…because there can never be too much plant-protective bunting

I have been tidying up the bunting we set up to protect recently planted and small native plants as I pass, adding a few pennants and re-tying after wind and rain.  I am surprised it has lasted so long.  But there are other plants in need of protection.  A woman had a long chat with me as we each tried to figure out what to do about cars parked in ‘the garden’, as she put it, in another nearby newly planted patch.  She confided that there was bunting across the way and it was wonderful and effective and she wished there was some in her street.  I confessed I’d made it and explained how in answer to her questions.  She asked for some.

We discussed the council and what we might be able to do. I encouraged her to call them.   In the end, I made some more bunting.

It’s low-fi bunting, this.  I have made some that is labour intensive and lovely, but in the case of bunting that suggests people should stop going where they feel entitled to go–through experience I have learned that sometimes metres of it will be ripped down and vanish in a single night.  I’m not up for that when I have spent a lavish amount of time and care.  This is bunting made from scraps, with minimal effort.

I cut fabrics to shape, and then sew onto recycled string.  Here, two strands of cotton yarn from an unpicked second hand jumper.  I dyed them years back, inadvisedly, but here they are, coming into their own.  The fabrics include a second hand napkin, what is left of a thrifted sheet (considering most of it became a shirt for a friend years back), remainders of a bag made for my mother, little bits from the cupboard, a panel from a thrifted skirt…

I piece together little bits, and don’t worry about grain and such.  They just need to flutter in the breeze and offer a tip that this is not a parking bay.  Drape is not a big concern!

My very patient beloved agreed to come and help me put it up.

And here we are, admiring our handiwork as the sun goes down and passersby come past with their dogs, too polite to ask. As you can see, the plants we are trying to protect are still small.  Those that haven’t already died must be hard to see from a car.   There is still another spot near here where people park… so there may yet be more bunting!