January 2024

Bringing the outdoors in whether you can find one stem or a whole bouquet - bringing nature indoors in winter is a treat for the senses!

Ikebana, the “way of flowers,” is a tradition in Japanese culture that involves the arrangement of flowers and other natural materials in a stylized manner - can be traced back to the sixth century. Simple flower arrangements (called kuge) were created to honour Buddha, and this practice evolved over time into the more formalized art of ikebana.
Why not create your own simple, single stemmed arrangement for a stunning winter display?

Or try making a mandala with what you can find in the winter garden, see the  Video   Do-A-Long Mindful Mandala Making on the Trellis YouTube Channel - Subscribe to keep up to date with our activity videos

Activity Sheet We've created an easy to follow, step-by-step  Activity Sheet: Creating a Mandala , see Factsheets pageso you can share this with your gardening group and get busy! Find all our free to download Activity Sheets here. 

Adaptive Tip To make it easier for those who are blind/partially sighted to take part. Ensure that the materials used to create the mandala can be easily identified by texture or shape or smell. A tray with shallow sides can be used to navigate by and ‘contain’ the mandala. Use a coloured sheet of paper e.g. yellow, to provide good colour contrast in the bottom of the tray.
Look out for the symbols indicating which activities build or suit those with specific skills - featured in Year-Round Gardening Activities book.

Extension activity: Mandalas can be very ephemeral – changed in a second or slowly fading back into nature if created outdoors. However, you can capture the beauty of your /your groups mandala’s in a photograph . Why not print your photos and create a mandala art display ? Or use natural materials which will keep (the kitchen cupboard may yield up lots of beans, lentils, rice or use scrunched up coloured tissue paper), glueing them into position, to create a more permanent mandala for display or for individuals to take away.

Join us in a  Live Demo session 11th January 2024 Winter finds & What to do with your dried flowers 
Lots of gardening activities Live Demos throughout the year. From heathers to houseplants, there's lots to enjoy! 
Sign-up here and receive information about online Live Demonstrations and other training events straight to your email inbox.