Holiday Wreath Project

 As luck would have it, I needed to prune the grape vines and I need a wreath for the front door...

who said timing is everything right!?

 The grapes get a really heavy prune after the leaves drop and then I tie the and shape the larger growth from last year, so the plants have more structure.  I'm not sure my pruning technique is perfect but I read a few articles about grape pruning and I think I'm pretty close.

 What I was left with was a huge pile of vine clippings...some 12 feet long and really supple 

 I sorted through every thing and picked cuttings that I thought would make for a nice wreath, including ones that have the little dried curly tendrils 

 Having never done this before...I figured it would either turn out great or 

be a Charlie Brown wreath...or most likely something somewhere in the middle

 I chose a really nice beefy vine to start with and tied it off using floral wire.

By the way, is was raining the whole time I worked on this, which actually was sort of fun

 You keep adding and winding and weaving the vines together.  I clipped off the stray ends to keep  it from looking too messy 

The wreath tends to pull and get a bit out of shape as you add more vines,

 so tying the whole thing together at different spots helpes to keep the shape circular

I saved a few smaller really long pieces of vine to criss-cross and wrap around the wreath and to cover up any areas where the wire was showing.

I actually didn't use much wire

 This wreath will have greenery and some dried things too,  but almost everything will be things that I can pick in the garden

In the next post I will finish it off and hang it on the door!

It is not perfectly round but I love the rustic natural look of the vines

and the best part is that it was free!

Cheers!