This months Urban Jungle Bloggers post is all about green gift giving, and my favourite green gift to give is herbs. Edible and easy to grow from seed, they make beautiful and useful presents and if you don’t want to eat them – let them bolt and you will see beautiful flowers and then seeds that you can give to to another friend. Making them an eternal gesture of friendship and tasty meals!
I thought it would be lovely to give a living plant for instant joy and then a box of seeds with it so the receiver could try their hand at growing something too.
I found these pretty flower themed vintage match boxes in my making cupboard and knew they would be perfect for using as tiny gift boxes for seeds. I lined them with Liberty fabric for a wow of colour when the parcel is opened, and inside are tiny glass bottles of seeds, with hand made labels and the growing instructions.
I love all the different leaf shapes that herbs have, they are so delicate and fragrant – Give mint to herbal tea lovers – Parsley to garlic aficionados – Coriander to spice addicts and Cress to friends who like to encourage their children to take an interest in nature.
Chives are a double delight as you can eat the leaves and even the flowers! They add magic to a salad and taste delicious! I think these are perfect to give to creative and artistic friends.
Below are some delicate coriander flowers that appeared when we forgot to eat our plant and it began the process of going to seed.
We were also asked to share who we would give our green gift to? So, to celebrate the joy and happiness that is Urban Jungle Bloggers – I would love to send two of the little green seed box gifts to two of my readers.
Just leave a comment telling me about your favourite herb to use and I will post them out to two winners after the bank holiday weekend. Happy growing! xxx
Thanks for reading, UJB is one of my favourite online communities, have you joined in yet? Run by Igor of Happy Interior Blog and Judith of JOELIX.com why not come on over and meet all the other lovely plant mad peeps here?!
April 30, 2015
Without a shadow of a doubt mint is my favourite! I adore the smell, it always reminds me of my childhood. The taste too always reminds me of my Mum’s cooking. Why can’t I make mint sauce as well as her?! lol
April 30, 2015
I love mint! Mint tea Moroccan style is the best! :)
April 30, 2015
For me basil is the ultimate wonder weapon for my not existing cooking skills. And also in my smoothies it is so yummy – I mean I just need to say raspberries and basil!
April 30, 2015
Wow sound delicious! I will try this combo thanks, Luisa! :)
April 30, 2015
What a precisous and beautiful plant gift, Jeska! Love it, it is so you! Thank you for joining us again!!
April 30, 2015
What a beautiful green gift, Jeska! Love how you styled it, it is so you!! Thanks for joining us again!
April 30, 2015
Thank you for the monthly inspiration! :)
April 30, 2015
Ohhhh your green gifts are so precious and personal, Jeska! Really beautiful and love the gesture that you are giving some away to your readers too. Thank you so much for playing along with Urban Jungle Bloggers again!!!!
April 30, 2015
So glad you like them, it was nice to take some time away from the laptop and actually do some making! :)
May 1, 2015
How lovely. What a special gift. I love growing herbs and basil is one of my favourites. Homemade pesto is the best!
May 1, 2015
Yes! I love all the different versions of pesto Victoria, do you have an easy recipe to share? ;)
May 1, 2015
Such a lovely addition of urban jungle bloggers Jeska! Loved this one, so pretty with the sweet little match boxes and their liberty prints! So lovely that you featured herbs this time! I’m a little herb mad with them growing inside the house and the garden, I love using them in cooking, for tea blends and in my bath!
Giving them as gifts is such a wonderful idea I just received a book for my birthday all about making gifts from things grown in the garden!
Lovely photos, loved the one with the delicate coriander flowers how beautiful!!
It’s hard to pick just one favourite, I’m going to say Rosemary, I love how vibrant the shade of green and the way it grows with its thin needle like leaves, It feels lovely to run your hands along and your hands smell amazing after, I adore the smell and always drop some rosemary essential oil with a few handfuls of sea salt In to my bath, Rosemary is one of the oldest forms of incense and features in many a folklore tale, I like to burn it for cleansing and purification after a tidy of the house, it’s nice during meditation too, not to mention super tasty with roasted veg and roasted potatoes! Yum ;) ………. Xx
May 1, 2015
Great choice Zoe! Dean loves a herbal bath after his training and is quite partial to Rosemary and thyme with salts. Some great ideas here, what was the name of the book? We missed out on meeting James Wong the other day and I really wanted to find out some of his herbal knowledge! So, I might get his book too :)
May 2, 2015
Thank you :)
oooh I’ve not heard of James Wong!? I will have to have a look at his work ;) The book I got is called ‘Gifts from the garden’ by Debora Robertson its a lovely book I would make a few little alterations and tweeks though when i’m making stuff to be more natural, less sugar etc …. xx
May 5, 2015
Sounds good! I will have a hunt for it :)