BOISE, Idaho — With Mother's Day less than a week away, you may be considering what to get your mom, or mother figure in your life.
Fortunately, there is a handful of great gift ideas at local garden stores and online to make gardening fun, easy and beautiful. The gifts will keep on giving for months beyond the May 8 holiday.
Instabraces are decorative metal brackets that form the four corners of a raised garden bed. 2-inch lumber of any length can slide in and be ready to fill with soil in minutes. They can even be set-up on a concrete patio.
Another consistent gift is container plants, especially if mom has limited space or is unable to work out in the garden. There are many options for container plants, including miniature tomatoes.
Some tomato plants are designed to only grow 6 inches to a foot tall and can be easily planted into something simple, like a terra cotta pot. Following planting, the pot can simply sit on a patio table.
The decorative containers offer the classic look of outdoor wicker furniture and are the perfect size for a small townhouse, apartment or retirement center. They are made to go on a windowsill or patio, looking tidy and attractive.
Containers can even be self-watering by keeping the reservoir filled with water. The water is then drawn up into the soil as needed. A meter shows the water level to avoid over- or under-watering plants.
A little kitchen garden right outside the door is another great gift idea for Mother's Day. Small flowering plants or a few herb plants -- like oregano, thyme or rosemary -- can easily be planted in the garden.
Planting mom a little salad bowl is also an option, by adding lettuce plants, herbs and green onions. Even fabric bags can be planters. The bags come in various sizes and nearly anything can be planted in them, such as strawberry plants.
If the mother figure in your life loves berries, a unique gift idea is a blueberry bush. Blueberries are native to North America and offer a handful of health benefits, on top of their delicious taste.
Most blueberry plants sold at garden centers grow to around 3 or 4 feet high and can bear up to two gallons of berries each season. If you are planting blueberries for the first time, you will need at least two plants for cross-pollination.
If you do not have a lot of garden space, blueberries also make excellent container plants. This method can save space in the yard and dress up a patio.
Blueberries come in early-blooming varieties, such as patriot, which ripens in June. Others ripen later in the summer, like top hat and duke. By planting a few different varieties, mom can keep picking berries into September.
Some blueberry varieties produce fruits, ranging from the size of a dime to the size of a quarter. Each one is a treat all by itself.
Flowers are fantastic, but they do not last. The gift of a living plant -- whether it produces flowers, fruits or vegetables -- will last a long time and mom can grow it.
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