Make Gift Giving Greener This Year

It’s easy and fun to make environmentally friendly gifts that don’t cost the Earth. And as gardeners we can go one step further and grow our own unique gifts. In this video, we’ll share our top 10 homegrown Christmas gift ideas, brimming with creative ways to show friends and family you care this festive season.

We’re dreaming of a green Christmas this year! Here are our favorite green Christmas gift ideas for you to grow and share with family and friends…

10 Green Holiday Gift Ideas

1. Homegrown Baked Treats
Use up stored fruits to make delicacies such as cakes using your own apples or other fruit, or perhaps some scones studded with dried cherries and strawberries.

See our homemade treats from the kitchen!

2. Canned Christmas
Turn your vegetables and fruits into pickles, chutney and jam. Present them in preserving jars complete with decorative gingham or burlap covers.

See gift jar ideas!

3. Vinegars & Oils
Transform fresh or stored produce into beautiful gifts by making vinegars and flavored oils. Decorate bottles with festive ribbons and labels.

See how to make flavored vinegars!

4. Herb Planter
Evergreen Mediterranean herbs such as thyme, rosemary, and sage grow well together in an attractive pot or trough, and provide year-round harvests. Buy new plants for this or split up packs of living herbs such as basil from the grocery store into two or three clumps of plants. Grow them on a windowsill for a couple of weeks to bush out before gifting. Or propagate your own herbs by layering shoots or taking cuttings from existing plants, and give them next year when they’re well-established.

5. Share House Plants
Some house plants like aloe vera and bromeliads produce offsets that can be carefully pulled away from the mother plant. Plant them into pretty containers and add a bow to complete your gift.

6. Share Your Bulbs
Split up clumps of bulbs such as daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths from your garden and plant them in pots to provide a springtime floral display.

7. Saved Seeds
Fill pretty envelopes with seeds saved from your most prized heirloom crops. You’ll be helping your friends and relatives to grow your favorite varieties as well as preserving them for future generations to enjoy.

8. Winter Homes for Wildlife
Give wildlife enthusiasts new homes and hangouts for birds and bugs in their garden using leftover offcuts of wood from other projects. Make birdhouses, bird feeders, and bug hotels.

9. Let’s Wrap It Up
Homemade gift wrap is great fun for kids to make. Use vegetable stamps made from potatoes or other veggies. It’s a great way to use up small amounts of old paint too. Print your design onto sheets of plain brown paper.

See how to make potato prints!

10. The online Garden Planner

Here’s another great gift idea! Give the gift of gardening with a subscription to the online Garden Planner. There are absolutely no strings attached. We are most interested in encouraging folks to try growing a garden of goodness!