If you are looking for ways for you or your children to provide cheap presents for the extended family, or just like to give gifts that have a personal element to them, then here is a suggestion or two for you.

If you are looking to make a present for the gardener in the family or someone who has recently moved into their own home, someone in a flat or unit, or a person who can’t manage a full sized yard, or a family member who loves to cook with fresh ingredients, etc. Then why not consider giving them something from your own garden? Here I am talking about plants that you have divided off from your own garden plants.

There are many plants growing in the average garden that can be divided, or that have naturally self layered themselves. Where you could go along and take a rooted section, pot them up and with a bit of dressing up of the planting container, you could produce a really nice gift for someone you care about.

These plants include many herbs as well as perennials or shrubs and even some trees which manage to send out self-layering branches or suckers from the root system. Some perennials or bulbs will increase their size or number of bulbs over time. Chance seedlings coming up in the wrong place for you, can easily also be used. All of these provide you with an opportunity to cheaply create a wonderful present for someone else.

First things first you will need to obtain a number of pots either plastic ones left over from additions to the garden population, or from someone you know, or you can go out and purchase a pot plastic/ceramic/terracotta etc., to suit your needs. If the person you are giving the plant to is not a real gardener, then you might consider getting a pot with a waterwell in the base to increase the plants’ chances of surviving.

Next, you need to begin looking for your plant material, so take a careful look around your garden at the soil level. Check out which plants are showing multiple stalks growing out of the ground. Or those sprawling plants where a branch has leaned over on to the ground and taken root along the branch, maybe one where a branch has become buried under the mulch.

Or one where there is a sucker growing from the soil a short distance from the parent plant. Another possibility is seedlings growing in the garden a distance from the parent plant material. Maybe there is a clump of plants or a big patch of bulbs where you can do some dividing.

Many of these plants benefit from being divided up or being allowed some more growing room in the particular area where you have taken away some material.

Different parts of Australia will have a differing range of plant species, which lend themselves to this form of self-propagation. If you can’t find any plants that are doing this in your own garden, why not look at a friends or neighbours garden. Or you could maybe join forces and give a joint present using plants from another family member’s garden. Or another possibility is to buy a plant in a pot that has several plants already established in it.

Divide that up before you use half in your own garden, and still have half to repot and give away. Even if you are not confident about your gardening skills you can still pick up cheap plants at the local market, school/church fair, garage sale etc. Repot them into a bigger or nicer pot for a fairly cheap present.

Another possibility is to multiplant a few different plants into a long or large round tub. This will create an instant garden on the move. Some themes you might consider here is herbs, indoor foliage, bulbs, annuals, alpine/rock, cacti/succulent or even patio gardens mixing annuals and perennials.

It is best to moisten the ground around the plant that you are going to work on well before you do the dividing, as this allows you to remove the maximum amount of root mass during the dividing process.

The first step is to divide the clump or cut away the joining branch to make the separate plant available. Then using a spade, fork or gardening trowel, dig as far out from the potential plant as practicable, because this will give you the biggest root mass possible.

Go down as far you believe you need to, (this will depend on such circumstances as size of new plant, species of original plant material, type of soil, other plant or landscaping material around the area, etc.). As gently as you can dig out the new plant. Shake off any excess soil and refill the resulting hole in the ground if necessary.

Prune back the foliage of the new plant to roughly equal size of the root mass, trying to protect some of the new foliage growth. Repot as soon as practicable, so that the roots do not dry out and die.

Another thing to consider is what sort of pot you are gong to plant into; if it is only a plastic pot then you do not need to prepare it beforehand. However if you are looking at painting it, then do this before you get digging.

When painting up pots, you will need to do some preparation work for the paint to stick properly. Plastic pots should have their surface roughened up with a bit of sandpaper. While some terracotta pots should have a primer applied to the outer surface before you paint them. Try not to get primer or paint onto the inside of the planter, because while most wont, there are still some paints which contain chemicals that may affect or contaminate the soil and plant over time.

Other possibilities for decorating up pots include simply gluing on bits and pieces including stones, tiles, buttons, sticks, shells, ornaments, ribbon, stickers and decals, etc. Other ways of decorating up a pot for the initial presentation is to wrap up just the pot (not the actual plant), using either wrapping paper, cellophane, material, a cheap teatowel or even hessian. Hold these wrappers in place with string, ribbon, bandana, scarf, etc.

Other possibilities for adding value to the potplant is to provide some growing information and name tags for the plant/s included. Other little quirks you might add include a personalised name tag, (Hi, my name is David the Diffenbachia . . . ), or a little watering indicator, miniature hand tools, small amounts of fertiliser, pot ornaments, watering can etc.

So as you can see, creating a very personal gift for just about anyone can easily be within the grasp of anyone. Why not go out into your garden and start thinking about what presents you can be preparing for Christmas this weekend.



By: Bare Bones Gardener

About the Author:

Orbit Digital Watering Timer

Rene F asked:


We are starting a new garden and wish to keep organic as much as possible. We haven’t found much at our local garden center or large retailers for items such as compost or organic seeds or seedlings. We live in Metuchen, but are willing to travel if there is a store that matches our needs. Thank you.

No matter how much people try to encourage the wildlife to visit and live in their gardens. There will always be occasions and/or parts of the garden where we do not welcome them. This being mainly when we are planting young seedlings or a crop of edible plants is getting close to harvest. So we have to strike a balance between encouraging the wildlife as well as being able to discourage them at other times or from certain particular places.

There are four ways of protecting your plants or crop from the ravages of birds and animals; these methods include fences, scarers, covers and sprays. Here we will deal with suggestions for the last three of these ideas.

Most of these ideas though will only provide a temporary solution, because most times the birds or wildlife, while scared off at first will eventually stop being frightened and will return and ignore or bypass that method in future. So it is an idea to only use each idea for a short time, and then later switch to a different system of control.

Scarers

Scarers usually rely on something to surprise the wildlife’s vision or hearing, to frighten them into leaving.

Bell Scarers

If you have some small cheap bells lying around or you can pick some up cheap, then string them along a length of twine over your plants.

Bottle Top Scarers

String a series of metal and or plastic bottle tops between stakes driven into the ground at the outside of the area to be protected. Make sure that they can move easily in the slightest breeze or at the gentlest touch. It also helps if some of them can rattle together to add a bit of noise.

Tie one off every so often so that it cannot move, this will stop them all migrating to the lowest point of the length of string.

Drink Bottle Rattle Scarer

Partially fill some drink bottles with a fairly light product like rice or dried peas, put enough in to make it into a rattle. Then tie them along some twine tied over your young plants. If animals tap them or the breeze is blowing they will make a noise, to frighten the small critters away.

Drink Can/Bottle Scarers

Tie some cans or bottle along some twine so that they can bump together to make a noise if tapped or moved by a breeze, to frighten the small animals or birds.

Whirligig Scarers

If you have one of those little whirligigs that have a blade that goes around in the breeze, why not set it up near your plants it will scare the birds away as long as the wind is blowing.

Hawk Scarers

Unless you are fairly good at both art and woodcraft and can make one yourself, you will probably have to go out purchase one of the commercially made Hawk scarers and set it up following the directions in the pack, to frighten away the birds.

Kites

Here you can either go out and purchase a small cheap kids kite or look at making your own kites.

To cover your kite, you can use anything from material through to old foil wrapping paper, kitchen foil or even plastic shopping bags.

Even kites made to be only a few inches across, can be an effective scarer, if you hang them to blow in the breeze.

Ribbon Scarers

Rip or cut some scraps of brightly coloured or reflective material into small strips. Tie them to twine over the plants to be protected, leave enough dangling to flap around in the breeze, to scare the birds.

Scarecrow

Have a go at making a Scarecrow, it may or not be effective at scaring the birds, but it almost be guaranteed to become a piece of landscaping art and a talking point around the neighbourhood.

Silver Foil Scarers

Aluminium foil or used Foil wrapping paper or bags (eg Chip bags), which is cut into strips to hang on twine through the area will scare the daylights out of any creature which moves it, or sees it moving in the breeze.

Or try wrapping polystyrene or ping-pong balls in the foil, and hang these through the area.

Water Hose/Sprinkler Scarer

Position a garden hose either up into a strong branch of a fruiting tree. Or tie it to a garden stake in the middle of your young plants. Leave a few feet loose above the top point at which you tie it off. When you notice birds descending on your plants. Turn the hose on as hard as you can. This will result in the end of the hose flapping around rather wildly gushing out a strong stream of water. This is usually enough to frighten anyone let alone the local wildlife.

Repeat this a few times and the birds or wildlife will soon not bother coming back.

Wind Chimes Scarers

Why not try and hang your old wind chimes in the area that you want protected.

Wine Cask Bladder Scarer

Take the nozzle out and use like a box kite. Or blow them up like balloons.

Tinsel Scarers

Use some of your old tinsel, or buy some up cheap in the post Christmas sales.

Allow plenty of loose material to permit the tinsel to move around in the breezes.

Sails/Pennants

Material, foil or plastic set up to flap in the breeze like either a sail or pennant, can be an effective scarer.

Windsock Scarer

Try your hand at making your own miniature version of an Airport’s Windsock to frighten the birds and animals

Clothesline/Airer Scarer

If you have the type of family that has clothes drying on a clothes line most days, then place your young plants in pots around the base of the clothes line or set up a movable clothes Airer near your delicate plants filling the lines with clothes and linen which will flap around a bit will also be an effective bird and small animal scarer.

Plastic Snakes

If you have an old plastic snake at the bottom of the old toy box, why not try putting it in amongst your plants. While I have never tried this method myself, I have heard of others who swear by this scarer. Move it around every so often.

Toy Animal Scarers

What about the idea of strategically placing a realistic looking toy dog or cat near your young plants. The theory being that the birds or small animals will already have had experience with real cats and dogs so will avoid any area with them.

(This is theoretical suggestion, which I haven’t seen tried but is based on the supposed success of the plastic snakes). So if anyone has the opportunity to try this one, let me know the results, please.

Protective Covers

Whereas putting a cover over or around the plants physically stops the animals from reaching the plants.

Glass/ Hard Plastic Covers

If you have a pane of glass or an old window that is not being used put it over your young plants, lift it above the plants using whatever is available to you, eg bricks etc.

Milk/Yoghurt Container Covers

Cut the top and bottom out of cardboard or plastic containers and slip these over young plants to stop birds and other animals from digging them out till they are established. It helps to bury the bottom of the container slightly.

This idea works just as well with any round or square material that will go round your young plants, from drink bottles to small sections of plastic plumbers pipe. But always cut them down one side to make removal easier once the plants have grown a bit.

Plastic/Shade cloth/Bird netting Covers

Make a framework of stakes around the plants that you want to protect, and place over this a shade cloth/plastic or bird netting cover. Shade cloth or plastic can be purchased by the foot/metre from nurseries or hardware stores. Or you can even just throw the shade cloth or bird netting directly over the plants/shrubs or small trees, if the plant is strong enough to support the weight of the material.

Stick and String Covers

Whether you are trying to protect a pot of seedlings or a bigger area out in the garden. Make up a framework of sticks or garden stakes around the seedlings, and then tie them loosely together by weaving some string, cotton, wool or twine between the sticks/stakes.

Wire Mesh Frame Covers

Wire Netting Covers

Support some of that light flexible fencing wire, mosquito mesh or even plastic mesh over your seedlings of fruiting plants, and support it with garden stakes to keep the birds away from your plants.

Hard Wire Frame Covers

Try supporting some hard wire mesh over your young plants to protect them from the ravages of birds or animals. You can use things like light concreting mesh or fencing panels, or whatever else you can access around the place.

Support them up off the ground with garden stakes, bricks or even soft drink bottles filled with water.

Sprays

The reason for applying a spray is to make the animals think that the targeted plant or fruit is not as tasty as they at first believed it should be. But it usually takes a bit of experimentation to find what will work with particular pests. As each have their own likes and dislikes even within the one species.

But try mixing hot or unpleasant but safe ingredients together to make a spray diluted with water to spray over your seedlings or fruiting plants. Try to avoid spraying fruit that you will eat, or rinse such produce well before consuming.

Some ingredients you might try include,

Tabasco sauce

Garlic

Onions

Chillies

Etc.

The above list of ideas should be enough to provide you with at least a few alternatives that you can try to combat those ravenous critters that are bombarding your young charges.