URBAN FARMER: How to make a festive wreath using fruit and veg

SO LET me get this straight,” said florist Lorcan Burke rather doubtfully. “You want me to make a Christmas wreath using fruit and, ahem . . . vegetables?”

“Yes, fruit, vegetables, and anything else that people might typically have growing in their garden at the moment,” I answered breezily. “You know, a slightly quirky GYO take on the classic wreath, but something that would be easy enough to make at home. I was thinking that Brussels sprouts might look quite cool . . .”

At this point, I could almost hear Lorcan’s nose politely wrinkling over the phone. “Brussels sprouts,” he said to me very gently, “might not smell too nice after a few days. But leave it with me – I think I understand what youre looking for.”

The result, when I saw it, was far more beautiful than I’d expected. “Id call it a kitchen garden wreath,” said Lorcan approvingly, “using stuff that almost anyone should be able to find, either in their garden or in their kitchen cupboards.

“No Brussels sprouts, as you see, but I have used vegetables like beetroot and red onions, which a lot of GYO-ers would still have in storage since harvest-time. Their reddish colours are nice and Christmassy.

“And I’ve used apples, dipped in melted wax and then dusted with sugar, to give them a silvery, wintry look. But you could use plain, unwaxed ones too. Just make sure they’re brightly coloured and on the smallish side.

“And then there’s lots of fresh ivy, eucalyptus, skimmia flowers, hypericum berries, cinnamon sticks, dried leaves, seedheads and faded hydrangea flowers mixed in with it as well – nearly all of the foliage and even the faded hydrangea flowers could be foraged from outdoors.”

But wouldn’t it be quite difficult to make? “No, not at all,” was Lorcan’s honest answer. “If you don’t want to wire the base yourself, I’d suggest buying a basic 12in wreath, which you’ll get from any florist or garden centre for roundabout a tenner.

“Just cut off the cheap looking decorations so that you’re left with a plain green wreath of foliage – and then you can start adding what you like.

“I’d begin with the fruit and vegetables, fixing them into the wreath in clusters of three, using very thin wooden skewers that you can buy in most supermarkets.

“After that, work the foliage (try ivy, skimmia, viburnum, holly and eucalpyptus), old seedheads and dried flowerheads in around them, using florist’s wire to fix them in place.

“The ribbon comes last. I’ve used a double bow, which I made up before fixing it onto the wreath. Raffia would be nice too. Wrap a length of thin wire around the top of it to hang it off the door and that’s it – you’re done.

With that, Lorcan slung the wire loop over the brass door-knob and we both stood back to admire his very festive wreath. I thought of the OPW’s walled kitchen garden in the Phoenix Park, and its two gardeners Meeda Downey and Brian Quinn, whom heavy snow had kept us from visiting for the last couple of weeks.

A kitchen garden Christmas wreath, I thought to myself, for a column that’s all about a kitchen garden. Exactly the thing, really, to celebrate the end of one growing-your-own year, and the beginning of another.

Lorcan Burke’s flower shop, Absolutely Fabulous Flowers, is l beside the entrance to Celbridge House, on Upper Main Street, Celbridge, County Kildare. www.abfabflowers.ie

01-6272289, info@abfabflowers.ie

* The OPW’s Victorian walled kitchen garden is in the grounds of the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre, beside the Phoenix Park Café and Ashtown Castle. The gardens are open daily from 10am to 4.00pm

* Fionnuala Fallon is a garden designer and writer