Turning My Fading Summer Garden in a Gorgeous Foraged Bouquet

As the warm sun begins to surrender, my once-vibrant garden is starting to fade. The tomato vines have been plucked,, the cucumber plants are shriveled like a raisin, and the whole space feels like it’s ready for a long nap.

But my garden is still giving, so here’s to one last season hurrah. I’m churning what’s left into something unexpectedly beautiful: a whimsical foraged bouquet.

Today’s harvest isn’t just food—it’s art that smells like home. I gathered:

• Grape vines with their velvety leaves still attached

• Lemon basil, with its envigorating fragrance that made Trey stop what he was doing just to breathe it in

• Sweet potato vines, long and twisting, that Nora kept trying to use as “garden ropes”

• Purple flowers from my vinca, their blooms the perfect pop of color—the same ones that almost are never there because they are picked by Bell

Arranging them together feels like weaving beauty from what the season left behind. The greens twist and weave, the purples pop, and the whole thing smells like the start of something new.

It’s a reminder that even when the garden is dying, there’s still so much beauty left to linger—and plenty of little hands here to help me gather it.

garden snips used: https://woodlandtools.com/super-duty-utility-snips/?ref=gardengardner