From the Garden: Summer Nature Crafts

Everything You Need Is Already Outside

Flower and leaf pressing.

The best summer crafts do not come from a kit. They come from the garden, the path, the hedge.

Seven activities, made from what is already outside. You won't need a shopping list or a tub of plastic beads, only hands, the weather, and whatever the season has left on the ground.

1. Grass Weaving

Pull long blades of grass and weave them together between your fingers; over, under, over, under. Start with two blades and add more once you get the hang of it. You’ll end up with a small green mat or a bracelet. It will dry and curl within a day.

Grass Weaving.

2. Flower and Leaf Pressing

Collect flat flowers and interesting leaves. Tuck them between two sheets of paper inside the heaviest book in the house. Forget them for a week. A pressed buttercup from July becomes a Christmas card in December.

Pressed petals and leaves.

3. Stone Stacking

Find smooth, flat stones of different sizes. Stack them slowly, largest at the bottom, smallest at the top. The stack will fall. Start again. Leave the finished tower in the garden for someone else to find.

4. Mud Painting

Mix garden soil with water until it makes a thick paste. Use fingers, a stick, or an old paintbrush. Paint on stones, bark, a wooden fence. Dark mud on pale wood. Pale mud on dark stone. The rain takes it away within a day.

5. Petal Color Sorting

Collect fallen petals, leaves, and tiny natural treasures. Sort them by color on a white cloth or a scrap of paper. Try making a gradient from lightest to darkest, or group them by color families.

6. Stick and Leaf Mobile

Find a sturdy stick about the length of your forearm. Tie a few lengths of string or thread to it at different spots. Attach leaves, seed heads, or small pinecones to the ends. Hang the mobile from a low branch or a doorframe and watch it catch the breeze.

7. Nature Mandala

On a flat patch of dirt or grass, place one object in the centre. A stone, a single seed. Build outward in circles. Petals, then leaves, then twigs. The mandala lasts an afternoon. The wind takes the rest.

Nature Mandala.

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From the Seasonal PlayBooks

Companions for each turn of the year. Nature invitations,

simple recipes, slow projects for the rhythm of the season.

Explore the PlayBooks →