By Christyne Imhoff
During these extraordinary times, what better gifts than those that encourage sustainability at your home and in your garden. The following TreePeople choices are fun, alternative gift ideas that help support cleaner water, healthier soil, and a beautiful garden — a great way to get the new year started in a climate resilient, eco-friendly way!
Rain barrels are an easy way to capture the rain and reuse it for your garden and/or potted plants, and who doesn’t like free water? This gift is a great first step into greener living to collect and conserve rainwater year-round. Plus, if you use the SoCal Water$mart rebate program, the purchase of a rain barrel is at half the price!
For instructions on how to install a rain barrel, CLICK HERE.
For an installation video, go CLICK HERE.
For information on rebates, go CLICK HERE.
Why use a boring gutter downspout to direct rain when you can have a beautiful and functional alternative — a rain chain! Not only does this water feature offer soothing sounds, but this innovative gift can redirect rainfall into the ground, or into a rain barrel (see idea #1).
To make your own DIY rain chain, CLICK HERE.
For information on installation go CLICK HERE.
Native Plants and Wildflower Seeds
Winter is planting season in LA! What better time is to give your loved one a beautiful, living gift. Southern California native plants are a great gift that are climate-appropriate, colorful and include sages, that smell amazing!
Another great gift are packages of native annual wildflowers seeds — the perfect stocking stuffer! Spreading seeds now, will create a “super bloom” in the garden for spring!
For TreePeople’s native plant starter list, CLICK HERE.
For a native plant garden installation video, CLICK HERE
Add to your sustainable gift set this season with a compost bin. Compost enriches the soil, supports plants and helps water percolate into the ground. Convert your fresh holiday food waste into a healthy soil supplement to grow more food!
For instructions on how to compost, go HERE.
For an instruction video, go HERE
Zero Waste / Reusable Living Swag
A great way to encourage the people in your life to make positive changes to their lifestyle and move toward zero-waste living is to give them fun alternative swag as gifts. For example, to reduce the use of wasteful plastic utensils, how about the gift of a reusable bamboo utensil set? Or, gift them a chic, reusable travel mug for using at their favorite coffee shop.
For a guide with additional links, go HERE
Lastly, give the gift of a TreePeople membership to your favorite tree person this year! A membership to TreePeople is the gift that keeps on giving, as it supports TreePeople’s ongoing work to plant and care for trees in our mountains and communities throughout LA. Each membership offers free moonlight hikes at our headquarters and Coldwater Canyon Park, volunteer opportunities, and more!
For membership information, go HERE.