Here is a simple gift idea that I wanted to share with you: a ‘homegrown’ gift basket. We made this one for a cousin’s birthday present, but it would be a nice idea for Christmas as well. It didn’t cost much to make but was well appreciated and is easy to put together if you are the gardening type. Unfortunately I am NOT the gardening type, everything I plant tends to get eaten by grubs and bugs or dries out and dies in our hot summer weather (I am not the best at remembering to water the plants daily). My mum, however, loves to spend all her spare time in her garden and grows lots of beautiful flowers as well as herbs and vegies. This thoughtful gift basket was her idea, and one day when the girls and I went over to visit we all helped to put it together.
In the homegrown basket my mum wanted to put in some of her own dried herbs. To dry them she lays them out on a piece of paper towel near a sunny window and leaves them for 2-3 weeks. The time it takes to dry them out properly depends on the weather, humidity and type of herb. There are other ways to dry them, but this is the way my mum does it. We packaged the dried herbs up in clear cello wrap made into little bags, and because she had no ribbon my mum crocheted little ribbons to tie them up with. Mum says that imported dried herbs are often treated with arsenic, so you need to be careful where you get your herbs from and if you can grow them yourself then you know they have no chemical nasties.
The beans are from miss K’s veggie garden, which she has at her Gran’s house. There are only a few there, but we put them in anyway.
The girls also made some birthday cards to add to the basket.
Finally, out in the garden the girls picked some bunches of fresh flowers. Because my cousin had a long way to travel in the car, we made them flowers that don’t need to be put in water and that are able to dry out without dying and going brown. These are paper daisies and lavender.
Later I added a nice, good quality hand soap from the local health food shop and our basket was finished.
All who saw it thought it was lovely! Of course, you could add anything to a home-grown gift basket. You might try eggs from your own chickens, tomatoes, strawberries, lemons or other fruit, lettuce, carrots or whatever else you are growing in your garden and can spare as a gift.
For loads more handmade gift ideas for both kids and adults try visiting my gift ideas board on Pinterest.
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