Small-scale Topiaries: Windowsill Perfection

By Kelly Wood

Photos by Rhoda Peacher   Topiary Candidates Here are a few plants that make good, small topiaries (only a few of the myriad possibilities): Herbs Rosemary either upright or trailing Lavender Thyme German camomile Small-leaved basil Lemon Verbena Caper Bush Ornamentals Small-leaved fuchsia Scented geraniums pelargoniums Cardinal climber of other small-leaved vine Dwarf/miniature rosebushes Juniper Dwarf conifers (check with bonsai growers) Top   Want to Try …Trellising? Click here for more>>

I recently received a postcard from a friend who visited Paris, but it was not of the Eiffel Tower or the Champs-Elysées—it was the awe-inspiring topiary shapes of the gardens at the Palace of Versailles, the pleasure grounds of King Louis XIV.

Homemade, small-scale topiary steps start here>>

I studied those same gardens in landscape architecture classes.

They’re often held up as an ideal of garden perfection: harmony, visual pleasure, peace and structure all side by side in a relaxing stroll around the grounds.

Why is the formal French style so appealing? Although topiary and plant shaping is not unique to the French—it can be found the world over—it seems to have a common appeal.

What is it about such formal design that gives us a sense of peace and comfort?

Inherent in the lovely shaping and pruning lies the secret to household sanity: It’s tidy! It’s the idea that we can control our world.

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Gain a Feeling of Control …
Wouldn’t it be nice if we could just wield a pair of hedge clippers and get the laundry, dishes and children’s rooms all in perfect order with a few whacks?

What could be more soothing than a walk down a yew allée toward a boxwood parterre, surrounded by perfectly geometric shrubberies and carefully manicured borders?

I personally love to walk in the woods and observe the natural beauty of things; there’s a calming feeling about looking at the lack of structure and control that nature has while still rendering the results gorgeous and balanced.

A fallen forest tree, covered in moss and ferns, cushioned in a pile of slowly moldering leaves is a beautiful, peaceful thing; however, it can make me think of the tree leaning over my compost bins that I’m worried might fall on them, and the moss that keeps growing on my front steps that’s slippery, and how I really need to get the pile of last fall’s leaves spread on the beds before the spring rains stop.

Squirrels scampering up and down an oak tree collecting acorns is endearing and entertaining. Squirrels scampering in and out of my painstakingly placed bird netting eating all my just-ripened strawberries is not.

The sense that we can actually control our gardens, the idea of a picture-perfect, not-a-leaf-out-of-place, ordered landscape (maintained by someone else) is a daydream that can invariably settle the mind of a harried housewife or a frenzied farmer.

We all long for structure, cleanliness, completion of chores and having “nothing to do.” “When I get this work done, I’ll …”  or “Once we finish that project, we’ll …”

How many times a season do we say that, planning for the arrival of our long-awaited friend, Leisure Time, bringing us a chance to stroll around our own grounds, admiring all our hard work and what we’ve finally accomplished?

For farmers, that time never comes. Seasons keep rotating, bedding has to be changed again, livestock always need to be fed; if we stop milking or checking nest boxes, we stop getting food.

Not only will our larder be diminished: Produce left unpicked will biologically signal the plant to slow down production.

Work is the endless lot of the farmer and a warm afternoon stroll through the tranquility of gardens like Versailles or Villandry remains an elusive treat.

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… With Miniature Topiary
But wait! You can achieve the same effect, with no airfare, accommodations, jetlag or Berlitz language lessons at all.

In fact, the word “topiary” comes from the Latin “topiarius” meaning “a creator of places,” which the Romans adapted from the Greek word “topia.”

You can create your own sense of place—come home to your very own miniature Versailles, easily pruned and shaped, and even useful in making that coq au vin in the crockpot for dinner! It’s time to try your hand at small-scale topiary.

Just like bonsai—the ancient Chinese art of aesthetic miniaturization of trees and shrubs—this form of topiary uses small-leafed plants to create miniature works of art.

It’s easy to do, cheap and fun; you can even use the end products as gifts for friends or relatives, or to enhance your culinary prowess.

Everyone will love windowsill-sized pots of herbs, especially when they’ve been pruned and trimmed into little shapes and forms.

For those you make for yourself, I find it only takes a few minutes a week to water and trim them in order to keep them in their formal shapes.

And it can serve as a mini-vacation to a land of formal gardens, complete with the satisfying aroma of lavender from France, rosemary from Italy and thyme from Greece.

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Materials for Ornamental Topiary:

• Small-leafed herb plants, such as thyme or rosemary; or small-leafed fuchsias or vining plants
• Wire, depending on shape of topiary desired
• Wire cutters
• Small, sharp, pointed scissors or shears

Step 1 (Option 1):
Root cuttings of chosen plants in water (fuchsias are particularly easy to do). This can give you nice, straight stems to begin your topiaries if you want to do a standard (or “lollipop”) shape.

The benefit of starting your own cuttings is that you choose your stem shape and size from infancy.

The downside is the time it takes for them to grow large. However, it’s quite a bit cheaper than buying nursery starts.

Step 1 (Option2):
Buy 4-inch high plants at the nursery. This is quick and easy, and can give you a jump-start on your topiary, but can be expensive and leaves you at the mercy of the plant shapes the nursery has on hand. Oftentimes growers will trim out central or straight leaders to encourage a bushier plant, which is considered more marketable. If buying, consider the plants carefully based on the shapes you hope to achieve.

Step 2:
Repot the plants into larger pots to encourage new growth and vigor.

Step 3:
Determine what shape you want the final topiary to be. Your options are limited only by your imagination and by the growth patterns of the plant.

Long, straight stems can be tied onto wire frames, while vines can be twisted carefully around circular or heart-shaped mini-trellises.

Fuller shrubs can be gently stuffed inside three-dimensional shapes and errant growth pruned back to the structure.

If the plant has a strong central stem, it can be tied gently to a stake and allowed to grow in an upright fashion or encouraged to grow into a trunk. Once it’s tall enough, it can be topped and the main growth pinched off to make a full-topped standard.

Step 4:
If a wire structure is to be used, cut the wire (I use basic, wire hangers) to the desired final shape and size, and carefully push it into the soil at the base of the plant.

If it’s a three-dimensional structure, you can tuck the plant into the center of it.

Step 5:
Water regularly and give the plant lots of natural or strong, artificial light to promote short, sturdy growth.

This is the hardest step for me because it also requires patience.

You can’t force a plant to grow faster than it will; by trying, the result is often long, spindly, weak growth that’s more prone to breaking and disease. It won’t form the thick, leafy stems you want for a full, shapely topiary.

You can also fertilize the plant with a product like Miracle-Gro, but again, be moderate. Too much chemical fertilizer can actually burn the roots, thus killing the plant, or promote long, spindly growth that isn’t conducive to topiary training and trimming.

Step 6:
As the plant grows, trim it occasionally.

• If it’s in a three-dimensional shape, trim off the growth that has extended outside the wire frame.
• If it’s a twining plant or one you’re training in a linear shape, gently twist new growth onto the wire trellis and trim off errant growth.

A good way to promote bushy growth, especially on fuchsias and other ornamentals, is to pinch off the growth tips in the middle of a pair of branching leaves, like removing the buds from basil.

Doing this with every branching pair results in exponential growth as well as a bushier habit. On multi-stemmed, fine-leaved plants like thyme or rosemary, just pretend your clippers are miniature hedge trimmers and snip around the perimeter to shape it.

Here are some other fun ideas to try:

• Create a small espalier by making a wire frame to grow the main branches along and trim those to form.
• Or pull longer side branches down to soil level, pin them down with a stake and repeat as they root.
• You can grow a little row of vertical branches like a miniature windowsill hedge to block the view of your neighbor’s trash cans.
• How about three different flavors of thyme with braided “trunks” and a multicolored crown? Or a variegated fuchsia twisted with a solid green-leafed one? Or a small vine twining in the shape of the first letter of someone’s name?

The choices are limited only by your creativity.

Repeat steps five and six until the plant reaches a size and shape you’re happy with.

At this point, it’s complete; with a ribbon tied around it, or placed or replanted into a pretty, decorative container, it makes a perfect gift.

You can also keep it on your kitchen windowsill to get frequent, short-term doses of nirvana from the sense of control you have over this one small thing in your house. Use the clippings in your cooking or leave them out to dry for storing in spice jars.

What could be better—tranquility, control, beauty and culinary satisfaction, all wrapped up in one small
package?

About the Author: Kelly Wood imagines that she lives in Greece by clipping thyme while avoiding the work on her farm in Portland, Ore.

This article first appeared in the Fall 2008 Hobby Farm Home. For more articles like this, review past issues of Hobby Farm Home. You can also subscribe today>>

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Courtesy Barbro Paulsson/ Wikipedia

If you think of Christmas and think of reindeer, think again. Think of the yule goat.

Call him the julbock (Sweden), julebukk (Norway), or joulupuuki (Finland), he’s been part of Scandinavian mid-winter celebrations for more than one thousand years.

In ancient midwinter celebrations a human dressed in goatskins and wearing a mask portrayed the Norse thunder god Thor’s goats, Tanngrisnir (Gap-tooth) and Tanngnjóstr (Tooth-grinder), who pulled his chariot through the winter sky.

In a traveling play called the “Juleoffer,” the man-goat “died” and came back to life, just as the winter sun does at Yule.

Early Christian fathers frowned on pagan revelry, so they proclaimed the Yule goat a demon.

According to 17th-century Swedish records, this darker version of the Yule goat traveled the countryside demanding food, playing pranks, and frightening people on the night of December 25.

He eventually become a benevolent being, giving gifts instead of demanding them.

Still later, instead of giving presents he worked for those who brought them. Gnome-like, gift-giving Swedish tomten, Norwegian nissen, and Finnish tonttu all rode Yule goats or hitched them to their sleds.

Early twentieth century Scandinavian artists like Jenny Nyström popularized the Yule goat and his tomten handlers through hundreds of charming, antique Christmas cards you can still buy at eBay today.

Here are several more ways to add the spirit of the Yule goat to your Christmas festivities this year.

• Buy or make a straw julbock. The tradition dates back hundred of years, when families saved wheat sheaves until Christmas, then used them to create a goat effigy tied with red ribbons. Scandinavian gift stores sell them, as do eBay sellers this time of year.
• Pack up your kids and “go julebukk”, a Norwegian custom whereby children dress in costume (goat, gnome, and Christmas elf costumes are especially appropriate) and appear on the doorsteps of family friends, where they sing Christmas carols in exchange for small treats.
• Keep watch (online) over the Gävle goat, a giant version of a traditional straw julbock erected in central Gävle, Sweden, every year Vandals destroyed 38 the 66 goats constructed since 1966.

  Will this year’s survive? Tune in to the Gävle goat Webcams at Christmas Goat Sweden or official Gävle, Sweden, websites and see.

About the Author: Sue Weaver is a hobby farmer, avid history lover and Hobby Farms contributing editor. 

By Carol Ekarius

That auction was one of the first farm auctions we ever attended.

It was a Saturday afternoon in late February, and cars and pickups, many pulling stock trailers, were streaming up a gravel road near Deer Creek, Minn.

We were in the line, with our trailer hitched behind, and our hopes set high that we’d find just the right group of heifers, at just the right price, to start our own herd of dairy cows. In spite of cold temperatures and wind, the farm auction was drawing a good crowd. 

We bought five Holstein heifers that day; black and white bottle-babies that would form the foundation of our dairy herd almost two years down the line.

But since that February afternoon we’ve attended hundreds of farm auctions (and held one of our own).

We learned what many rural folks have always known: Farm Auctions are a great way to spend a day—offering a chance to socialize with rural neighbors, and the opportunity to buy anything from antiques and collectibles to land and livestock, or tractors and trucks. (Maybe even the kitchen sink!) You just never know what you’ll find at a farm auction.

The History of Auctions
Auctions have a long, and sometimes notorious, history. The first auctions that historians have confidently documented occurred in Babylon, about 500 B.C. At these earliest auctions beautiful women were sold into marriage. 

The Romans used auctions to dispose of all kinds of property, from grain and livestock, to the spoils of war. In fact, in 193 A.D., the Praetorian Guard sold the whole Empire at auction, after killing the ruling Emperor, Pertinax.  Unfortunately for the successful bidder, Didius Julianus, his acquisition was short lived—two months after he claimed the Empire, Rome fell in battle to Septimus Severus.

During the 1500s, the British began using “public outcry” to sell items, with the term “auction” making its debut in British dictionaries around 1600. The British style of auctioneering made its way to the New World with early settlers, but it was often used for selling out the property of debtors—or for selling slaves, giving early auctions in this country a bad name.

After the Civil War, Army Colonels traveled around the country selling seized and surplus Army goods. Civilian auctioneers followed the Colonels around, and dressed similarly, so that soon the public began to address all auctioneers as Colonel—a title still used by auctioneers today.

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The Market Sets the Price
Today, over 35,000 auctioneers practice the trade. Most are generalists, selling antiques one day, livestock the next day and used restaurant equipment another. The auctioneer works for a seller, and his or her goal is to maximize profit for the seller.

According to Bob Shively, CEO of the National Auctioneers Association (NAA), auctions are unlike other marketing methods because they truly allow the market place, on any given day, in any given place, to set the price between a buyer and a seller.

“At auction, the market sets the price; the real estate market gives a good example,” he says. “Typically, if you wanted to sell your house you’d call three or four realtors. They’d come over and tell you your house is worth $100,000 and you’d put your house on the market for that price. But in the majority of cases you’d end up selling it for less than your asking price. So the traditional real estate market works from the price coming down, but the auction method of marketing is based on the price going up. More times than not we find that the price realized at auction is comparable to, or exceeds, that received through other marketing strategies.

“There is age-old thinking that only ‘distressed property’ is sold at auction, but it just isn’t so,” says Shively. “For years, industrial real estate and farms and ranches—especially bare farmland—were often sold at auction, but nationwide we are seeing a real spike in auctions where residential real estate sells at auction also. The National Association of Realtors predicts that within five years, almost one third of all real estate transactions will likely be auction based.”

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At Auctions Buyer Beware Rule Applies
Although auctions can be a lot of fun, and a good way to buy, sell or trade almost anything, they can be a dangerous way for the uninitiated to shop. They are a “buyer-beware” world, where items are sold “as is” and all sales are final.  

An auction I recently attended provides a good example. I got there early in the morning to inspect items I was interested in. There were all kinds of neat household items—some antiques, and some modern—on a hay wagon, and I spent time looking things over.

When the auction got going a couple of nicely dressed women who looked to be straight out of the city started bidding against each other on a bowl that looked like an antique, but was actually a modern reproduction you could probably pick up in a department store for $10 or $20. One of the women was pleased as punch when she got the bowl for $108, but her jaw dropped when the auctioneer handed her the bowl and she realized her mistake. By then, it was too late—she had bought the bowl.

The moral: To get good buys at an auction, you need to be an educated buyer. Although any auctioneer worth his salt won’t tell you it’s an antique if it’s not, he also won’t say during the bidding, “Hey lady, you’re bidding too much for a department-store bowl.” 

Larry Theurer, an auctioneer from Wellington, Kan., who has been in the business since 1976, andis current president of NAA, agrees: “There are a number of things we recommend. Know what you need before you get to the auction, and know what it’s worth. Visit with a reputable auctioneer or someone in the farming business to help assess your needs before you go to your first auction.” 

Don’t buy a big tractor and big equipment if it’s not needed; bigger isn’t always better, says Theurer. “There are differences in quality that auctioneers and experienced farmers know about, but that newcomers don’t always know; one model may have a history of problems, or be harder to find parts for. Some brands always bring more money, but that’s because they are more reliable. In my experience, most hobby farmers, because they have outside jobs, need to buy good quality equipment so they don’t have to spend all their time working on it.”

The same applies to livestock. “Quality varies from farmer to farmer,” says Theurer. “Try to deal with reputable people. Horses are a perfect example. Despite all the good people, there are some real crooks in the horse business. So, there are good horses, but there are also horses with inherited problems. For novice buyers, they won’t even have a clue what those problems are.”

The way around the problems that Theurer points out: Come early and thoroughly inspect any goods you might want to bid on. If you’re thinking of bidding on expensive items, like breeding stock, machinery or vehicles, you can usually arrange an advance visit to the auction  site to get a closer look. Bring along your own personal expert—a mechanic or veterinarian—if you are serious about investing in equipment or livestock. 

Talk to the auctioneer; talk to the owner. “If someone asks me before an auction starts, I’ll give them an honest range that the item they’re looking at should sell for,” says Theurer. “I want buyers to be satisfied with what they buy.”

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The Future of Farm Auctions
The times they are a changing, and auctions are changing with them. “Farm auctions, it’s no secret, are decreasing in number, because we have sold so many farmers off in the last decade or two,” says Theurer. “For example, we do about 10 farm auctions per year now; a decade ago we were doing double that. But one change we have observed is an increase in the volume of equipment and consignors at our consignment auctions. The consignment auction is a great opportunity for smaller farmers to sell, and for beginning farmers to buy all types and sizes of equipment. We may have 100 to 125 consignors—it’s a huge, full day. We’ll have tractors that are 30 or 40 years old, some of collectible types, to modern four-wheel-drive tractors.”

Also, you may be able to take advantage of another change. According to NAA’s Shivley, “By and large, auctioneers are moving into the electronic age. Many are already utilizing online broadcasting of auctions via the Internet. They accept online bids as the live auction is taking place, essentially bringing the world into the auction. It gives auctioneers the ability to maximize value for the seller, which is who they are working for.” 

It also gives buyers the chance to participate in auctions they normally couldn’t attend—or to stay warm and dry while bidding from the comfort of home on a cold winter day.

The Fastest Talker in the World
Auctioneers are known for the chant they use to sell products, and for Bill Sheridan, of Sheridan Realty and Auction in Mason, Mich., his chant—and his knowledge of the auction business—has earned him the title of World Champion Auctioneer.

Bill started out in the auction business in 1975, working first at a livestock sale barn, and later branching out to his own business.

Bill explains his winning technique, “The chant is the announcement of a bid, and calling for a higher bid. Some auctioneers add lots of ‘noise,’ but I feel like the public wants to buy and they aren’t really interested in fancy words. I have worked hard to develop a melodic chant that’s full of rhythm and pleasing to the ear. I try to keep it clean and straight, with no excess garble.”

The world championship is an actual auction with over 500 bidders.

Eighty-eight competitors from every state as well as Canada and Mexico competed last year, and all competitors had to first win at a state championship.

During the competition each competitor sells three items while seven judges assess their technique, their ability to catch bids, how they maintain order in the auction and get value for the items they are selling.

Bill sold a camera, a pearl necklace and a watch during the first round of judging. After all the competitors have sold three items each, the top 15 competitors come up for a question-and-answer session that assesses their knowledge of the business.

If you are looking for a farm auction in the upper midwest, there’s a good chance you might find Bill.

Although he no longer works regularly at a sale barn, he’s still very involved in the agricultural sector, and still sells lots of livestock at private farms and special sales, like the Upper Peninsula Beef Expo Sale, and the Michigan State University Arabian Horse Farm Sale.

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About the Author: Carol Ekarius is a small farmer, freelance writer and a contributing editor to HF.

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This article first appeared in the August/September 2003 issue of Hobby Farms magazine. Pick up a copy at your local newsstand or tack and feed store. Click here to subscribe to HF.

By Maureen Blaney Flietner

Perhaps it’s just in our nature. Those who appreciate the country, being surrounded by the beautiful bounty of the outdoors, want to capture some of it and bring it inside. And why not? It’s difficult to find anything artificial that can compete with the delicate colors, intricate textures, and alluring shapes and scents of nature.

Many of us, as hobby farmers, have also grown accustomed to being thrifty. Using what’s available in our surroundings for alternative uses–such as natural décor–plays right into the practical economics we live by.

Scouting the Land
Surprisingly, the materials that can make up some wonderful natural décor are often “free” items available from unusual sources. Weeds we want to eradicate–such as wild grapevines, bittersweet or teasel–become the stuff of swags and centerpieces. Cones at the base of pine or spruce trees are destined to be the stars of ornaments or  wreaths. Milkweed, that life-giving plant for Monarch butterflies, offers pods excellent for arrangements. Redosier dogwood, rampant through lowlands, makes a striking accent in holiday arrangements with evergreen branches.

It doesn’t end there. A handful of dried wheat. A cache of colorful fall leaves. Piles of acorns or hickory nuts. Twigs. Bouquets of dried flowers. Cornhusks. This is the stuff that natural décor is made of.

If you happen to live on an old farmstead, every year the earth seems to yield a new “crop” from the past. Bits of pottery, parts of old machinery, old square nails and other remnants of earlier lives appear on the ground and can become part of décor unique to your farm. The curlicues of an old piece of metal. A section of an old cedar fence post. A bit of barbed wire. They all have a chance to be a part of a new life on the farm. 

Free Your Imagination
Hobby-farm country décor requires free rein of the imagination. Get in the proper frame of mind. Put an imaginary sign above your work space. On it, picture these words to guide you: “Everything I need is here, waiting to be discovered and appreciated.”

Between what’s growing and what’s “found,” there’s abundance. Each area of the country, each farmstead, offers something special. Wear some gloves, get some clippers and a box, and start gathering.

Here are some simple projects to give your creativity a jumpstart. Then start looking at what local bounty you can transform into something special.

Project: Cone wreath
With their varied textures and earthy colors, cones have long been a popular and free material for decorations. Gather them when they’re available and store them for later use. Air dry the cones or put them on a cookie sheet in a 200-degree F oven for about an hour.

For a cone wreath, you’ll need:

• a metal wreath form
• flexible craft wire. Brown or green works fine. For a different effect, try a gold or copper color.
• needlenose pliers, to occasionally help pull wire through the wreath form
• curved-nose wire clippers, to clip some cones
• different cone sizes and types

Until you get familiar with how much craft wire you will use to secure your cones, start with about a foot of wire. Make sure you will have a few inches of wire left at either end and then encircle the bottom layer of scales. Tuck the wire toward the base of the scales. If the cone is a smaller one, you can twist one of the wire ends tightly around the other end wire. Then anchor the cone to the metal wreath form with the now combined, single wire. For larger cones, take each end of wire and separately secure it to the metal wreath form for extra stability.

Position cones on their sides, angled, base in or base out. Make sure each wire is wrapped around a cone and then wound securely around part of the wreath form. Continue this process as you fill the form.

As the wreath shapes up, add extra touches. Take a pine cone and, with the curved wire cutters, snip off the scales until you reveal the “flower” inside. Wire the base of the clipped cone and keep the “flower” looking outward. For another look, wire the top end of a cone and put the base end out. Small, thin cones can be wired to back into any “holes” in the form. For an extra finish, hot glue some dried flowers to the wreath. Clean gently with canned compressed air.

Project: Grapevine wreath or swag
If you ignore the fact that they’re considered nuisance weeds, wild grapevines are interesting plants that are wildlife-friendly. As you gather these vines, take a moment to appreciate how tendrils allow these plants to aggressively move into the territory of other plants.

Wild grapevines basically “crawl” right over plants with a grip on bark and branches that is surprisingly strong and tight. It’s that flexibility and those tendrils that work well when you turn them into something beautiful like swags and wreaths.

Gather wild grapevines when they are young and easy to shape. You may have to unwrap the grip of some roots to keep the curly tendril look. Snip the leaves to save yourself from having to clean up dried leaves as they disintegrate. You can gather the brown, woodier plants but they will not be as easy to shape. Try to cut vines at the base; you will want each vine to be 4 to 10 feet long. 

Either work with the vines right away or store them for a short time in water, formed in the circular or swag shape you want them to have. For a wreath, start with one vine and create a circle just a bit smaller than the size you want. Wind the vine around about three times and overlap the end. Use a matching or accent craft wire to hold it together.

With the next vine and each subsequent vine, start at a different place around the wreath. Weave each new vine in and out around the main wreath, being careful to allow the curly tendrils to show.

When you have built your wreath to the thickness you want and have securely anchored all of the vine ends, it’s ready for finishing touches. Among the choices could be to hot glue or wire some dried nuts or flowers, colorful leaves or eggshells.

Next Page: More Projects!

About the Author: Maureen Blaney Flietner is a freelance writer, photographer and hobby farmer in Wisconsin.

This article first appeared in the Fall/Winter 2006 issue of Hobby Farm Home magazine.