Christmas in July: Homemade Gifts from the Garden

Jul 2

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Homemade gifts from the garden add a special touch.

While you might be cranking the A/C in real life, let’s mentally transport ourselves to December. Every year a highlight of the holiday season is being able to give my loved ones homemade gifts from my garden. Which means I have to plan ahead, and think about Christmas gifts in the middle of July!

There are many ways that your garden can give to the people around you. I think sometimes in the busyness of life, we can forget how much a handmade gesture can mean to a friend. If you plan ahead, you can have a stockpile of homemade gifts from the garden to give to a friend, a neighbor, or a coworker.

Here are some of my favorite homemade gifts from the garden:

Fresh-picked flower arrangement

Gather a variety of flowers and plants from your garden and tie them with a ribbon or twine, and pop them in a mason jar for a sweet, rustic look. Get creative with color combos and scents, and don’t forget to incorporate fresh herbs and greenery to create a unique arrangement.

Herbal tea

When you’re preserving herbs from your garden, make sure to dry some so you can make custom herbal tea blends! Chamomile, peppermint, lemon balm, and calendula are some of my favorite herbs to dry for tea, but you can create whatever flavor combo you like best. You can gift your tea blends in small jars or pre-package them into tea bags.

Pro tip: If you want to get extra fancy, research the medicinal properties of different herbs so you can create a concoction to address health issues.

Beauty products

Calendula and other herbs have medicinal qualities that make them the perfect ingredients for all-natural beauty and skincare products. You can make essential oils with eucalyptus, and herbal salves and soaps with both herbs and flowers with health benefits.

Canned goods

Let me just list out the canned goods I made from my garden that I have given as gifts over the years: jams, chutneys, pickles, salsa, pesto, and tomato sauce. And honestly probably a lot more that I can’t even remember right now. I truly think giving a gift from your garden feels better than any gift you could receive. There is something so special about showing someone how much you care about them with a gift from the garden – something you put real effort and love into. Slap on a homemade label and I think you’ve got a pretty good gift!

Herb salts

Take your dried herbs and crush them and add to mineral salt or sea salt in a mason jar. This gift is really special when you include some garden-to-table recipes that use the herbal salt.

Bath salts

Lavender, basil, chamomile, eucalyptus, rose, and many other calming herbs and flowers can be dried and mixed into epsom salt to create a deliciously aromatic spa experience. You can even grind up some oats and add that to the mix for a skin-soothing bath.

Compound butter

Doesn’t the idea of compound butter just sound like fine dining?! Every holiday gathering I go to, I bring a fresh loaf of sourdough bread and some compound butter. The flavor profile is up to you, and you can get crazy with it. One of my favorites is a mixture of chives, parsley, dill, basil, thyme, and rosemary for a super-herby green compound butter. Just soften the butter and mix in the herbs. Then roll the butter into small logs and freeze. Once solid, wrap it in a pretty custom-printed wax paper to give as a gift.

Pro-tip: Since flowers and herbs are so beautiful, save some to decorate the outside of your butter log before freezing it. When you unwrap it, you’ll impress your guests with visually stunning butter that probably tastes better than any butter they’ve ever had before.

Herb wreath

Harvest sprigs of culinary herbs like sage, thyme, and rosemary to create a fragrant edible wreath. Tie the sprigs together in a circular shape using twine or floral wire and let it dry naturally before gifting. This is perfect to do in the late summer or early fall when your herbs are ready to be laid to rest anyway.

Garden spice blends

Dry and crush a selection of herbs from your garden. If you aren’t sure what combos to mix up, take inspiration from the spices you usually buy from the store. Then make your own homemade garden-to-table version! For example, Italian seasoning is a great place to start – think oregano, theme, rosemary, basil, and parsley.

Herb-infused oils and vinegars

Herbs elevate any meal. When you infuse herbs in oils and vinegars, it just expands the ways you can use them in your recipes. If you’ve signed up for my newsletter, my free salad and herb guide included some recipe inspo for infused oils and vinegars. (Haven’t signed up for my newsletter yet? Just go ahead and click here 🙂).