Gifts from the Garden

Zen Frog in Martini Swamp

     This week I'll be helping with a very timely and sure to be fun UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener presentation at Irvine's Great Park entitled 'Gifts from the Garden'.   I was tasked with making up a few small planted containers that could be used as hostess gifts for the coming holiday season. 

Since I'm slightly obsessive and once I get started with this kind of thing I usually end up spending too much money and taking an inordinate amount of time getting it done, I tasked myself with a limit of $10 or less per planted container and only one afternoon spent planting them up.  I tied each of the containers together with a common theme.

When I began, I wasn't sure what I would end up with.  But after prowling my local consignment shop, Michael's craft store and Pier 1 clearance bins, some ideas started taking shape.  The results were surprising, so easy and a number of the containers cost well under my $10 allocation! 

I bought all of my supplies at just a few places.  The plants came from my vacation home, also known as our local nursery, Plant Depot.   I bought a mix of herbs in 4" pots and 6 packs.  There was some landscape fabric lying around our garage which was handy for wrapping the little plants to preserve their soil.  I also needed spaghnum moss, craft tweezers, 20 gauge wire, raffia wrapped wire, pliers, some faux insects (from the craft store's clearance bin), scissors and a glue gun.

Here are the results of an afternoon of planting in the warm fall sun:

1) These two matching wire egg baskets came from the consignment shop.  The planted one features Lemon Thyme (Thymus citriodorus).

Wire Egg Basket Planted with Lemon Thyme

2)   This faux copper pot is planted with Oregano and topped with a toy turkey.  I love all the details on the turkey.  

I wrapped his feet with wire, left a longish piece at the end and poked it into the soil, then covered the top with moss.  It looks like he's sitting in a bed of Oregano!  It took about 15 minutes to make.

This would make a great Thanksgiving hostess gift.  A few of them lined up would be a fun centerpiece on a buffet table.



Faux Copper Pot, Toy Turkey and Oregano

3)  An inexpensive porcelain gravy boat with glass rooster placecard holder planted with Tricolor Sage (Salvia officinalis 'Tricolor') which features purple and olive green leaves with bright white edges.   Fun and whimsical, but elegant, too.

4)  A trip to the beach in a bowl!  The inside edge of this mini goldfish bowl (actually a votive holder) was packed with beach pebbles, found beach glass, some shells and Cilantro.  (The craft store had single metal votive holders on long stems.  I later thought that a little candle would have been a perfect addition to the beach theme, a bonfire!)



Pebbles, Beach Glass, Shells, Moss and Cilantro

5)   A cheerful red teapot with Lemon Verbena and floating butterflies on swirly stems.  This is where the glue gun came in.  Scrapbook butterflies were glued to raffia wrapped craft wire.

6)  These two little lidded tins in metal and bright red reminded me of compost bins.  I put Chives in one and Cilantro in the other and added a couple of butterflies.  One on red wire and one on silver wire.  The result is kind of silly and whimsical.  Fun for a fall garden party as party favors or with guest's names at place settings.

One thing to note:  All of these containers are somewhat ephemeral.  The herbs are meant to be taken home and planted in a garden or pot.  Although some of the containers would make better long term homes than others (you could pre-drill drainage holes in the teapot bottom, for example) most of them are just too small and lacking in drainage to make good homes for long.

Still, with this caveat to the hostess or party-goer, these planted pots would make a fun and functional addition to a holiday table.   Bon appetit!