I'm Giving Away Gardening Prize Packages!

Close your eyes, hold out your hands and get ready for some groovy gardening gifts. Thanks to some very generous contributors, we're giving away well over $200 worth of gardening prize packages to four lucky readers! From a vertical gardening prize package to a collection of gardening books, we're giving away something for everyone! Just leave a comment to enter.



The Gardener's Bookshelf Prize Package

This is a quintessential collection of books for new and experienced gardeners alike and contains everything you need to know about completing just about any gardening task.

Helen Yoest's Gardening with Confidence will help you do exactly what the title promises, giving gardeners permission to be creative in their own gardens without fear of being judged by others. She doesn't talk down to you when dispensing her invaluable advice, but rather gets you excited about whipping your own landscape into check with projects like planning a garden, planting containers and adding interest with fragrance, water features and structures.

Once Helen's book gets you excited about taking on all of those gardening projects, Katie Elzer-Peters tells you precisely how to do everything in easy steps with her book the Beginner's Illustrated Guide to Gardening. Katie has been my editor and good friend for a few years now, but I was honestly blown away when I saw her book for the first time. She explains every gardening task with so much detail, yet in a simple and easy to follow way. The photo illustrations outline all of the steps visually, making every project not only easy, but a whole lot of fun.

Maybe you're just making the switch to gardening organically. Well, I can't think of a better guide than Joe Lamp'l, host of the PBS show Growing a Greener World. What I love about Joe is that while other 'green' gurus make the green lifestyle expensive and complicated, Joe manages to make sustainable practices look so affordable, simple and sensible that you'll wonder how you got along without him. Joe has two books in this prize package: Over the Fence with Joe Gardener and the Green Gardener's Guide.

DIY Succulent Garden Prize Package

This prize package contains everything you need to make your own miniature succulent garden, but let's start with the succulents themselves. Candice Suter of Sweetstuff's Sassy Succulents will be providing a healthy helping of succulent cuttings to get you started. Oh, and if her blog's endless supply of horticultural eye candy doesn't get you excited about succulents, nothing will.

Next you'll need a container, and this wood stamped cement planter from Nativecast is a perfect complement to the often muted hues of succulents. I used a larger version of this planter (pictured above) for a container combination in my upcoming book, and I think it turned out nicely.

Every good recipe starts with good ingredients, the best cars run on premium fuel and the finest artists use quality paints. So instead of planting your precious succulents in regular potting soil, use this Cactus Potting Mix from Black Gold and never watch another aloe rot away in soggy soil.

Finally, how about a handcrafted top notch soil scoop from Garden Tool Co.? My balcony is a mess right now, all thanks to my standard issue garden trowel that tends to spill potting soil all over the place. Shawna Coronado had this problem too, so when DeWit tools invited her to their blacksmithing workshop, she actually took a plane to the Netherlands and designed a new one along with Derk DeWit. It's U shaped to keep soil from falling over the sides, has a sharp bottom edge for removing old rootballs and comes equipped with a sharp hook to the side that tears open soil bags with ease.


Vertical Veggie Garden Prize Package

Who wouldn't want to grow their own veggies in a limited space? Well, this package has just what you need... except pots, since they're cheaper to buy than they are to ship. What the heck. I WILL include a bag of Black Gold Potting Mix. and a bag of Annie Haven's 'Moo Poo Tea' to keep your vegetables nice and healthy from sprout to salad. Seedlings get a nice boost with a little soak in compost tea!

To get you inspired, have a copy of Vertical Vegetable Gardening by Chris McLaughlin. It promises to be a real treat for those of us with balconies or shady gardens, or just those who want vegetables right outside the kitchen door. Chris is the fastest writer I know and her writing is always to the point and approachable. Other than that, I'd like to add that she's a wonderful friend.

Okay, enough of the sappy stuff and on to the veggie stuff. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds was kind enough to provide a $10 gift card for seeds as a part of this prize package. I have their winter annuals, greens and heirloom squash growing in the garden as we speak and I'd love to introduce more people to their heirloom vegetables rescued from obscurity (and possibly extinction) from all around the world.

I'm also giving away some of Sierra Rose Creations' EZ Mount Plant Pot Hangers to get you started growing up on your own. These things are a lifesaver. Just get a pole from the hardware store, slip on the plant pot hangers and watch your vertical garden grow. While I can't include their redwood stand in the giveaway, you might consider getting one. I now grow fifteen plants in a space that would normally only allow for four, which is a pretty big deal since my apartment is filled with plants.


Handmade Gift Prize Package

This might be the smallest prize package of the four, but you'll learn how to make your own creative DIY projects and have a tasty snack to fuel your creativity!

Stephanie Rose's Garden Therapy Handmade Gifts e-book walks you through DIY beauty products, decor projects and even living art! I'm a huge fan of Stephanie's Garden Therapy blog for its creative and classy craft projects, which are often so popular that I see them on Pinterest before I even visit her blog on my own.

The second part of this prize package is a homemade gift from Carolyn Binder to you. She's wishing you a merry Christmas with a pound of her sweet and salty candied pecans, and having tried her food before myself, I guarantee that her pecans will make your holidays very merry indeed. All in all, this is a very big prize in a small package.

Here's How to Win

Leave a comment on this post telling me which of these presents you'd like to win the most. You can enter once a day from now until next Wednesday December 19th at 10 pm Eastern Time, meaning you have seven opportunities to enter! I will draw the winning names from a hat on Thursday December 20th and announce the winners here at The Rainforest Garden.

Since some prizes will be sent by me and others will be sent by the kind contributors, I can't make any promises that you'll receive everything by Christmas day... but we'll all do our best!


Unfortunately, this is only open to US residents.

As stated earlier, many of these gifts were provided at no cost to me so that they can be given away at no cost to you. Thanks generous donors!

(Oh, and how could I forget? I'm giving away THREE more things: Carolyn Binder is giving away three of my best illustrations over at her blog Cowlick Cottage Farm and all you have to do is leave a comment over there to win my illustrations and lots of other great prizes.)