Christmas Gifts for the Gardener

If you are looking for a gift for the gardener in your life, here are a few ideas:

a) Gardeners Hand Recovery Cream - great for cold days working outdoors
b) InteraTarp - trunk and hatch back liner for gardeners who schlep a lot
c) Badger Balm - great for when your cuticles and knuckles crack due to winter temps
d) Gardeners Journal- gardeners help-mate; when your memory fails ;)
e) Leatherman MultiTool  - great tool for the garden shed; you won't have to run to the garage as often
f) Copper Plant Tags - copper tags weather green and never decay
g) Felcos - enough said: or parts like replacement blades and coil - they all are great stocking stuffers
h) German Garden Clogs I enjoy wearing these all the time, even in winter

Outdoor Christmas Container - Little Fun

My colleagues call this one I made - "the galaxy".  lol :) We try to get a bit more creative with each one.

When you have access to great product, you get a little more inventive. Using outdoor ornaments (which tolerate frost and don't crack or have styrofoam burst overwinter) can add a burst of colour when dried accents start to fade. Plus, the outdoor ornaments catch the light, especially at night making your urns pop out a bit more in the dark.

Here I added sprays of lime metallic Christmas balls and one bronze ball, suspended between the birch stems. Fun.

Plant World has an array of styles, made by several designers. Come stop by!  If you want to make one yourself, we can help you too!

Outdoor Christmas Urn Container - One Sided

Here I made a Christmas Urn Design that is one sided.

One bonus to making one sided Christmas urns: less material is needed. With this design, all the accents are on one side, making a bolder view from the front. You use less materials and yet have the effect of seeing all the accents from the street.  They are easier to make and faster to assemble. Great for urns that are situated next to the front door or garage - where the containers are right up against a wall/door.

Accents:

• magnolia stems
• red dyed strobus cones
• red dyed nut
• spray of outdoor Christmas balls
• red twig dogwood

Boughs:

• white pine
• western cedar
• silver fir 
• oregonia (variegated boxwood)

Try it!  All materials are available at Plant World.

Outdoor Christmas Urn Container - Natural

Here I made a pair of urns with natural items.

These urns span about 2 and 1/2 feet apart. A little more than 3 feet tall from the pot rim.

I used:

Have a look at some other designs here

• 3 birch stems
• 7 stems of dogwood
• white pine
• douglas fir
• western red cedar
• boxwood
• magnolia stems
• sumac seed pods
• seeded eucalyptus
• strobus (white pine) cones
• dried belani seed pods
• bronze vine balls
• dried bell cups
• 13" fibre liner
• sand to fill pot

Another pair:

These accents may look all natural, but the pomegranates are artificial.  Pretty good for artificial though. No squirrels will try to take these away! 

One of the funnest aspects of my job.

 In the above, I used:

• pomergranates
• strobus cones (with snow flakes)
• magnolia
• birch stems
• dogwood stems
• white pine boughs
• western red cedar boughs
• Ontario hemlock boughs
• burgundy seed pods
• oregonia

Materials all from Plant World Ltd. These urns are also available there.