Gift ideas from your garden
/It may be too late to grow any gifts from your garden this year but it is the perfect time to start planning your garden for next Christmas.
The loofah sponge will dry in the shape of the gourd. To get them into the classic shape, just cut slivers horizontally in varying sizes and then use a natural cord to tie through as an easy way to keep hold of the sponge while using it.
There is a wide range of types of gifts you can grow or make from your garden to make the holiday gifting season extra special. You can make edible gifts, craft special blends for skincare, create decorations that can be used in their home and plenty of practical or useful gifts they can use during the year.
Give everyone a spa-like gift by growing and cutting your own loofah sponges. Loofah sponges are made from loofah gourds that can be grown through the spring and summer but have a long growing season so you need to start them early.
Once they are ready to harvest, you peel off the green skin to reveal the spongy texture inside, shake out all of the seeds inside and then soak the sponges with a 10% bleach solution for a half hour and rinse clean. After, hang them up to dry in the sun. Once your loofah sponges are dry, you can cut them up into as many pieces as you need and they are ready to gift.
Plants can be used to make lotions and salves that people will love, and can be packed along with your loofah sponge. You can even use weeds!
Collect your dandelions and infuse some oil with them for two weeks. Then you can use that oil, beeswax and shea butter to create a dandelion salve that can be used as an anti-inflammatory on aching muscles and joints. Lotions can be made out of different materials for different properties with plants creating unique scents or effects such as oregano as an herbal antiseptic, mint for a cooling effect or chamomile as a calming scent.
You can create different types of edible gifts from your garden that will also be low waste. Any cooks on your gifting list will love some personal dried herb mixes or a mint simple syrup.
Simply string your herbs up to dry and then tie them up with ribbon and a label for each type. For the syrup, combine water, sugar and washed mint leaves in a saucepan and boil until the sugar dissolves. Let it simmer for one minute and steep for 30. Strain out the mint leaves and pour your syrup into a pretty jar to be used for cocktails, pastry glazes and frozen desserts.
Now that you have gift ideas for your giftee for their skincare and to eat or cook, let’s get some ideas for their surroundings.
If you grow lavender, you can dry it and then wrap it into a grapevine wreath for a gift that looks and smells beautiful.
For an outdoor gift, grow a birdhouse gourd and turn it into a birdhouse to attract bluebirds, wrens and more birds into their yard. You will need to plant them as soon as the last frost date has passed, which will be April 13th in Dalton.
Once you harvest them, let them dry and then use pumpkin-carving tools to hollow them out as much as possible and a drill to create the entrance hole. How big the entrance needs to be depends on the species it is meant to attract. For example, blue birds will need a 1.5-inch hole and for the bird house to be placed in an open area, while chickadees need 11/8-inch holes and prefer their nests in wooded areas.
There is something special about homemade and homegrown gifts. Part of what makes these gifts meaningful is the planning and time put in to them. While you can’t grow a loofah sponge or harvest your coneflower seeds now for this Christmas, you can start planning ahead now to grow gifts throughout 2022 to create thoughtful gifts for all of your loved ones during the year.