by Mary Perlmutter

We are all busy harvesting and storing the bounty that nature has provided this year. I am also occupied with the preparation of everlasting plants for sale. The most labor-intensive of all the everlastings is Lunaria (common names Honesty, Money Plant, Silver Dollars, Moon Pennies).

Lunaria is a biennial that flowers with tall purple spikes in the spring of the second year. Each flowerette on the spike develops a white, papery, three-layered disc with seeds between the two outer discs and the inside one. These two outer discs, along with the seeds, are rubbed off, leaving the gleaming white central disc on the stalk. This becomes a stunning gleaming white bouquet.

The cleaned plant is then bagged in a clear plastic bag. (I bought a huge roll of these bags some years ago from a firm that supplies plastic bags to the clothing and cleaning industries.) We sold enough Lunaria that year during the first hour to recoup the investment in the bags.

The next-best seller is Physalis, a perennial commonly called Chinese Lanterns. These are pulled up by the root, the leaves are stripped off right in the garden and then they are separated into bunches of 10 which are tied together with 2-cm strips of old nylon stockings. The advantage of this fabric is that it has great capacity to stretch. The bunches of Chinese Lanterns are hung to dry in the garage, where the low light helps preserve the bright orange color of the seed pods.

Statice sinuata and Statice latifolia are two more plants grown for drying. Statice sinuata has a triangular shaped cluster of flowerettes in colors ranging from apricot to deep blue. Park seeds have a variety called "Statice Sunset" with warm colors ranging from yellow through the red spectrum to maroon.

Statice latifolia forms a beautiful panicle of dainty white or lavender in the shape of a bride’s bouquet.

Achillea taygetea debutant is another exquisite flower to grow for drying.

Strawflowers and Gomphrena produce beautiful flowers to which the name "everlasting" really applies.

Once the harvesting is over, we till under the area with the cover crop. This year it is buckwheat. Some gardeners tend to plow or till the whole garden at this time. I prefer spring tilling because weeds usually germinate early and can be turned over to be seen no more (or so we hope!).

May your own garden be bountiful enough to provide you with frozen, dried and canned organically grown produce all winter.