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Natural selections at garden shops make great gifts

01.01.70

A vigour around the Island in December can be a serene moment in the complicated holiday season. Fill your to-go mug with hot coffee or cocoa, crowd in the kids or the dog, tune in some carols on the radio and you are passable to go. The key: take your time, enjoy the sights of Christmas trees and decorations, and be after out the bountiful nature-themed gifts for the immature thumbs on your gift list.

Middletown Nursery

Madly up-Island to West Tisbury where the staff at Middletown Nursery is tidying up the grounds in preparation for a sustained winter's nap. But don't be deceived! The shop still has some terrific gifts for constitution lovers.

Bird houses from New York State are handmade using recycled barn wood and look like tiny cabins and barns. There are nicely boxed garden sets conclude with every necessary hand tool; one even has a compact AM/FM receiver to tote around the garden. The Kitchen Herb Garden includes a chopper and directorship for when the seeds grow. The Garden Game is a sweetly illustrated and enlightening board game packed with info on plants and gardens which all ages can get off on.

Source: Martha's Vineyard Times

Dreaming of a GREEN Christmas

01.01.70

TVs and audio-visual gadgets, $840 million; $551 million on toys, games and diversion supplies; $165 million on makeup and fragrances.

If there's any seemly news in Canada's ever-rising holiday shopping bill -- those numbers from December 2009, respectfulness of Statistics Canada -- it's that the spirit of giving here is animated and well.

But there's also the post-Christmas bad news: heaps of over-sufficiency packaging, cheaply made toys that don't last a play term and last year's electronics made obsolete by this year's.

It's a well-made line between the season of giving and the season of noteworthy consumption, and how to gift sustainably can be a conundrum for shoppers who'd like their contributions to succour the Earth -- or at least, not harm it.

In the spirit of greener giving, we asked a coterie of Winnipeggers active on environmental issues for their eco-agreeable present pick. Here's a round-up of their best bets and tips:

Opt for experiences

Peg Town Car Co-op board member Melissa Depuis suggests opting for experiential gifts, whether they be concert tickets or yoga or ceramics classes. "The benefit of the experiential gift is that it also reduces the amount of prodigality that's produced," she said.

Source: Winnipeg Free Press