Making your own summer bouquets is easy. I made these two bouquets with flowers and vegetables from my garden.

It's soon time for the last day of school before summer break for my older boys. All the children bring beautiful bouquets to school and then they decorate the church in my village with the flowers. I made these arrangements myself, take a look at this years' bouquets!

I really enjoy the closing ceremony in the church, even though I don't support the Swedish church economically anymore (here in Sweden, we automatically pay church tax unless you choose to officially leave the church.) There's a certain kind of ambience in the church on these occasions though, a festive and ceremonious feeling that I love. The children have been practicing their songs and are looking forward to performing in front of their parents. It feels so special, even more so since I only go to church on special occasions like these. I always start to cry when the children sing, it's so beautiful. The teachers at the school are so good at making the children feel motivated to really sing their hearts out. One of my kids is going to sing and I'm going to film it!

I'm not a florist, but I'm happy with this bouquet. I think it will look nice in a church window on a beautiful summer day!

Making your own summer bouquets

I get up early on the day of the ceremony and try to collect bouquets for the children. I want to pick flowers that they like, preferably with something edible included too. This year's bouquets are made with larkspur, bleeding heart, lovage, red goosefoot and raspberry, for example.

Not that many of my annuals are blooming right now, but they will later in summer. I usually only pick flowers in summer for me and my daughter since this is when both of us have our birthdays. I can't really keep on picking flowers on a daily basis since it's hard to know where to put them. We do after all have a large family of rowdy children and a huge dog that could topple my vases over. My dream is to have a study with flowers from my garden, all year round. I'm growing everlasting flowers that I'm planning on drying!

The pumpkins in the pictures are of the variety Olga, the variety is grown for its shell-less seeds. I've saved these pumpkins since I harvested them in August and I'm planning on removing the seeds and using them in my cooking soon.

I packed lots of strawberries and made chocolate treats and black currant juice for my kids last day at school before summer break. We're going to bake Swiss rolls and eat ice cream when they get back home again. And tacos for dinner tonight. Good luck making your own summer bouquets!
/Sara Bäckmo