Contact: Diane Relf, Extension Specialist, Environmental Horticulture
Posted April 1997
Everyone loves a present chosen or made especially for them. With a little ingenuity and a few recycled materials, you should be able to please several people on your gift list while avoiding the time and expense of conventional gift shopping. You'll also be reducing the landfill load with no packaging to discard.
Check over the list of ideas below. You'll find gift ideas for gardeners and gourmets, decorating ideas for the holidays, and crafts for the children.
For the avid gardener, convert a 5-gallon bucket into a dual-purpose tool holder/harvest bucket by attaching a tool pouch to the outside. A painter's apron works well, or you can make a custom tool pouch from old blue jeans or upholstery fabric. Use the pockets for seed packets and small tools and the bucket for collecting the harvest.
Save on gift wrap, packaging, and time during the holiday season by giving IOUs for garden work, indoor plant starts, seeds from heirloom plants, or perennial plant divisions.
Ask a group of gardeners what they want for Christmas and more than one will answer "a load of manure." Indulge them -- contact a farm or stable, and arrange to have a load of this valuable soil conditioner delivered to their backyard. You could also share compost from your pile or a municipal pile.
For friends with fireplaces or those who like to barbecue, tie together a few branches from the annual pruning of aromatic woods, such as cherry, apple, or hickory. Add a bow for a seasonal touch.
Dry your own mix of fragrant flowers and herbs for potpourri. Pack in attractive, recycled, wide-mouth, glass jars, such as those from mustard or jelly.
Bouquets garnis for flavoring soups can be mixed up in a jiffy from homegrown or store-bought dried herbs. Cookbooks carry a variety of recipes, most of which include parsley, thyme, bay, and celery leaves. Place 1 tablespoon of dried herbs in a 4-inch-square scrap of muslin. Tie closed with colorful string or yarn. Pack several in a dark glass jar, baking powder tin, or other used kitchen container covered with holiday paper. Give them as hostess gifts or to your favorite gourmet.
For shiny tree ornaments, punch ornamental patterns into used aluminum pie pans or canning jar lids with a hammer and nail. Trim away the sides of the pie pans, and fold under the sharp edges. Add wire, yarn, or string for hangers.
Dry and save common kitchen scraps throughout the year for an ample supply of country-style decorating materials. Corn husks can be braided together for a wreath base or tied in a bow for a wreath or gift decoration. Nut shells and fruit pits add interest to a pine cone wreath. Use shiny seeds from watermelons and apples in garlands and ornaments. For a large tree ornament, insert a ready-made or homemade winter wonderland scene in a hollowed-out pomegranate.
Prune your grapevines a little earlier this year to make a classic wreath. If you can't shape the wreath as you prune, before bending the vines, soak them in water overnight for increased flexibility.
Children will have fun creating gifts and decorations from kitchen and yard wastes. With odds and ends from the craft or sewing box, nutshells can be transformed into turtle and camel figures for the tree. Seed heads from the teasel plant can be fashioned into critters, such as raccoons or porcupines. Pine cones and seed pods become small wreath ornaments. The fruit of the sweet gum tree, if glued together and painted white, can make tiny snowmen. Let the kids' imaginations run wild with interesting characters they can devise from recyclables. They can take the idea one step further by creating a shoe box diorama displaying their new little critters with twigs, moss, and other woodland materials.
(Originally published as "Recycle for Handmade Gifts for Gardeners," by Virginia Nathan, Extension Technician, Virginia Tech, in The Virginia Gardener Newsletter, Volume 11, Number 12.)
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