Back at the Semps

So what do you do if you just can resist all those varieties of Semps out there, and you have amassed a collection.  Guilty.

You can make a wreath (may be I'll post a how to do some day), but to day we are going to do something different.

I am a 4-H leader for Gardening and Floraculture in our local club. The young lady I teach Floraculture to came to me with this idea she found on the Internet for making a picture out of Semps.  It didn't take us long to decide that this would be a good project. Even Lady thinks so.

My Father-in-Law throws nothing out.  He had this great frame that he basically made a shadow box for.  We used hardware cloth, 1/4" in size.

Marla's Dad made hers but they used 1" cloth (much better size), you learn as you go.  She filled her box from the back, adding soil first,

 Then adding a thin layer of sphagnum moss to hold the soil in.



Then screwing the 'frame' down to the shadow box.

Mine was made upside down, laying the moss down first on the hardware cloth.

Adding the potting soil, sliding the back on and screwing it down.

Now the fun part, we get to fill it with whatever we want.  Marla's frame is huge, she added semps, small sedums and some creeping thyme.

Surprisingly, you don't need a lot of material, you actually want the smaller pieces (chicks) and little sprigs of sedums and thyme.  Marla took hers home to her little greenhouse until she is ready to display it at our 4-H Achievement Day towards the end of July.  By then it should be looking quite good.

I had to cut out some of the hardware cloth so it gave me 1" squares for adding some of the semps.  I kept mine pure, semps only.  They will take a little while to root in, but I can't wait until it can be hung up (carefully of course).

Hmmm, I wonder if Papa has anymore frames lying around??