Venus Flytrap
Venus Flytraps are found in nitrogen poor environments (such as bogs) of if you prefer to not slog around in bogs looking for carnivorous plants they are available from California Carnivores for $7.95. And you thought all those folks out on the west coast were vegetarians.
What better way to get your kid interested in plants; a plant that eats stuff. I had one of these when I was a kid and it was great fun. Venus Flytraps are a native plant of the Carolinas; and actually trap and eat insects unlucky enough to land on them. The trap portion actually secretes mucilage and when something touches the hairs along the edge they snap shut, shutting tighter the more the unfortunate victim struggles; eventually creating a hermetically sealed “stomach” that digests the prey over 10 days.
Friday ~ December 12, 2007 by Steve W Posted in Houseplants, Kids, Natural Pesticides and Fertilizers | Add Your Comments
Worm Composting: A Great Project for Kids
If you’re looking for a fun way to get your kids involved in composting, try out a worm-composting bin that uses red wiggler worms. Worm composting (also known as vermicomposting) is a clean, safe, and odor-free way to compost your family’s kitchen scraps. This is way more fun than an ant farm, and better for the environment, too! Worm composting also allows you to compost year round, as you can move the bin inside your garage during the coolest months of winter.
Monday ~ May 05, 2007 by kswanson56 Posted in Garden Tools, Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle, Kids, Organic Gardening, Serious Gardener | Add Your Comments
A Book for Moms and Kids: I Plant a Garden with My Mom
Here’s another gift suggestion for Mother’s Day. The book I Plant a Garden with My Mom
Wednesday ~ May 05, 2007 by kswanson56 Posted in Books, Gardening Gifts for Women, Kids | Add Your Comments
Eco-friendly Gardening Gifts for Earth Day
Looking for eco-friendly gardening gifts to celebrate Earth Day? Try out some of these recommendations! Organic seed collections for Seeds of Change. Compost bins from the Compost Guide Store. The amazing Hula Ho weeder. Made in the U.S.A.!
Thursday ~ April 04, 2007 by kswanson56 Posted in Garden Tools, Gardening Gifts for Women, Hard to Find Seeds, Kids | Add Your Comments
Kid’s “Chocolate” Garden Kit
Looking for a cool chocolate Easter gift for your kids that won’t rot their teeth? Check out this Kid’s Chocolate Garden Seed Kit. It contains six seed packs that will produce chocolate colored flowers. Some of the flowers are even edible! The flowers in the kit include Chocolate Viola & Chocolate Nasturtium (edible), Chocolate Sunflowers, Royal Chocolate Painted Tongue, Chocolate Snapdragons and Chocolate Pincushion Flower. It also has planting instructions and a kid’s garden trowel. The Chocolate Flower Farm is an unusual nursery. Here’s more about them from their website: “Our farm is named after Bill’s love of chocolate and Marie’s passion for gardening… as it turns out Marie already had a love of dark plants, thus our name tipped the scale toward specializing in “chocolate” flowers. Bill must have chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner ~ but gardeners cannot live on chocolate alone so we grow many complementary plants as well, with an emphasis on rare, hard to find perennials. We have been here one year now and have wonderful plans for the farm and for the shop. We are looking forward to creating a special nursery you will want to visit often.” 
Monday ~ March 03, 2007 by kswanson56 Posted in Hard to Find Seeds, Kids | Add Your Comments
The Luck of the Irish
Give the luck of the Irish in a cool, personalized flower pot. This lucky clover gift set comes with a terra-cotta planter, growing medium, premium seed and growing instructions. It is adorned with a green ribbon and a gift tag that you can assign to a friend and neighbor. This kit also is available with sunflowers, forget-me-nots, and Sweet William. 
Friday ~ February 02, 2007 by kswanson56 Posted in Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle, Hard to Find Seeds, Houseplants, Kids | Add Your Comments
Organic Garden Seeds
Get a head start on your vegetable garden this year. Order these organic gardening seeds now so you can start your garden as soon as the first frost of spring has passed. Choose from cucumbers, peppers, and even pumpkins! Seeds always make a great gift. How about putting seeds in your child’s Easter basket this year? Seeds are truly the gift that keep on giving! Happy growing!
Monday ~ February 02, 2007 by kswanson56 Posted in Hard to Find Seeds, Kids, Vegetables | Add Your Comments
Love Bus Bird House
Hey all you ex-hippies! Check out this awesome bus/bird house for your yard! This is definitely a unique piece of garden sculpture that will surely catch an eye or two. The website where you’ll find this item says it all: Favored by freewheeling birds who refuse to conform, this feeder will make any yard or porch rustically groovy.
Monday ~ January 01, 2007 by kswanson56 Posted in Garden Sculpture, Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle, Kids | Add Your Comments
Home Window Garden Kit
Here’s another awesome gift suitable for starting indoors this winter. The Home Window Garden Kit offers a set of four different plants. You can choose from Organic Tomato, Organic Basil, Catnip or Lavender. Mix and match to create the perfect gift for yourself or a loved one. 
Thursday ~ December 12, 2006 by kswanson56 Posted in Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle, Hard to Find Seeds, Houseplants, Kids | Add Your Comments
Indoor Herb Garden
An indoor herb garden makes a great gift for the cold winter months. This French Herb Garden Kit has everything you need to grow parsley, marjoram, and lemon basil, right on your windowsill. The attractive glazed ceramic holders are reusable year after year!
Wednesday ~ November 11, 2006 by kswanson56 Posted in Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle, Houseplants, Kids | Add Your Comments
Gingko Tree Growing Kit
A ginkgo tree growing kit is a perfect gift for the gardener and nature lover. Ginkgo biloba is unique tree species that can live for hundreds of years. It is also a popular medicinal plant. The kit includes seeds, soil for growing, soil for germinating, a seedling pot, a guide to growing the tree, and an aluminum tree marker. 
Wednesday ~ October 10, 2006 by kswanson56 Posted in Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle, Greenhouse Gardening, Hard to Find Seeds, Kids | Add Your Comments
Freaky Nyokki Planters for Halloween
These cool Halloween egg planters would make a perfect gift for a young friend, son, or daughter. And they’re available just in time for Halloween, too! Remember those weird and wild Nyokki Pets we featured a while ago? If you don’t, let’s go over it again, shall we? Nyokki Pets are glazed ceramic egg-shaped planters that contain a type of rye grass seed planted in soil medium. Just add water and your pet will grow a full head of hair in a couple weeks! The hair grows after you cut it, so you can style it, chop it, etc! These Halloween themed Nyokki Pets are available from Wrapables.com.
Monday ~ October 10, 2006 by kswanson56 Posted in Houseplants, Kids | Add Your Comments
Smith and Hawken Bat Topiary
Just in time for Halloween, Smith and Hawken has this delightful and whimsical Bat Topiary up for sale on their website. This is a very cool gift for both adults and kids alike. It’s made from ivy trained over light weight wires.
Wednesday ~ October 10, 2006 by kswanson56 Posted in Garden Sculpture, Gardening Lifestyle, Kids | Add Your Comments
Bird Song “IdentiFlyer”
Gardeners are lovers of the outdoors and nature. What’s more, a well tended garden can attract lots of birds and other critters to your neighborhood. I know my parents love to sit in their patio with a bird identification book, looking to see what feathered friends arrive during the different seasons of the year. This unique Bird Song “IdentiFlyer” is a great gift for the bird lover/gardener. Identify the sounds of dozens of wild birds with this device and a collection of bird call cards. Available online from Cabela’s Outfitters. 
Monday ~ October 10, 2006 by kswanson56 Posted in Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle, Kids | Add Your Comments
Edible Bird House from National Geographic
National Geographic’s online store has a number of cool eco-friendly products for the home and garden. For example, this hand crafted edible bird house is loaded with seeds and provides a comfortable home for the feathered friends that visit your yard. When the seeds are gone, simply plaster the house with peanut butter and add more! Use this birdhouse to attract cardinals, chickadees, nuthatches, finches and many other kinds of wild birds to your yard. 
Tuesday ~ October 10, 2006 by kswanson56 Posted in Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle, Kids | Add Your Comments
Ecosphere Pods
Check out these cool EcoSphere Pods from Greenfeet.com. These are mini-ecosystems that are enclosed in glass. They are easy to care for and make great gifts/educational tools for kids. The spheres contain algae, filtered seawater, and tiny red shrimp. The sphere contains all it needs to sustain itself, making it a kind of low-maintenance aquarium/terrarium. Wow! This is way cooler than the sea monkeys I had as a kid!
Thursday ~ September 09, 2006 by kswanson56 Posted in Gardening Lifestyle, Kids | Add Your Comments
Cool Tabletop Weathervanes
Check out this very cool trumpeting angel miniature working weathervane. A solid copper design and a solid brass base mean that this weathervane is attractive and built to last. There are other designs available such as horses, ducks, ships, and even a golfer! So you’re bound to find a weathervane design for just about anyone! Except people with bad taste! Cost is about $50.00.
Tuesday ~ September 09, 2006 by kswanson56 Posted in Garden Sculpture, Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle, Kids | Add Your Comments
Gothic Graveyard Garden
This Gothic Graveyard Garden is just too cool for words, but it’s definitely not for everyone. If you’re a fan of Tim Burton movies like the Corpse Bride, then you’ll probably “dig” this unique terrarium style garden. The Gothic Graveyard Garden comes with plants that are just plain weird. It also comes with garden stakes that are designed like tombstones. These garden stakes are affectionately called the Blood Rock™ and Tombstone Stakes™. This unique indoor gardening product is available from the freaky folks at LiveScience.com.
Friday ~ September 09, 2006 by kswanson56 Posted in Greenhouse Gardening, Houseplants, Kids | Add Your Comments
Modern Artisans Garden Art
Modern Artisans is a company that specializes in hand made decorative items for the home and garden. They have some very cool things for sale on their on-line store, including these unusual birdfeeders, garden sculpture, address markers and more. This isn’t the mass produced garden décor you find at many stores. Modern Artisans pieces are truly works of art. 
Monday ~ August 08, 2006 by kswanson56 Posted in Garden Furniture, Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle, Kids | Add Your Comments
Garden Lovers Key Ring from the Sundog Company
Sundog Company has this cool little garden lover’s key ring. It includes an image of a mini-trowel and a pack of seeds. This is a perfect gift for the avid gardener and will allow them to show off their favorite hobby. It is hand cast from pewter and costs $12.00. 
Tuesday ~ August 08, 2006 by kswanson56 Posted in Gardening Gifts for Women, Gardening Lifestyle, Kids | Add Your Comments
