Garden to Gift – Sustainable DIY gifting ideas
Gift-giving doesn’t need to be expensive, stressful, or hard! These sustainable DIY gift ideas will have you inspired to create more gifts from your garden – all year round! Whether you are visiting a friend or trying to find a Birthday, Mother/fathers day, or Christmas gift there’s something for all occasions in this gift guide.
Click to watch my gift guide ideas below
My thoughts around gift giving
I don’t always buy or give gifts for special occasions…It can seem strange at first to skip out on gift-giving. We may feel guilty, awkward, or just like a bad friend or partner! But if nothing is popping up as the perfect gift idea then I don’t waste money on consuming more “stuff” that they may not even like.
BUT….what I do is.. make more homemade gifts myself! It’s much more personalised and can spark inspiration in others. If you gift produce or create gifts from your garden you may even inspire the receiver to reconnect with their own garden. I also give small gifts from my garden each time I visit friends and family. In short, my gift-giving is sporadic and you may receive an amazing gift from me, regular handmade gifts, or nothing at all. But if I find the perfect idea later in the year I just gift it then. Who doesn’t love a surprise gift?
Garden to Gift Ideas
These gift ideas can be used all year round to create personalised gifts from your garden. The great thing is, they are free/low cost, low waste, and easy to put together for last-minute (oops I forgot ) gift ideas.
—- GET CREATIVE —-
1. Framed Art
Pressed flowers make beautiful garden art ideas. Mixed with small illustrations or paintings. TIP: Choose small frames as nearly everything looks cute in a small frame… You could also get second-hand frames and paint them for an extra thrifty option.
2. DIY Colouring in Book
Draw basic outline illustrations and create a custom colouring books for kids. They don’t need to be professional artworks just choose objects that they love and use their name to make them feel special. Choose themes such as Farm, Beach, Woodland, Food Forest, and Veggie patch!
3. Photography
Framed photos or prints make great gifts! They are low-cost and can be easily personalised. Close-ups from the garden, scenic landscapes, and photos of friends and family. I love getting printed photographs because it is something I rarely do anymore. In this digital age, we rarely take the time to sort through our hundreds of photos so sometimes it’s nice to do.
4. Custom Clothing and Plant Dye
DIY Jackets are a fun way to get creative and make custom gifts. Denim jackets can always be found at secondhand shops and upcycled. I love making jackets for significant events like weddings and first birthdays. They make great keepsakes too. Paint flowers from your garden or sew fabric patches. Get extra creative and make your own natural plant dyes from the garden.
—- GET PRESERVING —-
5. Homemade Jam, Chutney & Sauces
Homemade preserves make such great gifts! Especially if they are made from delicious fruit and vegetables grown in your home garden. Create fun, custom labels easily using Canva templates. You can also create DIY tags and notes using leaves and small bundles of herbs and flowers.
6. Dried Herbs
Herbs produce in abundance and drying them is a great way to preserve them to use throughout the year. Make your own mixed herb blends and gift them to others to use in their kitchen. Homemade dried herbs are so much better than the greyish uninspiring supermarket editions.
7. Dehydrated Fruit
Dehydrated fruit is one of my go-to garden to gift ideas! I make large batches and always have enough on hand to either pop in a recycled jar or cut up and mix with dried flowers for a tea blend or a cocktail garnish blend. Dried citrus can be used in teas, cocktails, cakes, and baking. Also, incredible in mulled wine! Try chocolate-dipped for something extra special!
8. Flavoured Sugar and Salts
Herbal sugars and salts are such a fun and easy way to incorporate produce from your garden in a unique way. Simply blitz herbs and mix through salt and allow to fully dry. Dried edible flowers, herbs and citrus can be added to sugar to create flavoured sugars. Try Mint sugar in a hot chocolate!
9. Cocktail Garnish or Tea Blends
Tea blends make incredible gifts from the garden. See the list and mix and match to make your favourite blends. Dry herbs and flowers fully first either air dry or in a low-temperature oven or dehydrator (30-40 degrees Celcius). Dried fruit, herbs, and flowers also make great cocktail garnishes. Add to a nice jar and create a DIY Label.
—- GET BAKING —-
10. Bake Bread
Homemade bread is so delicious and makes a great gift idea. Baking great bread is not a skill everyone possesses so if you do, share the love and make a sourdough loaf or even a Garden Foccacia using herbs and fresh ingredients from your garden. Wrap it in brown paper with a note and place a small bundle of herbs or flowers. Done!
11. Sweet Treats
Who doesn’t love sweet treats? Homemade cookies, cakes and slices always make great gifts. Get creative and use edible flowers, herbs and fruit from your garden to create something special!
12. Savoury snacks
Savoury snacks are an entertainer’s dream. Try some botanical crackers for a great way to use herbs from your garden. Other delicious snacks could be scrolls, scones, slices, quiche or flavoured nuts.
—- GET GROWING —-
13. Cuttings and Seedlings
Take extra cuttings and pot them up to have extra gifts on hand at all times! Cuttings such as Sweet potato, mint, rosemary, fig and mulberry are easy to get striking. Check out my Cuttings Ebook for more ideas. If you have extra plants pop up in the garden, (hello volunteers!) simply pot them up to give as gifts.
14. Plant Extra Seeds
It’s always a good idea to plant extra seeds in case something happens to your others. I do this in stages so I plant extra seeds 3-4 weeks after my first lot. That means if my seeds have made it to the garden as seedlings but get eaten or damaged I have replacements already on the way. However, if I don’t need the backs up then I have plenty to gift to friends and family.
15. Edible Bouquets
I love picking wild vegetable and herb flowers that have gone to seed, herbs and edible flowers to create beautiful edible bunches to gift. There are so many great reasons to do this!
- They smell amazing
- Look beautiful and a little wild
- Don’t cost anything!
- Can be used to flavour meals and tea
- Can be regrown in their own garden.
The great thing about keeping herbs such as Mint, Rosemary, Basil and Lavender in jars of water is that they will send off roots! Let your gift receiver know what they can replant.
16. Fresh Produce
Extra produce makes incredible gifts! This can be vegetables, herbs, flowers or fruit you have grown in your garden. Pop in a basket or box and deliver to your friends and family. The great thing about gifting produce from your garden is they get to try different things that may not be at the supermarket. You may also inspire them to reconnect with where their food comes from and start growing their own. You really don’t know how much you can inspire and make a change by simply gifting some homegrown produce.
17. Gifting Seeds
Once your gardens get established you will have plenty of seeds to start harvesting. Pop some in a brown envelope with a note of what they are, when you harvested them and who they were from. Seeds are great gifts because they bring with them so much inspiration and potential!
If you found these gift ideas helpful please share this post with others and help to inspire more people to create their own Homemade Garden to Gifts.
