In the Garden: Three ways to preserve the beauty of your summer garden

Fall is quickly approaching and as you prepare for the change of seasons, consider preserving some of your summer garden’s beauty. Photograph, dry or press a few of your favorite flowers to enjoy and share with others.

Cell phone cameras have greatly improved and allow even novice photographers the opportunity to capture the beauty of their gardens and favorite plants. Visit your garden in the early morning or evening when the light tends to be perfect for taking pictures. Try focusing on a favorite flower, bouquet or garden that you love. Watch how plant shapes, colors and textures contrast and combine to create pockets of beauty in the garden.

Harvest and dry some of your favorite flowers for dried arrangements and crafts. Pick the flowers when they are at peak bloom and dry them. Cut the flowers midday when they contain less moisture, reducing the dry time.

Use a bypass pruner or garden scissors to cut the stems above a set of healthy leaves. Remove the foliage and gather them into small bundles. Secure the stems with rubber bands. They will contract when the stems shrink and continue to hold the stems tightly. Use a spring-loaded clothespin to hang the bundles from a hanger, clothesline or nail. Allow the flowers to dry in a warm, dark, dust-free location.

Lay flat-faced flowers, like daisies, face down on a flat surface to dry since they tend to close a bit when hung upside down. Simply cut off the stem and place the flowers face down on newspaper or craft paper in a warm, dry location. Once dried, you can glue them in place or use florist wire to create stems for arranging.

Be sure to pick a few seedpods and seedheads from perennials and ornamental grasses. Allow them to dry on the plants, harvest and use them to add interesting texture and form to your dried flower arrangements and projects.

Try pressing a few flowers to use for making cards, gifts, and works of art. Just place the leaves and flowers between pieces of craft or similar paper in a flower press or heavy book. You can purchase or make your own flower press with wood, bolts, wing nuts, cardboard and paper. Be sure to sandwich the flowers between sufficient layers of paper to protect the pages of your book.

Use freshly picked flowers at their peak of beauty for best results. Arrange the leaves and petals as desired before pressing, since they will dry the way you place them.

Once your flowers are placed in between the paper and pages of the book, close it, and stack a few books on top for added weight. Or evenly tighten the flower press to apply needed pressure. Your dried flowers will be ready in about a month.

Store pressed flowers in paper envelopes or between sheets of paper. Place them in cardboard boxes in a dry location until you are ready to create your pressed flower project.

As your gardens transition into fall, look for other flowers, foliage and seed pods to add to your dried flower collection. Continue to photograph your garden and enjoy the beauty every change of season provides.

Melinda Myers has written more than 20 gardening books, including the recently released Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition and Small Space Gardening. She hosts The Great Courses “How to Grow Anything” instant video and DVD series and the nationally-syndicated Melinda’s Garden Moment radio program. Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine, and her website is MelindaMyers.com, which features gardening videos, free webinars, monthly gardening tips, and more.