didn't want to waste more wire, so I used some flower stems from fake flowers I had around. decided that worked just as well. Needed some more, and was about to pull off the flowers, when I said "Hey, those are cute, I'll leave them on!" Works just as well with flowers! YAY!

So then I got silly.
The rental backs up to a graveyard (nice quiet neighbors, we like it!) There's a trash pile there there they burn periodically where old fake flowers get tossed, as well as fallen branches, broken wind spinners etc. I'm fascinated by the burn pit, and I mine it for treasures. I hate the waste. I do all kinds of things with stuff I get there.

This last weekend was Memorial day, and this area is big on visiting the graves and putting fresh flowers on them. Which means LOTS of old flowers in the trash pile. LOTS. The pile is currently taller than I am, I'm 5 foot 2 inches. This picture is the more flowery half, the other half of the pile has flowers, more debris and branches.

I brought a bunch home the other day, just before Memorial day, some people had already replaced the old flowers, including one person who has 6 family graves in a line that they always have beautiful flowers on. They removed yellow roses, a bouquet of 18 on each grave. I dragged them home, installed them on a whole section of fence that the bunnies were getting under, and this was the result:

I named it FlowerHenge!

Today, two days after Memorial weekend, I am not feeling well, not a lot of ambition. but enough to do something that takes little muscles. So I went back to the burn pile, I still have more fence that would benefit from being fastened down tightly, AND I'm having too much fun with this! Today's haul:

I clipped apart all of the stems, so I have individual flowers on stems so they push into the ground nicely. This is what I ended up with:

I will post pictures of what happens to that pile after I run amok with it :D

I HATE the waste of the fake flowers, it's not my religious/cultural beliefs to bury people in vaults and coffins to start with, and if I did, I can't see putting fake flowers on the grave. Could be just me. Some of the flowers are expensive, I had one stem, about 12 flowers on it, admittedly pretty ones, with a $19.99 price tag on it. Most of these are $3-5.00 a stem of 6 to 10 flowers. This pile I brought home today is absurdly expensive. I just don't understand. So I mine the burn pile. And built FlowerHenge!

Functions stacked here:
Trash stream interrupted
Artistic satisfaction
Bunny fortification
Entertainment/amusement value
Beautifying currently bare garden
Hummingbird puzzlement

May 27, 2020 18:45:24

I love it!

May 27, 2020 19:32:58

I think you should rebundle those and resell them from a stand by the drive in to the cemetery! :>)

May 27, 2020 20:06:29

Phil Gardener wrote:I think you should rebundle those and resell them from a stand by the drive in to the cemetery! :>)

I was thinking about that when I was cutting them apart... How can I sell these? :)

I suspect there would be social disapproval. I gathered a bunch and took them to the property where we are planning to build. It has pasture grass that grows VERY fast, if I put marker stakes in the ground, they are gone in 5 days. Doesn't matter how bright you paint them, they are gone. Bunches of flowers though, I can stick in he ground and you can still see it later.

I had a couple of high school girls working for me, they saw them, and looked horrified "Those look like graveyard flowers!" "They are, they come out of the trash pile there, I use them to mark things in the dirt." They looked very uncomfortable about it. Some social taboo I'm not aware of, I think. Even when they saw me mark a bad hole that had almost wrecked my mower, they didn't look like they liked it one bit. To me it's just recycling trash to be useful, to them it seems to be some kind of disrespect or something. Not something I understand, doesn't work with my beliefs.

:D

May 27, 2020 20:43:35

What a clever and fantastic idea! I have the most hideous and messy bit of chicken wire fencing that I wrestled into place around my squash beds two days ago, but good grief is it an ugly bit of kit. lol. It could use something like this, that is certain.

As for the social taboo, I think it's not uncommon to come across hangups over items of the deceased, even if it was urns of flowers decorating the gravesite. Different cultures and social norms. Many people are raised to fear graveyards, probably as an extension of the fear of death and dying.

If I was in your position, I would be taking the flowers too. :D Waste not, want not. Plus, greatly enhance the appearance of your fencing! I very much doubt the grave residents have objected to their repurposing. Who says you can't find cheer in a graveyard? There's so many colours in there!

May 27, 2020 23:34:57

Those flowers look beautiful along your fence! That is a lovely idea. And I'm with you, less waste is much more important than any sort of superstitious social taboo.

May 30, 2020 15:42:21

The view out the window by the dining table :D

I did that last side today, but didn't photo it yet...
So now that whole garden is flower staked, every 2-3 inches, and there will be no more bunnies in there! Only open space is the gate (with it's lovely purple bouquets on the posts!)

And incidentally, that wall of plants in there is SunRoots! The Great Big Thread of Sunchoke info (SunRoots, SunChokes, Jerusalem Artichokes, I like SunRoots, they are roots of sunflowers, no choking and no Jerusalem involved, so it's a better name.)

More to go... Got more gardens.... Got more bunnies... Got more flowers! Got more silly attitude! Yay amokedyness!
:D

May 30, 2020 16:19:15

Ooooh... That will look great with a dusting of winter snow.

May 30, 2020 16:38:42

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Ooooh... That will look great with a dusting of winter snow.

They are battered already, and most were cheap, and they sun fade... Doubt there will be many left looking cute by snow time.

And there's the final picture for that garden. On north side: yellow roses; on east: yellow roses to gate, multi to corner; on south and west sides: multi mix.

Still got flowers, still got gardens...
And still got lots of bunnies. Although the hawks were dancing here today, maybe I'll have fewer bunnies soon.

The only taste of success some people get is to take a bite out of you. Or this tiny ad:

permaculture thorns, A Book About Trying to Build Permaculture Community - draft eBook

https://permies.com/wiki/123760/permaculture-thorns-Book-Build-Permaculture