FRUGAL IDEAS FOR GREEN XMAS GIFTS
The catalogues are flying through the mailbox like the driven snow, bearing gardeners gifts that cost a king's ransom. Poor Santa. How about some less expensive ideas to cheer a frozen green thumb in winter?
A nice gift (to be given early - like now) is a door sway. Simple, neat, cheery. Cut a few large, 2' long branches of pine, fir or spruce, and secure them with a wire into a nice graceful shape, leaving a loop for hanging. Tie it up with the ribbon ends trailing.
It can be decorated with angels, bells, berries, even plastic icicles, which don't look as bad as they sound. Best to do this on newspaper because evergreens drip gummy sap, which can be removed with paint thinner or nail polish remover.
If you've always craved one of those table top Christmas Trees but don't want to shell out the $60 they cost, they're quite easy to make, and a really fun project to do with children.
The basic ingredient is a block of oasis, plus an oasis holder, available at most any nursery or florist. (It's a green, water-absorbent rigid foam.) Shave off the corners on one end to make a small tree shape and soak it for 15 minutes until its saturated. Set it in its holder and put in a decorative container.
Then go outside and trim the evergreen bushes you didn't get around to pruning this year. I always save my holly for the holidays. When evergreen twigs are stuck into the oasis, it turns into a small Xmas tree. Best varieties are yew, arborvitae, spruce and small leaf Japanese holly. (Not pine, hemlock or prickly holly.)
Put longest pieces at the bottom, smaller as you fill in the sides to make a pointed tree shape. Embellish with miniature Xmas balls, or any small scale decorations, wired to small sticks or toothpicks. Maybe even a red cardinal or an angel or a ribbon on top. Flowers work too. Miniature carnations, alstroemeria and baby's breath last the longest. (Water from the top, to run down the sides.) Best ornaments are the ones the children make.
And thinking of the children, consider a simple, old fashioned idea. A small potted plant that smells good. Or better yet, share the wonder of sprouting seeds. A decorated flowerpot with a red ribbon, planted with rye grass seed, should sprout in about 10 days.
If you don't have rye grass seed (and who does anyway) buy a small box of cheap grass seed. The cheaper it is the higher the percentage of perennial rye grass, and the faster it will sprout. Then, to help an ailing lawn, sprinkle the rest of the seeds on the bare spots this spring, in the last of the melting snow. The melting water will pull them down into the soil and grass will come up as soon as the ground warms up. This is old fashioned lawn trick.
But back to the flowerpot for kids, bush beans also sprout quickly and will delight a small child as the leaves unfold. In a sunny window, with luck, one may bear a bean a few months hence.
When in doubt, adults always enjoy a nice gift plant. Or consider an amaryllis bulb planted in a decorated pot, with the essential red ribbon of course. It will sprout into glorious bloom in about 8 weeks. If the pot is put out in summer, watered and fertilized, it can be brought in next fall to bloom again. And memory of you and your gift will long endure after the candy canes are finished.
Ruth S. Foster is a landscape consultant and arborist. More gardening information can be found on her website: www.mothersgarden.net. Copywrite protected
