Planning midwinter in midsummer sounds like complete insanity, but as soon as the longest day dawns, our thoughts turn to the shortest, and we begin cutting our flowers, grasses and herbs for drying.
Breadth and variety is what we want, so things that others would compost we might end up using. We cut when fine weather is forecast, bunch up the stems in groups of 20 and hang them upside-down in the potting shed to air dry, and we keep cutting right the way through to early winter. An ingredients list for one of our wreaths or table centrepieces is as likely to include more traditional tilings such as opium poppy seedheads, ornamental grasses and rubycoloured strawflowers, as it is dried bracken, shepherd’s purse and gone-to-seed land cress, which we discovered by neglect has a ethereal airy seedhead that dries beautifully.
All our ideas come from what is growing around us, either in the walled garden or on the moors, woods and fields near our home. Plants change on a weekly basis and we
