100 Christmas Gift Ideas That Aren't Toys

Welcome to Day 9 of the 12 Days of Christmas - Kiwi Mummy Blog Collaboration. This is the third year I've participated in this festive blog collaboration with 11 other Kiwi bloggers. If you've been following along you'll find posts about everything from Christmas traditions, recipes, gift guides, homemade decorations and more.  

Yesterday Julia over at Parental Misadventures blogged about Camp Christmas Cocktails. Her cocktails sound both delicious, but extremely simple too. This makes them perfect for a bit of Christmas Kiwi camping. Everyone loves a good cocktail on a warm summer's day.

Today we're up with Day 9 of 12 Days of Christmas. Looking for something a little bit different and creative for your child this Christmas? I've put together a list of 100 gift ideas that aren't your typical toys! 

 This particular gift guide has presents appropriate for all ages, from babies to teenagers - we've got you covered.

1. Sandpit 
2. A bucket and spade for the sandpit
3. Outdoor chalk board 
4. Fruit tree or a special tree - e.g. Pohutukawa tree (NZ Christmas tree)
5. A box of paints and a mixture of a few black and white canvas pieces
6. A voucher for a trip to the zoo or local farm park 
7. A torch for camping
8. Homemade playdough and cutters 
9. Rainbow rice
10. Box of tissues to pull out 
11. A large box  to play in with Christmas fairy lights pushed through the top.
12. Duplo
13. Small CD player and a bunch of books with audio CDs. 
14. Balloons
15. Homemade discovery bottles
16. Instruments e.g. maracas, drum, xylophone 
17. Music CD  
18. A slide
19. A personalised book
20. Water table - I love the Step2 water tables
21. Simple water toys - water wheel, some bottles of food colouring to colour the water, pots/pans
22. Chalk and roll up chalk mat
23. play tents with tunnel attached in the middle
24. Their favourite food e.g. for our little boy that would be a box of blueberries!
25. A voucher for an ice cream date.
26. Bath crayons 
27. Bubble bath - we love Pineapple Heads (all natural and smells so yummy)
28. A personalised Christmas decoration with their name on it. There's lots on Etsy. 
29. A paddle pool
30. Plant a boxed garden full with strawberries so your little tot can pick their own. 
31. Scented stickers
32. Mini butterfly garden - a large pot, potting mix, swan plants and a couple of flower plants.
33. Balance bike - check out Mocka or The Wooden Toy Shop
34. An outdoor construction zone with gravel, large stones and a new truck
35. A mud kitchen 
36. A kite
37. A photo album or photo frame with family photos (even little ones love looking at photos).
38. Own tools for working outside with Dad. 
39. Scented markers
40. A small aquarium with tadpoles
41. A night light e.g. Aloka night lights
42. Magnetic letters and numbers
43. Stamps and ink pad
44. Liquid floor tile 
45. Rainbow rice 
46. Music instruments e.g. maracas, drum or xylophone
47. Paddle pool filled with plastic balls to make a ball pit. 
48. Mega Bloks 
49. A swing 
50. A new teddy bear to take on a teddy bear picnic 
51. Cookies in a jar e.g. gingerbread men and a recipe to make them
52. Voucher for an ice cream date
53. Smoothie machine
54. Photo frames to make an art gallery in their bedroom to display their own art.
55. Swing ball set
56. Cricket bat and ball
57. A tree house
58. Bird house
59. Buy a star and name it after them
60. Popcorn machine
61. Dress up clothes/items
62. A globe
63. A science kit e.g. to grow crystals or build a volcano
64. Glow sticks
65. binoculars
66. Hammock
67. Popsicle molds 
68. Insect catcher and book of insects to be able to identify the insects they catch
69. Fort building voucher
70. Pay for a holiday art class, music or dance class
71. Adopt a dolphin or kiwi
72. Candle or soap making kit
73. A voucher for breakfast or dinner at their favourite restaurant
74. Board games 
75. Tickets to the movies 
76. A cupcake kit with all of the ingredients you need to make and decorate cupcakes
77. A simple garden kit with seeds to plant, shovel, gardening gloves and watering can
78. An ice cream sundae kit
79. A recipe book 
80. A pizza garden - plant herbs, tomatoes etc that can be used in a pizza. 
81. A book voucher or magazine subscription for a year
82. A magnifying glass
83. Their own mail box and organise for someone to write a letter or send a postcard each month
84. A special bath bomb
85. A travel journal 
86. A cheap digital camera on instax camera
87. A reading light for reading in bed at night
88. Their own cheap tent for backyard sleepovers 
89. Swing to hang in a tree. 
90. A craft box filled with art and craft materials
91. Beach ball
92. Water balloons 
93. A back pack or new pencil case
94. Their own baking utensils - whisk, bowl, measuring spoons and cups
95. A coupon book - voucher for a movie night, to stay up past their bedtime or hot chocolate date
96. Paint with water books
97. Their own table and chairs
98. A ball of bright coloured wool and instructions for finger knitting 
99. An experience e.g. a trip to the zoo, surfing lessons or a boat trip
100. A diffuser (doTERRA or Scentsy are great) with a couple of essential oils. 

Have we missed some of your favourite gift ideas? We'd love to know! We may even add them to our list. 

Tomorrow make sure that you pop over to Hey Little Sweet Thing for something delicious straight from the kitchen. We still have three more amazing blogs to go x 

Merry Christmas everyone x 

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Labour Weekend

Labour Weekend is seen by many gardeners as the golden weekend to begin planting out seedlings. The risk of getting a frost should be almost non existent now and being a long weekend there's an extra day for gardening. I currently have seedlings at all different stages so today I sat down and reflected on where exactly I am with everything. I have seedlings that are hardened off and are waiting patiently outside to be planted, some are ready to be transplanted from seedling trays into larger pots or are already in the process of being hardened off, others still need to be left in the trays until their first set of true leaves appear and then there are seeds that need to be directly planted into the ground.

The following varieties of tomatoes are all ready to be planted out tomorrow - Yellow Pear, Black from Tula, San Marzano, Brandywine Blend, Mortgage Lifter, Roma, Moneymaker, Green Zebra and Sunrise Bumblebee.There are also a mix of beans, a butternut, courgette, cucumber, capsicum, lettuces, sugar baby watermelons and golden midget watermelons that are ready. We also have bee friendly flowers that make great companion plants too, such as: marigolds, calendula, borage, poppies, sweet peas, purple tansy and nasturtium.

Ready to be transplanted from seedling trays and into their own little pots are: three seedlings from a squash mix (it reminds me of getting a lucky dip as a child), purple beans and emu beans, luffa, Tuscan Delight melons, golden midget watermelon, yellow meated watermelon, zephyr courgette, pepino, violet cauliflower, bright lights silverbeet, cut and come lettuce, nasturtium, sunflowers, marigolds and sweet peas.

In the process of hardening off I have bright lights silverbeet, black and strawberry popping corn, Atlantic Giant pumpkin, beetroot, eggplants, small sugar pumpkin, Italian broccoli, violet cauliflower and zephyr courgettes. Then left in the seedling trays will be melons - collective farm women and golden midget watermelon, small fry cherry tomatoes, another pepino, eggplants, capsicum and a variety of herbs (basil, chives, Italian parsley, rosemary and thyme). I may need to sow some more rosemary and thyme though as not a single one of those seeds has germinated. I'm hoping to use the herbs as companion plants in the vegetable gardens, as well as planting some in hanging baskets. They'll need to be watered twice a day in the hanging baskets, but I always grew up with my mum and grandparents growing plants in hanging baskets so would love to have a go myself this year too. I may also plant a couple of cherry tomatoes in the baskets as well.

Last, but not least there are the seeds that I will sow directly into the ground - honey and pearl corn, beans, rainbow carrots and purple dragon carrots, watermelon radishes and Easter egg radishes, peas and bee friendly flowers.

Today wasn't as productive in the garden as I would have liked, but that's okay because instead I was gifted more time to reflect on where I'm at, where to next and how I might like to modify my garden plan prior to planting out my seedlings. I did manage a quick trip to a couple of garden shops though. I ended up by purchasing some marigold seedlings, bird netting for the berry garden, a hose nozzle attachment, a pack of bamboo stakes and a ruby pepino. As well as all the vegetables that need planting out I now have the pepino, tropical guava and an apple tree I still desperately need to plant. Hopefully the weather holds out tomorrow so I can tick a few things off my 'to do' list.

What have you got planned in your garden for Labour Weekend?

September 2017

A little monthly update on what's been happening in our backyard and gardens over September.


Chickens and Ducks 

We recently purchased another two Araucana chickens. These two lavender hens are coming onto their first lay now and lay beautiful blue eggs. Both are reasonably tame and are interesting to watch scratching around in the backyard. We've had no luck with getting our Pekin duck to go clucky, but now have five chickens that are clucky so I've popped a few eggs under them. Some of these eggs will definitely be fertile, but I'm unsure as to whether the chickens will commit to hatching them or not. So far it's looking promising. The two Indian Runner x ducks are still both sitting on a nest of eggs each. Over the past week one of them has started smashing the odd egg. These eggs obviously weren't fertile. You can easily tell by how rotten they now are.

Pet Orphaned Lambs 

Peppermint and Snowflake are doing really well. They're now outside day and night. They have two old dog kennels in the paddock for shelter. They sleep cuddled up together in one at night. When I first started putting the lambs outside I let them play in our backyard, instead of putting them in the paddock. When they started to learn how to strip the citrus trees it was time to move them out into the paddock. Both lambs will be two months old in early October. They're old enough to be completely weaned off bottles of milk now, but we've continued to give them a bottle each night to keep them tame. They are also due to be drenched and have their tails, as well as Peppermint's boy bits removed soon. They're incredibly friendly and have learnt to come when they called, especially if they know there's a bottle of milk it in for them. 

Backyard Orchard 

The two latest fruit trees that I've recently purchased are a Greenmeadow Cox Orange apple tree and a tropical guava. We needed a second apple tree to pollinate our Royal Gala apple. We also ensured that we selected a tree that will do well in clay soil. This is something that I failed to think about the first time when selecting fruit trees so I'm hoping that the other trees will do okay. The tropical guava I couldn't walk past at our local grower's market when I saw it was only $10. Both my little boy and I love guavas at much as the wood pigeons so we may even end up purchasing a couple more of these.

Raised Vegetable Garden Building Project 

We've had a lot of rain over the past few weeks so our raised vegetable garden project has taken a bit longer than we had expected. The frames are now all up, but we still have to attach all of the chicken netting to it to stop out cheeky chickens from being able to get into our garden. I've spent hours planning my garden and taking into consideration gardening methods such as, companion planting and crop rotation. You can read more about our garden design and plan here.

Berry Patch 

Our berry patch has now been relocated away from outside the lounge window. Now that the chickens can no longer jump up onto the window sill and it's the garden, we should hopefully have a bit more success. We've planted two blueberry bushes so far and will add a third too. It's beneficial to grow more than one variety together. This ensures that they pollinate each other and that you get a better crop. Some blueberries will however pollinate self-pollinate. We also plant different varieties of strawberries.

Mr 2 helped to put sheep pellets on our berry garden around the strawberries. We don't put them around the blueberry plants as they don't like it like the strawberries do. I then added pine needles as a form of mulch around all of the plants. As the pine needles break down they'll help to keep the soil acidic, which is how blueberries and strawberries prefer it. Our garden was then finished off with some new compost and strawberry straw. This helps to feed the plants and also keeps the fruit clean.

Growing From Seed

This year is my first year growing my own fruit, vegetables, flowers and herbs from seed. I've developed a love for buying different varieties and learning how to grow them. My three favourite brands so far are Kings Seeds, Koanga and Yates seeds. When deciding what to grow I took into consideration what we eat a lot of, some different varieties I wanted to try that you can't purchase in the supermarket e.g. Zephyr Zucchini; as well as things that are fun to grow with children e.g. giant pumpkins, sunflowers and popping corn. We've learnt so much already and can't wait to continue sharing this adventure with you all.

Happy gardening everyone x

Our First Ducklings

While I was cooking dinner one night last week, I noticed these cute little balls of feathers running around the paddock with their mum. These are the first ducklings we've hatched here so we were pretty excited too! We crossed our fingers and hoped that they'd all survive their first night. 

One sadly didn't survive so now we have six balls of feathers left. It was looking a lot weaker than the other ducklings yesterday (you'll notice it wasn't even in yesterday's photo because it wasn't keeping up with the others). I went back down to the large chicken enclosure where we'd put the ducks and ducklings last night. I'd decided that it would be best to bring the little duckling in overnight, instead of leaving it outside in the cold. Unfortunately it had already passed away. The other ducklings all seemed happy and were trying to go under mum so I left them with her. At 2 am I couldn't sleep because the rain was so heavy and again I thought about going down the paddock to bring them all inside. 

The next morning as soon as it was light we collected them up (including the mother duck) and put them in a large plastic storage box with a blanket. They were put in the bathroom until they dried out and warmed up. Around lunch time I set up our old rabbit hutch with fresh hay, shallow bowls of water and food for them. I then put them into the hutch in the backyard. We have a resident hawk so this will be the safest place for them for now. It also means that I can keep a closer eye on them.

Today they're a week old and are all doing well. The love splashing in the shallow dish of water and have happily taken to eating chick crumble mixed with water. Over the next few days I plan to move them onto a proper meat bird crumble. We also have a few clucky hens sitting on fertile duck eggs so hopefully there will be some more ducklings arriving over the next couple of weeks. 

Garden Plan

Today marks the first day of Day Light Savings and so it felt like a fitting day to make a plan for my gardens this Spring. I'm a very visual person so I actually sat outside on the edge of my garden in the sunshine and put together the following design. I've really put my heart into this and have tried to make the best use of all of the new things I've learnt over the past couple of months. Some things that I took in to consideration when planning my gardens were - companion planting, how to best use the spaces I have, crop rotation, what vegetables we will actually use; as well as choosing a few new things that I thought would be fun to grow with my two year old. 

Because I want to make the most of the garden space I have, I've decided to try square foot/metre gardening and growing some things vertically too. Our two largest garden beds are 4 m x 1.2 (each bed) so I sat there marking out the different sections this afternoon so I could get a visual in my head of how things might look. I've read a lot of gardening books, blogs and websites lately so this is how I decided how many plants to grow in each section. Of course this depends on the size of the plant e.g. 1 broccoli per section or 4 lettuce. Each square metre will be divided into nine equal squares. I'll still have extra space leftover at the front of the gardens so have decided to put in a border of marigolds and herbs there. 

Companion planting is something that I've become really passionate about. I think it makes sense to plant plants together that will support each other in different ways as they grow. I also love the idea of including bee friendly flowers in the vegetable garden. I have never done this before, but am looking forward to incorporating this aspect.

Here are some companion combinations that I'll be including in my vegetable gardens:

The Three Sisters (sweetcorn, beans and a miniature pumpkin) - a traditional way of gardening that was practised by the North American Indians. Beans help to add nitrogen to the soil for corn. Corn acts as a support for beans and pumpkin.
Sweetcorn and lettuce - the sweetcorn provides shade for the lettuce to keep it cooler during the hot months and help prevent it from bolting. 
Broccoli, beetroot, radishes and nasturtiums - broccoli has a high calcium requirement. This can be met by growing beetroot, nasturtiums and radishes nearby. 
The Italian Combo (basil, parsley and tomatoes) - a great companion group.
Corn and tomatoes - corn is known to lure away tomato plant pests. 
Bubble and Squeak (potatoes and peas) - peas make good companions for potatoes. 
Borage, marigolds, nasturtium and calendula - all bee friendly flowers that will help to encourage pollination. I've also ensured that these have been planted closely to crops with smaller flowers e.g. capsicum and eggplant. 
Rosemary and sage - these two help each other to grow well. They also support carrots to grow healthy. 
Beetroot and silverbeet - leafy greens and beetroot go together well. These two are also good friends with most plants. 

Not only do the flowers I've selected support pollination, but they also help out in other ways too.Aphids love nasturtiums so hopefully they'll be attracted there instead of to the beans. Nasturtiums also keep caterpillars and whiteflies away. Marigolds deter pests with their strong smell, especially aphids and greenfly. Borage makes a great companion for strawberries. 

What I like about square foot (or square metre) gardening is that I'm not going to end up with an overload of one type of vegetable at once. Once one crop finishes I will replant a new crop. In one of the large raised garden beds I'm going to do quite a bit of vertical gardening. The reasoning behind this is that it's easier to go up than out when you have chickens on the other side of the garden fence. Beans and a miniature pumpkin will be part of the three sisters garden. Then I have zucchini, golden midget watermelons, eggplants and an apple cucumber that I will set up tee pee style frames for. I'm sure some of it will work well and some may be a flop, but that's all part of the learning.

When I was designing my gardens I did put some thought into crop rotation. It's been suggested to me before that I plan where crops will go for the following year in advance. I haven't done this as I know I will change my mind a million times before next Spring. I have ensured there will be plenty of options though. Root crops have been planted together where possible e.g. carrots and radishes. The potatoes are either in bags or a separate garden. Brassicas e.g. cauliflower and broccoli have been planted in one section. Tomatoes and cucurbits will be able to be easily rotated too. Leafy crops have been mixed around a bit, but there will still be lots of places for them to go the following season.

As I browsed seed catalogues and the shelves at Mitre 10 I considered what we would grow in our garden and why. I know there's no point growing things that we simply won't eat. Some easy to grow vegetables e.g. bright lights silverbeet I'm also growing extra of for our animals e.g. bunny, cockatiel and chickens. I eat most vegetables so that didn't really help to cut down the list. Really we've ended up with a bit of everything. We've got our staples covered e.g. lettuce, carrots, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower, capsicum, tomatoes, silverbeet, beans, peas, corn, pumpkin, potatoes, courgettes, beetroot, cucumber and eggplant. I've also got a range of herbs and edible flowers going into the garden as well as hanging baskets. I know I will have to water these once or twice a day, but I'm okay with that. It will provide some colour around that side of the house. I can't have any pots of colour or gardens because our lovely Samoyed dog pulls everything out! Back to the gardens though.

I also wanted some unusual varieties and things that would be fun to grow in the garden with my toddler. He already loves being outside and in the garden so my hope is that this is a passion that we can grow together. Because gardening is quite new to me it's also a great way for him to see me learning alongside him and making mistakes along the way. Here are some things we will be planting in our garden to spark a bit of extra enjoyment and fun - Zephyr zucchini (they're lime green and yellow), strawberry popping corn, black popping corn, golden midget watermelon, rainbow carrots, purple dragon carrots, easter egg radishes and watermelon radishes, bright lights silverbeet and some interesting tomato varieties e.g. green zebra and sunrise bumble bee. I'm also planting pepino, giant sunflowers and luffa. In another garden we have a berry garden filled with strawberry plants and soon to be three different blueberry bushes. I know this garden patch will also be a popular over summer. Most of the strawberry plants have been in for over a month now so the roots should be starting to establish well.

We have an unused slope that I have been wanting to use, but it gets covered in kikuyu grass. After talking to other gardeners I've come up with a bit of a plan. This week I'm going to pick up several large boxes from Plumbing World. I have family that work there so have access to their leftover packaging boxes. I'm going to place the boxes over the ground and then cover with compost. Following that we will add black builders plastic. From there I'll cut holes through the plastic and cardboard to plant melons, pumpkins etc as needed. I may also add some netting to the side of the water tank to grow peas or beans up. We'll have Sugar Baby Watermelon, yellow watermelon, rockmelon, Collective Farm Woman Melon and a giant pumpkin!

Our last two gardens are raised vegetable gardens that we put in last year. Each garden is roughly 2 m by 1.2 m. One garden is going to be the bubble and squeak patch - potatoes and peas, with the addition of some marigolds and nasturtium. Some of you will recall my rookie gardener moment last month when I purchased three 1.5 kgs bags of seed potatoes that I'd planned to put into four different 50 cm potato bags haha. Let's just say I've learnt a lot since then. I've put 3-4 in a couple of bags, have given seed potatoes to family members and still have so many of them! In the other garden I'm planting beans, a couple of tomatoes and popping corn. As well as maybe a few herbs, depending on the space underneath the tomatoes. If there's enough room I'll add some basil and parsley as companion plants.

As of this weekend the garden beds are almost ready. We've gone with the no dig approach to filling them up. Yesterday morning I lined them with brown cardboard boxes and newspaper. Layers of quality compost, top soil, sheep pellets and pea straw are now in the process of being added. Hopefully all this hard work with pay off and we'll get some decent crops this year. I'm sure there will be lots to learn from too, but that's all part of the adventure.

How to get the most out of your New World Little Gardens

Today we planted our first New World Little Garden seeds. We love this promotion and how it encourages families to join in the fun of gardening with their kids. It's also a great opportunity to have a go at growing something you may not normally grow in your garden. This year there are also flowers such as: Nasturtium, Pansy, Sweet Pea, Sunflower and Purple Tansy. Not only do these flowers make good companion plants, but they also encourage more bees and butterflies into your gardens. There are also a mix of herbs and vegetables. Which one is your favourite? 

Here are our tips to get the most out of your Little Garden seedlings. 

1. Instead of using the soil tablet included in the kit use a quality seed raising mix e.g. Yates Black Magic seed raising mix. This particular seed raising mix includes 8-10 weeks controlled release fertiliser and a balanced supply of all the nutrients your seedling will need during this time. It also contains fungicide, which protects your seedling against common diseases such as pythium and pytophthora. 

2. Some of the Little Garden kits like basil and pansy have a few seeds on one seed mat. Cut the seed mat up and place a single seed into your biodegradable pot. There's not much space for more than one seedling in those little pots, which will mean replanting even sooner if you plant all of those seeds in one mini pot. 

3. Instead of watering your seedlings from the top, water from the bottom instead. You can do this by placing them in a tray with water. Only leave your seedlings in the tray of water until the soil is moist at the top. Leaving them to sit in water for long periods of time may result in your seed rotting. 

4. Create a mini greenhouse for your seedlings. There are lots of different ways that you can do this. We use a large, clear plastic storage container. Remember to leave the lid partly off to enable oxygen to still reach the plants. If you have to grow your seedlings inside and they're close to a window, remember to turn the tray around each day to prevent leggy seedlings. 

5. Only plant what you have space for in your garden. Gift the other ones to a friend, neighbour, family member or a local school. You can also donate your seeds directly in store by putting them in the box by the checkouts. 

Happy Gardening everyone!