September Seed Sculptures

September is a great time to make art with seeds, pods, and dried petals. The secret to these seedy sculptures is that you can dry them (3-4 days) and then put them in a special place in your garden (or in a pot on your balcony). Over the winter the seeds will get a blast of cold which will help them germinate. Cornflowers, poppies, viola and calendula can be planted at this time of the year. The rain and snow will break down the clay and in the spring the seeds will germinate, grow and the flowers will bloom for our bees. For a list of other seeds you can plant at this time of the year, try to get a hold of the new West Coast Seeds winter gardening guide. They have some online winter gardening resources as well.

We had such creative kids working at the ArtStarts gallery, with all kinds of miniature gardens and islands which were like little worlds in themselves.

 You could even put this little heart in a cellophane bag and give it as a gift.

Here's a sample of some of the supplies I collected over the last three months. Yes, you can also see the containers of the goat's brie we've consumed over the past seven years. I love the little round boxes because they are perfect for storing little organic materials.

It's  a chive blossom forest!

 This one is a little fairy land.

The long chains of seed pods are from the crocosmias, which the hummingbirds love. Kids and adults go crazy for the nigella pods and the silvery seeds of the money plant (Lunaria).

 I love this little seed bowl!

Here you can see three kinds of poppy pods, crocosmia seeds, nigella, lunaria, hops, and columbine pods. Where do the materials come from? They are harvested from my garden, my mom's garden and gifts from the gardens of my friends.

A big thanks to all the volunteers, staff and the families who participated. This workshop is part of an ongoing series that happens the last Saturday of the month at the Artstarts Gallery. Check it out!

Starting Seeds

I am at the Sunset Community Centre on Main Street today propagating seeds with Aimee Taylor. Please drop in if you are in the hood and also on April 16 when I'll be making seed balls.

Seed Starting Saturday, April 2 10:00am-12:00pm

Instructors: Aimee Taylor & Lori Weidenhammer
A free workshop-open to all! Learn how to create the
best starting environment for your seeds. Supplies will
be provided to start your vegetable and herb garden off in
the spring. Held in the lobby at Sunset Community Centre

Herbal Seed Balls for Pollinators Saturday April 16 10:00am-12:00pm

Lori Weidenhammer
Seed balls originate from an ancient form of agriculture
performed by creating balls of seeds, clay, and compost
and sowing them on the surface of the soil. The seeds
remain dormant until environmental conditions allow them
to germinate and flourish, creating nectar and pollen-rich
habitat for pollinators. In this workshop we will be creating
seed balls for spring planting. This workshop is suitable
for families. (Children under 5 must be accompanied by a
caregiver.) FREE! In the LOBBY at Sunset Community
Centre

Dig In!

Jody sets up for a the creation of a collaborative ephemeral maze with the pods, petals, and stems of the fall palette.

I just spend two lovely days working with my MOP colleagues at the Roundhouse Community Arts Centre. We set up in the light of a Yaletown morning, preparing the space for the students and families that took part on the workshops. The activities were a celebration of ecological art, with networking opportunities, artist talks, and an installation of photos of the works created by artists working in Stanley Park.



Purple asters or Michaelmas daisies are good bee plants for this time of the year.

I was thrilled to be working with seeds again. The warm, sunny weather has been perfect for saving seeds, so I made piles of them for the participants to sort through. Using 10 cups of red clay, 6 cups of soil, and 2 cups of seeds, we made 30 dozen seed balls in one session. So in all total we made 75 dozen seed balls. That's a lot of potential bee fodder!!


A typical day at the Roundhouse creates a found poem.


I created a seed game for the participants to become more aware of the shapes of the different seeds.

The grade four and five students at Elsie Roy created a lovely ball made out of ivy with Sharon Kallis.
These are the spools they use to crochet the invasive ivy. The plant has to be thoroughly dried out before it can be returned to the forest or it will take root and spread again.

I enjoyed watching Sharon and the volunteers strip the ivy of its leaves as people inside the foyer stretched to go out for a run. Some of the motions were very similar, but for a completely different purpose and with a different intention.


Jody did a lot of kneeling, bending and stretching to prepare, create, and clean up the ephemeral mazes and mosaics.


I was struck by the meditative quality of all three workshops, especially on the Saturday when the pace was very relaxed and easy-going. Once people got focused on one activity they were reluctant to break out of the zone to enter another. The intimate gestures of sorting seeds became conducive to sharing stories about food and gardening that lead to all sorts of interesting conversational threads and ideas about how to make our city more bee-friendly.

Saving Columbine Seeds at UBC Farm

Let the seed-saving begin! I was granted permission again this year to gather some seeds at UBC Farm, so yesterday I got to work. Those silvery grey columbine pods are quite striking against the patterns of the ugly concrete bunker. They are excellent spring bee plants and it is so satisfying to shake the pods into a paper bag. You can do this without damaging the plants, leaving them up for sculptural interest during the winter.

I collected lots of calendula and hollyhock seeds which of course come with free little earwigs, like a living toy in a crackerjack box, so I tip the bag out to leave them on the farm for someone else to enjoy. These seeds are great for teaching kids because they can learn to separate the chaff and outer parts of the flower from the seeds.

There weren't many cosmo seeds that were ready to gather. They are tricky to collect because they tend to fall off as soon as they are ripe.


Aren't these pumpkins gorgeous? They do look magical, like they could turn into a horse-drawn coach or happy-go-lucky scarecrow at any moment.


I'm very curious about these sunflowers with soft, silvery leaves. Who are they? Where did they come from and where are they going?

I took these photos last week when I was checking to see if the seeds are ripe. It has been raining since then, so it's still not the ideal time to collect seeds as they were a bit moist, but I can dry them out on baking pans in my back porch--much to the consternation of my partner when he wants to use the pans to cook our dinner!



The rudbeckias are stunning at this time of the year. They are the true late-bloomers here in Vancouver.


I've never seen this kind of amaranth before, and I like the colour. It would look amazing in a fall flower arrangement. Did I say fall? I meant late summer. Let's hope we get more days like this one so that seed savers all over the province can "rob the pods."

Spring Fling: One

This is a great time of the year to launch our seed balls. The students had fun tossing them into a vacant lot and marking the area as pollinator habitat with ephemeral art.

I showed the class pictures of natural art using patterns such as spirals, circles, webs, and checkerboards, which they could draw inspiration from.

I brought along organic materials for the students to use (rhododendron leaves, pusywillows, twigs, and dried flower petals) and they picked a few things they found on the site, such as the occasional rock or feather.

This spiral is accented with weeping birch twigs.

Here the teacher uses rhododendron leaves and hydrangea petals to decorate her spiral.


Some of the students used the sidewalk chalk on the plants themselves. Here, it reveals the delicate texture of the leaf.

These students chose to create a 3D sculpture in the grass and created "snow" by grating the chalk.





Some students created homages to the bees by drawing their images and wishing them well.

Others created more abstract signs.