Works for Me Wednesday: Mother's Day Mary Garden Baskets

With Mother's Day fast approaching, I have been talking to the kids about who the special Mommies in their lives are and how we might want to honor them this weekend.  Likewise, we have started talking about May being the Month of Mary and what we might do to celebrate.

Yesterday, we had a great brainstorm session about what they want to give their grandmothers, great-grandmother and godmothers as Mother's Day gifts this year.  (I so want to share their fantastic ideas here, but cannot yet - no spoilers for our special moms!)  As a part of our discussion, we looked back at what we did last year -- real Mary Garden baskets for those close by and coloring ones and photo booklets for those afar.  Both were fun, economical, interactive projects for the kids and I as givers that provided smiles on the receiving end, too.  So, I thought I would share some pics and files from what we did in case anyone wants to borrow ideas for the moms in their lives this year.  Mary Garden Baskets are a meaningful, kid-and-receiver friendly way of showing love not only to our moms here on earth, but to Mother Mary.  They really work for us and I hope they might work for you, too. Enjoy!

For our nearby moms, first, we set about using some tracing, coloring, cutting and creativity skills to make our own wooden spoon Mary's.  basically, the kids colored wooden spoons orange and drew faces on them.  Then, they traced a small bowl and a larger bowl on cloth and cut out the circles to make the dresses and veils, which they threaded onto the spoons before using blue tape to hold the pieces in place
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Then, after some after puppet play, reciting the Hail Mary, which they were learning as part of last year's Month of Mary celebration, Luke and Nina picked out baskets from our stash that they wanted to use as gift baskets -- a larger one for Grammy and a smaller one for G.G., who has limited space near her nursing home bed, but loves flowers.  Once we knew the size of the baskets we had to fill, and after I had gathered together a list of traditional Mary Garden flowers from here and here, we were off to buy flowers.  The kids helped pick out types and colors, with my guidance that G.G's had to be a bit of a shade-lover.  And, then, they excitedly helped me plant them in the baskets when we returned home.

 

We added the Mary spoons the kids made (and a homemade card that explained the significance of Mary baskets, and the gifts were ready to give.

(If you click on the thumbnails above, I believe larger-size versions of the Mary Garden explanation card front, middle and back will appear for you.) 

After making our real-life Mary Garden Basket, the kids and I talked about how sending homemade baskets of flowers to Nana, Godmummy Kathy and Godmummy Gina might be difficult.  The flowers might wilt and die.  So, I asked them what we should do instead?  Luke said we could make them paper ones, so that is 

exactly what we did.

  

I printed out some Mary Garden flower coloring pictures that I found online and using these, markers, brown paper shopping bags, some recycled card-front images of Mother Mary, scissors and glue, we made the Paper Mary Baskets.

 

Then, the kids decided that since our far-away moms could not see them on Mother's Day, we should send photographs. So, I made some Mary Garden Basket booklets of the kids to go along with the Paper Mary Baskets. These Paper Baskets and booklets were also fun to make and well-received.We hope to enjoy this year's projects just as much!

If you'd like to learn more about Mary Gardens, please see the following sites:

- Mary Gardens
- Fish Eaters
- Catholic Mom

And for some wonderful Mont of Mary Ideas, see Catholic Icing.

Plus, if you know of other Mary Garden sites, please add a comment and/or link to let us know about them, too.  And, of course, share your frugal, fun Mother's Day and Month of Mary ideas with us!  Finally, to see what works for other folks this Wednesday, simply clock on the links at We Are THAT Family.

Have a blessed Mother's Day and Month of Mary!

Make an Edible Mini Mary Garden!

St. Isadore the Farmer's feast day is coming up this week and it's Mary's month, so it's a perfect time to make an Edible Mini Mary Garden!

All you'll need is some potting soil, a small Mary statue, Marian peg doll or other Mary image, a pot, some symbolic plants, and any bits of decor you'd like.

This year, I will be getting whatever I can find at our local garden store, trying to stick with edible herbs and flowers such as:

• sage (Mary's Shawl)
• spearmint (Mary's Mint)
• thyme (The Virgin's Humility)
• rosemary (Mary's Nosegay)
• parsley (Our Lady's Little Vine)
• nasturtium (St. Joseph's Flower)
• pansies (Our Lady's Delight)
• Sweet William (Lady Tuft)
• violet (Our Lady's Modesty)
• strawberry (Fruitful Virgin)
• impatiens (Our Lady's Earrings)

If you'd like to try other plants, look at All About Mary where you can find one of my favorite  lists of symbolic Mary plants.

***
UPDATE:

We ended up planting these:

Since I could not find our Mary statues we just printed pictures of Mary, glued them to upside down plastic forks, and "laminated" them with packing tape They've been holding up and filled in nicely within a month.

This one...

...became this:

And this one...

... became this:

And, this one...

became this:

We love them!

***

If you'd like some picture inspiration, you might take a peak at our first Mary Garden Baskets made years ago for Mother's Day...

Make a Mary Garden Basket

Or the almost annual posts I've shared with the Mini Mary Gardens we've made on our own or with friends...

Make a Mini Mary Garden

Mini Mary Gardens

Make a Mini Mary Garden

Happy planting! Have a beautiful St Isadore the Famer feast day and Marian month of May.

St. Isadore the Farmer and Blessed Virgin Mary, prayer for us.

Two More Days to Make a Mini-Mary Garden

Yesterday, my daughter woke to a red, ripe strawberry.  She was so excited.
 

She has been going outside every morning to check our mini-Mary gardens, hoping to find a berry before the many squirrels and other critters that visit our yard do. 

I shared my daughter's joy as she discovered the first ripe berry of the season in her brand-new mini-Mary garden.  She was so delighted to harvest it, show it off to her brother and Daddy, and offer to share a bit of it, despite how tiny it was.  I was equally delighted that the kindness of a friend who has hosted a mini-Mary garden event for friends two years in a row brought both figurative and literal fruit to our lives.

The figurative fruit included time spent together in prayer, planting, and play with friends, as well as the practical life skill of learning to garden for my children.  The literal fruit, of course, is the strawberry!

Simple preparations have made way for savored blessings!

Making This Year's Mini-Mary Gardens

{Disclosure:  Some of the links below are affiliate ones.  Should you click through them and make any purchase, we may receive small compensation at no extra cost to you.  Thank you for supporting us as we continue Training Happy Hearts in our children and ourselves, sharing about it here.)
This year, we made our gardens exactly the same way we did last year, using:

• parsley, basil, strawberries and nasturtium, because that is what a local nursery had in stock.  (You could also use traditional Mary Garden plants.)
  
  
  

• 10-14 inch round pots that are 6+ inches deep or strawberry planters.  (My children used new heavy, breakable pots purchased at a local discount shop since our pots from last year already are growing with perennial strawberry plants  Some of our friends wisely replanted last year's berry plants so they could re-use the lightweight, unbreakable 14-inch TerraBowl Planters that they purchased last year and others used pots they had empty at home.)
  
  
  

• small statues of Mary.  (We re-used our Immaculate Heart of Mary Statue Favors which were ordered inexpensively as a twelve count last year to be split among friends.  Some of our friends used other statues this year.)
  
  
  
  

• potting soil

 

• small pots and paper cups (We forgot our trowels, so we simply used little generic green pots to transfer soil.  We also gave a small pot to one of the littles in our group to make a micro mini-Mary garden!)
  
  
  

• glass gems (which were washed up and re-used from last year.)
  
  
  

• shells (which, again, were re-used from last year.)
  
  
  

• other decorative items from nature and our craft bins.
  
  
  

Before making the gardens, we gathered for a faith-chat and to pray a decade plus of the rosary.
 

After making them, we enjoyed sunshine, play, and chatting.  And, of course, since making the gardens, we've begun enjoying small harvests from them.

I dare say that making mini-Mary gardens will continue to be a beloved annual event for my children.  Perhaps you'd like to take some time to begin a similar tradition before Mary's month of May ends on Tuesday.  I'd love to see snapshots if you do!

If you'd like more details on how to make the gardens, please go to Make a Mini-Mary Garden to find them.

Make a Mini-Mary Garden

If you're looking for an easy, enjoyable faith-based craft to close out the month with, how about creating a mini-Mary garden?

Last week, in honor of the feasts of Our Lady of Fatima and St. Isadore the Farmer, we gathered with friends to do just that.  Since the month of May is dedicated to Mary, however, anytime this month would be a perfect time to make such gardens.

I know we are delighted that our friend suggested hosting a mini-Mary garden making event, as making the gardens proved easy and fun.  Before we made them, we prayed a decade of a rosary together and, afterward, we enjoyed plenty of time chatting and playing the beautiful sunshine, so it made for a perfect afternoon!  And, now, we are excitedly watching our herbs grow.  (Please, dear God, do not let my "black thumb" kill our edible plants before we can harvest them!)

Suggested Supplies

If you'd like to make your own gardens, you simply need to gather some basic supplies. 

(Note:  Some of the links which follow are affiliate ones for your convenience.)

This is what we used:

• a variety of herbs and plants. (We used parsley, basil, strawberries and nasturtium because it was what a local nursery had for us.  However, you could use traditional Mary Garden plants, too.)

• 10-14 inch round pots that are about 6 inches deep.  (My childred used heavy, breakable ones purchased at a local discount shop.  Some of our friends wisely ordered lightweight, unbreakable 14-inch TerraBowl Planters.)

• small statues of Mary.  (We used these Immaculate Heart of Mary Statue Favors, which our friend ordered inexpensively as a twelve count.)

• potting soil

• hand trowels 

• glass gems

• shells

• other decorative items from nature or your craft bin 

Putting Your Mini-Mary Gardens Together

Supplies gathered, the hands-on fun can begin!

1.  Fill your pot with soil.

2.  Decide where you want your Mary statue to be.

3.  Determine where you want your herbs to be.  Take them out of their original containers, loosen their roots slightly, dig small holes in the soil in your planters, put the root balls in, and pat the soil firmly, but gently, around the root balls.

4.  Decorate as desired with gems, shells, sticks and more.  (Luke made a blue gem pathway in the shape of a cross and a little arbor our of twigs.  Nina chose to put Mary in the center with a gem pathway up to her and shells around her.  Jack decorated with shells and gems in a rather symmetrical design and added some twigs, too.)

5.  Add your final touches and water gently.

It's that easy!  And, if you don't have the "right" size pot, don't worry.  Even in smaller containers, the gardens look great!

You can even use a basket if you wish.  We did this a several years ago in order to make Mother's Day Mary Garden Basket gifts which were quite a hit!

 

We'd love to see how your gardens come out!  Feel free to comment with a picture or post a snapshot of your Mini-Mary Garden at our Training Happy Hearts Facebook Page.