Santa's Lap: Gifts For Urban Gardeners

Lindsey
By Lindsey Last edited 147 months ago
Santa's Lap: Gifts For Urban Gardeners

Every day until Christmas we will be pointing you in the direction of a London Christmas gift that (with a bit of luck) you won’t already have on your list. Climb up onto our collective lap and we’ll see what we can move from our sack to your stockings…

Do you know someone who'd love to have a garden but is stuck in flat with just a square of patio, a balcony or a rooftop? Help them get growing in 2012 by giving them some green-fingered gifts.

For inspiration: buy a copy of My Garden, The City And Me by Helen Babbs, erstwhile Londonist contributor and she who helped us get our office balcony garden growing. Even if your gift recipient never get their hands dirty, it's a beautiful hardback, written deliciously, with top tips on where to find wild London as well as first-hand experience — successes and frustrations — of beginning urban gardening (£4.70 on Amazon).

To get someone going: Not confident enough to grow from seed, we opted to start our veggie garden with a Rocket Garden i.e. a box full of baby plants ready to slot into waiting, peated containers. Buy one of these vouchers and your fledgling gardener can redeem it online and await delivery of the box of goodness as soon as it's in season.

Go Guerilla: If there's seriously no room for bloom then support Guerilla Gardening with the purchase of a 2011 Lavender Pillow, made with lavender harvested from South London guerilla garden patches (£15 for one, £25 for two). Richard Reynolds' excellent Guerilla Gardening book about 'gardening without boundaries' is also available (from about £8).

Chelsea Physic Garden Festive Shopping Days might also be useful.

See what else has been in Santa's Lap.

Last Updated 02 December 2011