Xanthe White has tips for avoiding the shopping-mall ordeal and going green with Christmas gifts this year.
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I love Christmas, pretty much all of it. The giving, the getting, the bingeing and the bling. But the shopping? No, no, no. When it comes to shopping malls in particular, my aversion verges on the phobic. Fortunately, my husband has these places mastered, so on the face of things we can appear a reasonably normal family. But I’ll not surrender my part in the grand Christmas shopping ordeal. To keep up my end of the bargain, I’ve been cultivating the art of garden-centre shopping. You’d be surprised how much of a Christmas list can be dealt with in one happy trip to the garden centre and an afternoon in the potting shed. Here are 13 seeds for thought to help you avoid the malls while doing your bit to keep the country “growing”.
THE NEWLYWEDS OR RECENT HOME BUYERS
You can’t go wrong with a fruit tree. It’s hip and it’s full of promise. I recommend buying a full-sized tree for the couple, although take local advice on a variety suited to their region. If it’s for a nephew, you’ll capture his attention with a triple-graft featuring three types of fruit on one tree, and the girly girl will be happy with a Ballerina apple: space-efficient, gorgeous blooms and amazing fruit.
THE NEWLY SINGLE NEEDS A KITSET GARDEN BED
A vege garden is a great cure for a broken heart, not to mention a good look for potential new loves. There’s nothing like a salad thrown together from his/her garden to help entice a good-quality partner.
THE ENTHUSIASTIC NEW VEGETABLE GARDENER
Strange as it may seem, those on a budget with a focus on sustainability will appreciate a bag of pea straw or even ZooDoo. These luxury items will be appreciated more than dinky gifts that are likely to make their way to a Salvation Army op shop. To make things a bit more festive, accompany the bags with a chilli plant dripping with shiny fruit.
HIGH-END
Try a credit at a specialty mail-order boutique business such as Kaiwaka Organics, which delivers newspaper-wrapped bundles of heirloom vegetables, including Maori potatoes and kumara, as well as packets of heirloom seeds.
SEASONED GARDENERS
They need a Niwashi. This Japanese weeder could be right out of TV’s Midsomer Murders, and is guaranteed to make light work of weeding. Imagine a wooden-handled kitchen knife bent at a right angle. Best avoided, though, if your gardener has a history of neighbourhood disputes.
TOWNHOUSE DWELLERS
Gardeners or not, most people will be happy with a hanging basket of herbs and tasty lettuce. For sweet-tooths, fill it with strawberry plants, especially if you’ve done the dirty work of potting it up for them.
GIFTS BY MAIL
Including a packet of seeds in a greeting card for a distant friend or relative is a lovely thought. Tailor your thoughts to suit the person. There are beautifully packaged native seeds and lettuce mixes available, or for someone who loves colour, try companion-planting mixes or wildflowers.
YOUNG CHILDREN
A pack of magic beans is a great stocking filler for young children. It’s a simple, cheap and enchanting gift, especially when wrapped in a piece of silky fabric, with a handwritten tale of your own invention tied to it with a piece of string. Beans are ideal, as they grow fast enough to hold a little gardener’s attention, especially if woven around a story. Once grown, the beans can be eaten straight from the garden. Magic beans are more special if they are given with the time to spend nuturing them together.
ELDERLY GARDENERS
There is nothing older gardeners appreciates more than a keen pair of hands. It may be that you spend a day together, or just give an input of fresh energy by doing some of the more tiresome tasks that get heavier as we get older. Keep in mind, though, that it’s their garden, so do as you’re told unless asked otherwise. If you want to be extra generous, include a load of compost or mulch and offer to shift it. The exercise will also help you lose that Christmas bulge.
POTENTIAL CONVERTS
If you’re the gardener and have aspirations to convert a loved one, consider buying him or her a power tool. Many non-gardeners are, in fact, technically driven, and given something with the right degree of horsepower they may come over to your side in a useful way. Expensive, perhaps, but consider it an investment.
THE ARTY RELATIVE/APARTMENT DWELLER/TEENAGER/TWENTYSOMETHING
Show off your cultural prowess. Buy a shallow glazed pot, stony soil and a native seedling. Have fun wiring and trimming it into a bonsai (for tips, see my bonsai column on www.listener.co.nz). Their friends will be impressed, and the pot can easily be moved from flat to flat. Be prepared, though, that if an OE comes up you are likely to be asked to plantsit for an indeterminate period.
THE EXPAT
Rather than buying a goat for someone in Africa on the expat’s behalf, how about giving expats a link to home by contributing to the replanting of a stretch of wetland or a clump of bush through one of the trusts and programmes that are busy replanting under-utilised land? It will help them pay off some of their carbon guilt for returning home every year.
THE CLOSE FRIEND/NEIGHBOUR
For those special friends you want to thank without spending much, look to your own garden. Turn abundant crops into preserves, divide a plant they’ve always admired or pot up young seedlings from a nikau or off the back of a hen and chicken fern. Wrap the items tastefully in natural paper or pop them into an affordable terracotta pot with a simple bow, then add some meaningful words and so rejuvenate for Christmas an old tradition that was part of our grandmothers’ daily lives – sharing from our gardens.
GIFT-BUYING TIPS
- Avoid a token house plant unless you know the person loves them.
- Avoid single plants unless they have significance. Like puppies, plants aren’t just for Christmas morning, and they need a meaningful place to grow.
- Plan your transport beforehand. Lugging plants around on Christmas Day can involve such accidents as spilling potting mix into the trifle. Organise to put some carry boxes aside to make your day easier.
- Water plants the day before and let them drain so they can be forgotten until after Boxing Day without casualties.
- If you’re buying plants for a novice and you know what you’re doing, throw in a handwritten set of care instructions to get the person started.