DIY Festive Season with Garden Master
Finding the perfect gifts for our loved ones isn’t only a very time-consuming exercise, it's also a costly one. What if we were to tell you that there is a faster and more affordable way to survive this Festive Season?
12/12/2017
2017 is coming to an end and being heralded by being romanced by festive lights and decorations everywhere you go. A much awaited time in everyone’s calendar, the Festive Season is a time for relaxing with family and friends and unapologetically escaping from the everyday hustle and bustle of life. Though your everyday stresses may be over, you would agree that it has now been replaced by gift-finding stress – i.e. what to get your loved ones as well as how we can make even more special, the lunch and dinner tables to last year.
Finding the perfect gifts for our loved ones isn’t only a very time-consuming exercise, but also a costly one. Truth is, we haven’t even gotten to setting the scene for those special lunches and dinners. What if there is a faster and more affordable way to survive this Festive Season? By leveraging your garden, you can provide gifts which are heart-felt and affordable.
If you have been working in your garden this year, you should already have an array of fresh flowers and greens available to use. Below, we show you how to make personalised gifts with flowers and greens and how they could also be used when entertaining at home:
Gifting Ideas:
Thank you gifts acquaintances or colleagues: Stock up on some vases of different shapes and sizes, preferably clear glass as you will be able to see the greenery through the glass. Foliage such as Eucalyptus, Ferns, Fern Pellaea, Ficus Moclame Bushy and Ivy are good choices to make full, high, festive arrangements. For the finishing touch add a handwritten card with a wooden peck to the vase.
Gifts with a hint of colour: Plant Garden Master’s Margaret Roberts’ Chamomile seeds in pots. Make sure that you have different textured fabrics. Wrap the pots in textured fabric and finish it off with a bright red or yellow coloured ribbon – voila! The seeds will take about two weeks to germinate but, you can add a personalised card to the ribbon with instructions for the owner on how to care for their Chamomile plant. Green hydrangeas with a mix of euphorbias and white hydrangeas will pleasantly surprise its recipient.
For special friends: A birdcage makes for an elegant display for top-heavy foliage such as hydrangeas. You can find your own vintage aviary at a flea market. Remove the perch, and pop a small vase inside. Then randomly slip a variety of blooms between the bars.
For a family: If you have been growing fresh vegetables in your garden, a basket with fresh vegetables and seeds to grow their own vegetables going forward is a thoughtful and functional present. To add a touch of colour, you can also include some products from Garden Master’s Colourful range such as a small plastic spade and a small plastic hand rake, available in bright colours such as pink and blue. The Garden Master vegetable seed range includes tomatoes, carrots, beetroot and onions. Tie a red and green gingham bow on the side of your basket and include a small recipe booklet with delicious vegetable recipes.
Décor ideas when entertaining:
• Pack out four to six glass bottles of different shapes, colours and sizes. Fill each bottle with some water and put different flowers such as a single rose, baby’s breath, wax flowers, single daffodil or gerbera for example into these.
• If you would like to decorate your outdoor area, it is a good idea to get some test tubes. Fill them with water and hang them from the trees using fishing line. Once you have secured your test tubes, fill them with an assortment of colourful flowers or green foliage.
• For your dinner table, you can get a plain runner to serve as the basis of your décor. Cut some fresh green foliage from your garden and lay it out flat on your table. Cut off small bunches of flowers such as peonies, green snowballs, hypericum berries etc. Lay these over the greens making sure they are evenly spread out over the table. For some additional atmosphere, you can add candles in glass holders and even lemons for a fresh touch.
• For décor around your entertainment area, you can get hold of some small steel buckets and fill them with hypericum berries and include one single rose in the middle. You can also add ribbon around the buckets. These are great to put out around the home and they will stay fresh for days.
• Treat your guests with a little something extra when serving ice cream for dessert, add some edible flowers (calendula, rose petals, lavender, carnations, squash flowers) to vanilla ice cream and when putting it forward to your guests, add a fresh rosebud with a green leave on the top.
There are so many ideas available when it comes to making your own gifts and when you want to impress your guests with a beautiful entertainment area. When you have a lustruous garden, some vases, buckets, ribbon and recycled paper will certainly surprise and delight, without breaking the bank.
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