There are many holiday gift ideas waiting for you right outside your door in the garden!

 

Use Plants and Recycled Materials!

It's another "recession Christmas" for most people but I'm not going to let this financial challenge get in the way of my gift giving this holiday season!

So, get ready my friends for your "living gifts" from the garden.

 

Here are seven of my favorite projects and crafts that I've culled from past Eden Maker blog posts to inspire you!

 

 

1. Mixed Lettuce Bouquet (or other seasonal vegetable)

 

 

I put together this mixed lettuce bouquet from my garden as an unconventional hostess gift.

I picked the lettuce thirty minutes before leaving the house to preserve as much freshness as possible.

The  lettuce leaves were washed and rolled in a moistened paper towel and aluminum foil.

Read the rest of the post: "Unconventional Hostess Gift: Mixed Lettuce Bouquet

 

 

2. Palm Frond Recycled as a Succulent Planter!

 

 

 

Is the wind blowing palm fronds onto your street?

Don't be so fast to throw away this debris.

I was impressed with some clever succulent planters that were created by a group of  Los Angeles Arboretum volunteers using re purposed natural materials like palm fronds and hollowed tree stumps..

Read the rest of the post  "Succulent Planters: Would You Believe Palm Fronds?

 

3. "Living Tapestry Pillow"

This succulent pillow is a  Shirley original, as far as I know, (a vision came to me for it while watching Citizen Kane ).

Inspiration comes from the most unlikely places!

 

I created the "Living Succulent Tapestry Pillow"  for my  presentation at the "Epcot International Flower and Garden Show" in Disney World last year.

Read the rest of the post  "Living Tapestry Pillow"

 

 

4. Miniature Rose Garden in a Container!

 

What do you do with those cute miniature roses that you can buy at the supermarket, big box store or discount outlet?

Take them out of their pots and make them the star of a container miniature rose garden!

Read the rest of the post "Create a Miniature Rose Garden in a Container!"

 

 

5. Hanging Edible Container Garden

This hanging, edible container garden makes a great gift.

Re-purpose kitchen items that can handle water as containers for planting herbs, like this onion hanger  from the "Dollar Store."

Read the rest of the post "Edible Gardening Containers from the Dollar Store" for more ideas like this.

 

 

 

6. "Antique Dresser Re-purposed as a Potting Table!"

 

 

Are you handy with a paint brush?

Here's an idea from one of my garden makeover segments on HGTV.

An antique dresser can make a great potting table.

Read the rest of the post "Garden Furniture as Art!" for a few other clever  gift ideas for the DIY'er to make.

 

 

7. "Artistic" Container Garden

Plants are inexpensive and mixed with "garden sculptures" or re-purposed decor, they can be transformed into an artistic, one-of-a-kind gift!

Read the rest of the post "Container Gardens That Catch the Eye!" for more ideas like this.

 

I hope some of these ideas provide a stimulus for your own creative gifts from the garden!

Thanks for reading and I invite you to watch my weekly, online Garden TV talk show, "Garden World Report."

The latest Garden World Report Show is called, "Garden Center Holiday Tour" and features tours of garden centers all over the country decked out for the holidays and more!

I spent the day at the Los Angeles County Arboretum last week attending the L.A. Garden Show and touring the display gardens and marketplace there. I was impressed with some clever succulent planters that were created by a group of Arboretum volunteers using re purposed natural materials like palm fronds and hollowed tree stumps. (The ideas people come up with when they have a lot of garden debris to dispose of!)

This Queen Palm frond was planted two months ago. A hole was drilled in the back of it to secure a hook for hanging . A “planting bag” constructed from chicken wire was fit into the frond cavity and filled with sphagnum moss, cactus mix, coco fibers and shredded newspapers and closed with wire.

Close up of chicken wire mesh that holds the succulents in the palm frond.

Arboretum volunteer Beverly Harris happily poses beside the hanging succulent bag and succulent chair planters that her group of volunteers made to sell at the garden show. Beverly said that the frond succulent bag took over 15 hours to make and they used chopsticks to gently insert each succulent cutting into the moistened planting medium.

I’ve seen lots of old tree stumps used as tables, but I love the way it looks as a planter for these succulents!