Christmas Gardening – Gardener’s Advent Calendar

Why not make an advent calendar for the gardener in your life? Instead of the mass produced ones with chocolate inside, you can give a gift that really counts.

First, you buy (or make) twenty four tiny gifts – a packet of plant labels, lots of easy seeds (cress, nasturtium etc), an indelible marker pen, a ball of twine, a disposal craft knife, some plant food sticks ... the choice is pretty wide. Remember the gifts have to fit into your chosen container, so think ahead about how you’re going to actually give these little present.

Then make the calendar itself. You might wrap the presents up as small parcels and hang them on a pine twig, or attach 24 little stockings to a long pole to hang on the wall or – for your gardener – get 24 really small modular pots and put a present, suitably wrapped, in the bottom of each one, before hanging the pots from a dry branch.

An alternative for the photographer/gardener is to use the small round plastic film containers with a press-on lid. Put a present in each one, then cut a long length of gift ribbon and lay it along in front of the tubs. Open each lid, set the ribbon flat across the top and close the lid again. Tie a loop at each end and decorate by curling the ribbon or tying baubles onto it, then you can hang it from the wall by two drawing pins, or string it across a window, or over the fireplace.

Or perhaps you have a handyman gardener, who would appreciate a tool box with 24 drawers and a present in each drawer!

Christmas gardening advent calendar photograph by habi, used under a creative commons attribution licence