Gift Ideas for your favorite gardener under $25

Ho Ho Ho!

The bells are ringing and holiday singers are singing; lights are twinkling on storefronts and  homes and Christmas trees are riding high on cars. Shopper mania has arrived.

For those of you still looking for perfect gifts for gardeners, stop by your local garden center for inspiration and a wide selection of gifts that range from the practical to the sublime.

From edible ornaments $16, a personal garden journal $19.95 or gardening gloves $22, Terrain has garden gifts for the cool gardener in all of us.

Besides, with decorated trees, wreaths and garlands, and containers spilling with wintery foliage, garden centers are beautiful to visit- especially at this time of year!

Enjoy your holidays!

~Lynne

GMG

Stacy's Paper Trees

I'm lifting this right from Ellen Well's Green Profit Weekly Buzz. thought it was too cute not to post. Here it is . . .


Speaking of the holidays and crafting, our Euro trendspotter Stacy Sirk is spot on this week. This time around, she’s not just spotting the trends—she’s creating them herself!


Try your hand at “potted” paper trees for the holidays or any day, depending on what paper is used. “So easy to create,” says Stacy, “any size, any color. Use recycled paper, or do it in brown craft, white paper, green, or a complete mix. Can be made full size or smaller. Brilliant!”

Here’s the how-to:
• Secure a stick/dowel/broom handle in an appropriate pot (or decorative gift bag) with cement or plaster of Paris. For small trees up to 3 ft. fill the pot with aggregate to secure the stake for easier disassembly

• Fold the edges in on a length of paper, then fold in half, giving it a puffy look of a bough

• Tie or wire the paper along the “trunk” starting from the bottom
• When you get to the top, form a pointy or lilting tree top and attach, bending to shape.

Stacy, who’s creating a 6-ft. paper tree, suggests using old stocks of branded paper, craft paper or holiday wrapping—even cellophane or bubble wrap!

Garden centers can make them for display or for sale. You can make them just for fun! Send us pictures if you do.

Suzi, Garden Media Group

Garden Writers Early Spring Survey Results: Garden Spending Drops But Retailers Maintain Head-to-Head Competition

Looks like we may have spent more on our gardens this year. According to the 2011 Early Spring Gardening Trends Research Report from Garden Writes Association Foundation, we planned to spend 23% less -- from an average $600 in 2010 to a projected $469 for 2011.

GWAF says it's a sign of the economic times. But it was a pretty cool, wet spring in the northeast this year, which may have dampend enthusiasm in the early part of the year.

These are just projections, and I’ve always wondered who spends only $469 on their garden. I spent way more than that just getting my veggie garden refurbished – and that doesn’t count plants, soil or other goodies!

Anyway, there are some other interesting trends I saw that are not in the report I thought I’d share:

• Front yard gardening is up 3% from last year. It appears there’s a slight shift as backyard gardening is down 3%. GMG predicted this trend several years ago in our annual Garden Trends Report.


• Container gardening is up 5% from 2009, but slightly down (1%) from last year.
  


• Nearly two-thirds (64%) of those who have a garden plan to grow their own vegetables this year, but it’s down 2% since last year.


• And the size of the vegetable garden is shrinking. Some 6% more are opting for smaller 10’X10’ plots while 9% are opting out of 20’X20’ or bigger gardens.
  


• Almost twice as many grow their own veggies for quality, taste and nutrition (86%) not because they feel it is cheaper than buying them in the grocery store (46%).


• GWA also discovered the competition between independent garden centers and mass merchants is expected to remain evenly split this spring. When GWAF first started tracking consumers gardening preferences in 2005, only 40% planned to buy most of their spring plants at garden centers compared to 51% who favored mass merchants. Today, the April survey found garden centers have a slight edge over mass merchants (46% to 44%).

For more results, check out the 2011 Early Spring Gardening Trends Research Report, the first of four national consumer attitude surveys on gardening to be conducted this year by the GWAF. The survey statistically represents the attitudes of over 100 million households with an accuracy of 95%.

Suzi, Garden Media Group

American Beauties a Hit at MANTS

American Beauties native plant program was a hit at the 2010 MANTS Show. Looks as if the native plant program stood out for The Garden Center Group, too. Just saw this from Robert Hendrickson in his January Newletter:

"The timing couldn't be better for garden centers to add a program to the plant mix that focuses on native plants.

The program is a perfect tie-in to the "local is good" movement as well as being supportive of the backyard wildlife campaign thru the National Wildlife Federation.

Now there's merchandising tools like pots, bench wraps and tags available for retail growers as well as through suppliers of finished products.This is an easy, attractive and effective way to create a native plant department within your current perennial sales area."

Garden Media Group