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This Christmas, why not give the gift of a garden to your loved ones and friends? After all, gardening offers many benefits such as:
- Helps fight disease.
- Builds strength.
- Improves memory.
- Boosts mood.
- Reduces stress.
- Helps addiction recovery.
- Fosters human connections.
- Heals and empowers.
Giving your loved ones a few simple-to-grow garden seed varieties doesn’t have to be expensive. And, it can be more than just tossing a couple of seed packets on their desk and saying, “Here ya go.” Just check out the below plans for gifting garden seed. Given that we’ve had seed shortages for the past two years, there’s no better time to give these as gifts, to better help those you love keep their families fed throughout the summer.
Below are the steps on how to give the gift of a garden to them in a manner more eye-candy friendly and all for only a little over 10 bucks!
Step 1) Choose Your Containers
Before you do anything else you need to determine the containers you will put the seed in. These will determine the size of the box that you need. Personally, I’ve always enjoyed the look of funky little glass containers with cork tops. They allow you to see what’s inside without having to open the bottle, they’re visually appealing, and they’ll keep your seed drier than they would be if they were left behind in the little paper packet.
I spent a dollar per glass jar, so for this project I put $3 into the little bottles.
Step 2) Choose Your Seed
For this project, I want to use seed that is as easy to raise as possible, with a short harvest time, and is a lot of fun to watch grow. The person I’m giving this seed box to is new to gardening but really enjoys eating salad everyday at lunch. I figured I would give her a microgreen mix with some beans as well.
I picked up some broccoli seed and black oil sunflower seeds for my microgreens. They’re both my favorite microgreens to grow, they’re relatively inexpensive, and you can harvest them in all of a week. The beans take quite a bit of time to grow but they’re very easy to raise, requiring virtually zero maintenance other than weeding.
For my bean jar I used provider bush beans. They’re a black bean that puts out 10-15 pods per plant in my experience, so it’s a pretty good investment per seed. The beans I’ve been growing and harvesting for years, so I really didn’t pay anything for them.
The microgreen seeds I buy in bulk (because I raise my own), so they probably cost me $0.50 per jar or so. This website recommends Seeds for Generations, a small family business, for all of your heirloom seed needs.
Step 3) Choose Your Box
You can go to just about any crafts store out there to find a pre-made box, or with a little more effort and creativity you can make your own. I opted for the craft store option, picking up my box for around $6.
TIP: The main thing to keep in mind here is that you want your glass containers to actually fit inside of the box. You may want to take one of them with you to the store when you go to pick up your box if you’re shopping at two different locations.
Step 4) Stain Your Box
I didn’t have a lot of time today to work on this project, so I needed to get it done as quickly as possible. The stain I chose for the box was an Antique Walnut Minwax 2-in-1 stain/polyurethane coating.
If you have more time I recommend using a stain coat and then coming back later with your polyurethane coats. I think things tend to look better that way, but that’s just me. As it was, I had a little bit of a time getting my stain to stick well I felt like.
To put it on I just dipped an old T-shirt into the can and wiped it all over the surfaces of the box. That’s typically how I apply stain. However, the 2-in-1 may not work as well with that method so that could be the reason I felt like I had some issues here with this technique.
And Voila! You are ready to give the gift of a garden!
I only applied one coat of the 2-in-1, though typically with polyurethane I like to put on 2-3. It just depends on what you’re looking for here. If you think the person is going to be spending a lot of time outside with the box in the garden in wet environments, then I would consider putting on the extra coats of protection.
The person I’m giving my box to lives in a small townhome, so the threat to the box from moisture is really at a minimum. I just need something that looks attractive sitting on a desk, and for that, one coat will work just fine.
Are you ready to give the gift of a garden?
The entire project took me all of an hour, and I was left with a good-looking gift that also helps a friend grow something she truly likes. It’s a fun project that can help you to share your region’s heirloom seeds, spark an interest in gardening with somebody, or just give your local green thumb something they’ll really enjoy – all for around $10.
Not a bad price for such, if I do say so myself.
What are your thoughts? Does this gift idea give you any thoughts on future Christmas gifts or birthday presents? What type of seed would you include instead? Let us know in the comments below!
