Whether you’re giving homegrown herbs, canned foods, or creative projects made from homegrown ingredients, garden inspired gifts are thoughtful, sustainable, and easy to make. By giving homemade gifts, you can reduce waste and create meaningful gifts for your family and friends. If you want to make thoughtful gifts for the holidays or another special occasion, try out these homemade gift ideas that can be made straight from the garden.

1. Flavored Salts

Flavored salts are a gourmet seasoning made by infusing or blending sea salt with herbs, spices, or other ingredients. These flavored salts are perfect for adding flavor to any dish, whether it’s meat, pasta, seafood, or even cocktails. Some popular ingredients for flavored salts include rosemary, basil, dill, garlic, paprika, and mushrooms. For most flavored salts, you can combine 1 tsp of a dried ingredient with ¼ cup sea salt using a mortar and pestle or food processor. Flavored salts can be used during the cooking process, as a finishing salt, or on the rim of a glass. Store flavored salts in repurposed jars or add them to a gift basket with other garden inspired goodies. If dried and stored properly, most flavored salts can last for years.

Basil salt, dried basil, and morton salt.

2. Baked Goods Using Garden Vegetables

One thing we make for Christmas every year is baked goods. Each person gets their favorite baked good, which often incorporates an herb or vegetable from our garden. Pumpkin is a great vegetable to incorporate into baked goods like scones, cookies, pie, or cake. We also like to make different breads, which can be topped with various herbs from the garden. Baked goods are a great DIY gift because they can be easily customized to each person and they are cheap and easy to make.

3. Seasoning Blends

Seasoning blends are a combination of herbs and spices that can add a ton of flavor to your meals. There are a lot of pre-packaged seasoning blends that you can buy at the store, but making them yourself means you can use fresher ingredients to create a more flavorful blend. Try making your own taco seasoning, italian seasoning, or rubs for different meats. We love to gift seasoning blend sets to friends who like to grill or cook. Check out our favorite 5 seasoning blends that anyone can make.

Repurposed spice jars with diy seasoning blends.

4. Tea Blends

If you haven’t tried growing your own tea, you’re missing out on a ton of delicious flavors. We devote a part of our property each year to growing our favorite teas, like chamomile, echinacea, lemon balm, and holy basil. A lot of tea comes from flowers and herbs, so all you need to do is harvest from the garden, dry them, and combine them into delicious tea blends. Pair these tea blends with a thrifted tea pot and mugs for a perfect DIY gift basket.

Jars with homegrown tea next to a teapot.

5. DIY Popcorn Bag

If you haven’t grown your own popcorn before, this is your sign to try. Our favorite popcorn variety is pink popcorn because it looks cool and tastes delicious, but there are a number of other popcorn varieties you can grow. We dry our popcorn on the stalks and then harvest and store them for winter, so they make perfect Christmas gifts. For mini varieties like pink popcorn, you can put the entire corn cob into a paper bag in the microwave to pop. Pair the popcorn with a flavored salt or other homemade popcorn seasoning for the perfect DIY popcorn gift.

Pink popcorn, a paper bage, and a jar with seasoning.

6. Infused Extracts

Infused extracts are made by steeping fresh or dried herbs or flowers in alcohol or carrier oils to capture the plant’s flavors and properties. Infused extracts can be used in a variety of ways, including cooking, making perfume, or creating DIY lotions and salves. One of our favorites to make each year is stevia extract. We steep fresh stevia leaves in alcohol for a few days and then burn off the remaining alcohol, leaving a delicious, sweet stevia extract. It’s perfect for baking or even adding to a morning coffee. Gift these infused extracts with recipe cards or other ingredients for someone to make their own lotion, salve, or perfume.

7. Infused Lotions

If you want to take the infused extracts one step further, use them to make your own infused lotions. There are a lot of medicinal herbs and flowers that are great to add to lotion like calendula, chamomile, lemon balm, and yarrow. All you need to make your own lotion is some oil, infused extracts, and shea butter or cocoa butter. Pair your infused lotion with a candle or bath bombs for a simple DIY self care gift.

8. Cards Made with Pressed Flowers

Each year, we harvest a ton of fresh flowers from the garden and press them in between parchment paper sheets in a book. The pressed flowers are great for a variety of crafts, but one of my favorites is to use them for homemade cards. These cards are a fun way to personalize someone’s gift. Our favorite flowers to press include cosmos, queen anne’s lace, pansies, baby’s breath, and the leaves from yarrow plants. Use clear glue to affix the flowers to the card and add a personalized message for the recipient.

Handmade cards with pressed flowers on the front.

9. Household Items Made with Pressed Flowers

In addition to cards, there are a ton of other items you can make with pressed flowers. For most handmade paper gifts, you can add flowers for some extra color. You can also use pressed flowers in resin projects, like coasters, bookmarks, or picture frames. You can even add dried flowers to homemade potpourri or pillar candles. Whatever craft project you’re working on, see if you can incorporate some pressed flowers into it for a fun garden-inspired gift.

10. DIY Gifts for Pets

When you’re planning your homemade gifts, don’t forget about everyone’s pets. There are so many things you can grow in your garden that make wonderful gifts for pets. For cats, we like to grow catnip every year, which gets dried out and stored to use throughout the year. You can also grow cat grass, though it is a fast grower and usually eaten straight from the soil. Gift someone a cute plant pot that already has cat grass growing in it for a dual purpose gift. For dogs, there are so many herbs and vegetables that are edible, and even healthy. Rosemary is a good food topper, which also helps freshen a dog’s breath. You can make your own dog treats using vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, or butternut squash. Make sure you research your ingredients whenever making food for an animal so you don’t use anything toxic. Combine some garden treats with a fun toy to make the perfect gift for someone’s furry friend.

These 10 homemade gifts are inspired by our garden and include things that we personally gift our family and friends each year. Try them out and let us know what you think!

10 Homemade Garden Gift Ideas