Earth Mother Dandelion Crown

In today's story, we honor the Mother of us all for Mother's Day -- the earth! In the story, Earth Mother walked the land and cared for all of her creatures and plants. Man, Frog, and Mosquito each had very different ideas about which creature was the biggest nuisance, but Earth Mother knows that all living things have an important role to play in the interdependent web of life.

One living thing that a lot of humans seem to consider a nuisance is the humble dandelion. I love dandelions, and so do bees and other pollinators! A lot of people consider them weeds, but they're such cheerful, useful, important plants. You can also do lots of neat things with them -- there are stories about ways to tell time or the future with the dandelion clocks, you can eat them, and you can even wear them.

Let's make dandelion crowns to celebrate dandelions and Mother Earth!

-dandelions

-yep, that's it

Luckily for me, my back yard is just FULL of dandelions, so I didn't have to go far. But usually, dandelions aren't too hard to find! They are very good at growing anywhere.

You'll want to pick dandelions with long stems. Leave the little ones alone for the bees!

Take a pair of good, long dandelion stems to start. I find this easiest to do if you can lay them flat on the floor or the ground to start the chain.

Lay one dandelion on top of the other in a right angle, as if you are making the top corner of a square. Fold the vertical dandelion's stem under the horizontal one. Then, make a loop by pulling the end of the vertical dandelion over its head, and laying the long end against the stem of the horizontal dandelion.

Continue the pattern with more flowers, making sure to twist each new stem loop around all of the previous stems. The garland will start to become quite thick! After the first four or five dandelions, it will stay together quite nicely and will become easier to work with.

If you're making a garland to hang somewhere, you can just keep going til you run out of dandelions. If you're making a crown, stop periodically to see if it fits around your head yet. You'll want to have a few extra inches of trailing stem so you can finish it off. If you can't find enough long-stemmed flowers to fit your bigger grown-up head, you can finish off the back with a few spent dandelion clock stems.

Here's the only slightly tricky part -- fixing the garland into a circle. Take the longest trailing ends of the stems, and wrap them around between the first two flowers. Pull the stems all the way around and pull them a little tight. Then, tuck the stems through one of your first loops at the front end of the garland. You can wrap the stems again and tuck them through twice if you have enough length and you want it to feel extra secure.

I wore mine for awhile, and then I gave it to my porch goblin. I think he really likes it.

If your mom is around, maybe you could make her a dandelion crown for Mother's Day! If not, wear it yourself in honor of our Earth Mother, who mothers us all.