A Native Christmas Without Overspending

In Full Bloom - Photo by Isis

A gift guide from the nursery, sorted by what you want to spend

Christmas has a way of quietly becoming a spending exercise. Trolleys full of things nobody asked for, and spending that starts to feel like an obligation. The gifts I keep coming back to are the ones that cost less than people expect and mean more than they cost. A guide that turns a backyard into habitat. Four native plants chosen for one particular garden. A jar of something honest for the skin.

Everything in this guide is live in the shop right now. I checked every price against the site this week. Nothing here is out of stock.

What follows is sorted by what you have to spend, with the plants gathered in one place so you can see the dispatch dates before you order.

Under $15: guides that turn a garden into habitat

I start here because this is the work I care about most. These are educational guides for the person who has started noticing what actually lives in their garden. They are digital downloads, delivered digitally after purchase, so there is nothing to wrap and nothing to post.

Australian Native Bee PDF Digital Download, $9.95. An illustrated chart of Australia's native bees. Stingless bees, solitary pollinators, resin bees, leafcutter bees and large carpenter bees, with where they nest, the importance of diverse native flowers throughout the year, and practical ways to help them. The download includes high-resolution files for printing at home or through a print service, from A5 up to A3. For the person who looks at a flower and wonders who just visited it.

The Living Garden: From Seed To Habitat Creation, $10.95. A collection of practical guides and illustrated charts. Inside are how-to guides for a butterfly box, a native bee hotel and a mobile vegetable garden bed. There are charts for the butterfly life cycle, Australian pollinators, fire ecology, the seasonal garden and Australian bushfoods, plus a habitat checklist. For the person who wants a garden that does more than sit there looking tidy.

The Habitat Creation Collection, $12.95. A digital library of twelve illustrated guides, each one a large printable artwork. They cover Australian stingless bees, building a home for native bees, creating habitat for gliders and possums, how to make a frog pond, a pollinator-friendly native garden, a seasonal pollinator calendar and a habitat checklist. For the person who wants to bring in the birds, bees and frogs.

Two small gifts sit in this tier too, for something to hold in the hand.

MWERRE Indigenous Ivory Clay Exfoliating Soap, $11.95. A handcrafted soap made from ivory kaolin clay and wattleseed, with macadamia, coconut oil and shea butter. Soft, silky and gentle on sensitive skin, scented with lemon myrtle and lavender.

MWERRE Indigenous Red Ochre Clay Soap, $11.95. A cold-process soap crafted with natural red clay mineral from Western Australia, with Indigenous macadamia and rice bran oils. Scented with pink grapefruit, lime and lavender.

Plants: the gift that keeps growing

If someone on your list has a garden, a balcony or a courtyard, a box of native plants is a gift that is still there next spring. Everything here is grown at the nursery and sent by Express Post. Read the dispatch dates at the end of this guide before you order.

Build Your Box of 4, Native Plants, $54.95. This is the one I would give. You choose any four plants from what is growing in the nursery right now, for a garden, balcony, courtyard, wildlife space or habitat project. You are not handed a pre-selected combination, so the box can be built around the person receiving it. Right now the choices include Correa reflexa, which flowers through autumn and winter when almost nothing else does and feeds the honeyeaters. There is River Mint, with small white to lilac flowers the bees find immediately. There is Saltbush, a silver-green groundcover with tiny edible berries that the birds love. Stock rotates with the season, and the page lists what is available. Each plant is packed in a box with cardboard insert dividers to hold it in place in transit. Four plants can be the beginning of something much bigger.

Build a Box of 3, Native Plants, $49.95. Three native plants, one box, Express Post. A good start for any native garden. Choose your three from what is growing, and each one is picked and packed to order in a 50mm forest tube. If you are unsure what will suit the garden, add a note about its conditions at checkout and I will help make sure the plants suit the spot.

Build a Box of 4, Festuca glauca, $49.95. Four Blue Fescue in 50mm forest tubes, with Express Post included in the price. A compact ornamental grass with silvery-blue foliage all year, frost hardy and dry tolerant, happy in full sun or part shade. Good in rockeries, borders, edging and pots. Festuca glauca is not a native. It originates in Europe and has naturalised here.

Build a Box of 3, Festuca glauca, $44.95. The same Blue Fescue in a box of three, for a corner that needs something tough and tidy. Express Post is included in the price.

$24 to $45: the working middle

This is where most Christmas giving happens, and it is the tier where a gift can be both useful and lovely at once.

Olieve & Olie Soap On A Rope 250g, $24.00. A handcrafted soap, mixed and poured in small batches and aged a full three months before it leaves the workshop. A rich, creamy lather for the person who works with their hands.

Olieve & Olie Hand Cream 80ml, Wild Lemon Myrtle, $25.00. A rich cream built on cold-pressed olive oil, made to hydrate and soften hardworking hands without sitting heavy on the skin.

Olieve & Olie Coffee Scrub, Chai, $26.00. Freshly ground coffee, coconut milk and Australian-grown olive oil, blended into a scrub that wakes up the whole person, not just the skin.

Olieve & Olie Hand Cream 80ml, Lavender, Rose Geranium & Sweet Orange, $28.00. Three botanical fragrances in one nourishing cream, built on olive oil, cocoa butter and beeswax.

Olieve & Olie Salt Scrub Jar 295ml, $30.00. Coarse mineral-rich salt with Australian olive oil. A scrub, a soak and an oil in one jar. Three kinds of care in a single gift.

Earth & Flow Duo, $45.00. A gift pack from the Gifts With Meaning range: the MWERRE Red Ochre Clay Soap alongside the Olieve & Olie Wild Lemon Myrtle Hand Cream. Earth and water, in one box.

Coastal Rituals, $45.00. The MWERRE Ivory Clay Exfoliating Soap paired with the Olieve & Olie Wild Lemon Myrtle Hand Cream. A cleansing ritual for anyone who feels most at home near the coast.

Olieve & Olie Wild Lemon Myrtle Hand & Body Cream 200ml, $35.00. A deeply nourishing everyday moisturiser made with natural and organic oils, including Australian olive oil, giving the skin moisture from head to toe.

Avocado Zinc Physical Sunscreen SPF 50 100ml, $40.00. A natural sunscreen built on non-nano zinc oxide with avocado oil, gentle on sensitive skin and made for everyday use. An Australian summer is coming, and this is the gift that gets used daily.

French Garden Shears, Walnut Wood Handle, $41.00. Warm walnut handles, dark metal detailing and pointed 2.5 inch carbon steel blades. Compact and lightweight, for snipping flower stems, deadheading and the small careful cuts. A thoughtful tool for a gardener who likes things as lovely to use as they are to look at.

From $48: the gifts that feel like a real gesture

Olieve & Olie Lavender & Rose Geranium Wash & Cream Twin Set, $48.00. A limited-edition collaboration featuring original artwork by local Australian artist Lizzie Alsop, with two nourishing 200ml essentials inside: the Lavender & Rose Geranium Hand and Body Wash and Hand and Body Cream.

Garden to Glow, Self Care Duo, $49.00. The Peppermint & Coffee Soap on a Rope with the Wild Lemon Myrtle Hand Cream. A pairing of nourishing Australian botanicals and everyday care, chosen to belong together.

Sun, Sea & Self-Care Gift, $60.00. The Peppermint & Coffee Soap on a Rope with the Avocado Zinc SPF 50 Natural Physical Sunscreen. Everyday cleansing and mineral sun protection in one gift.

Olieve & Olie Face Oil, Restore, $60.00. A plant-based facial oil made to nourish and restore mature, dry or tired skin. For the person who has earned a nightly ritual of their own.

Earth, Sun & Self Care, Gift With Meaning Duo, $66.00. The Olieve & Olie Lemon, Mandarin & Peppermint Salt Scrub with the Avocado Zinc SPF 50 Natural Physical Sunscreen. Exfoliation and protection, paired.

Olieve & Olie Body Oil, Clementine, $66.00. A lightweight body oil that hydrates, softens and refreshes, absorbing without a greasy finish.

Earth & Renewal Duo, $68.00. The Restore Face Oil, rich in antioxidants, with a choice of MWERRE handcrafted soap made with traditional ingredients. Renewal for the face, renewal for the hands.

Clementine & Chai Ritual Duo, $88.00. The Chai Coffee Scrub followed by the Clementine Body Oil. A two-step body ritual built on warmth and scent.

The Gardener's Ritual, Gardening & Natural Self-Care Gift Set, $90.00. Garden tools and natural self-care together in a Talulah gift box. For the person who tends a garden and then needs a little tending themselves.

$95 and up: the generous end

For the person who has earned something substantial.

Sun Safe Essentials Duo, $95.00. Two Avocado Zinc everyday essentials together: the SPF 50 sunscreen for face and skin alongside the SPF30 body sunscreen.

Sun & Skin Nurture Trio, $123.50. The largest gift set in the shop: three products for skin that spends the season outdoors, gathered in one Talulah gift box.

If you are giving plants, read this first

Live plants are sent from NSW every Monday and Tuesday by Express Post. Live plants are not sent to the Northern Territory, Tasmania or Western Australia. Plants in the myrtle family (Myrtaceae) cannot be sent interstate and go within NSW only. The plant boxes in this guide are currently delivered within NSW only, so a plant gift needs to be going to an NSW address.

Christmas Day falls on a Friday this year, and Express Post takes one to three business days. The last dispatch day is Monday 21 December. Orders placed after Friday 18 December may not arrive before Christmas. If a living gift is on your list, order before then.

The digital guides are delivered digitally after purchase, so they carry no postage and no dispatch day.

A small Christmas thank you: use code NATIVECHRISTMAS at checkout for 15% off one item in your order. It works on the three habitat guides above and on Build Your Box of 4, and it ends on Friday 18 December.

A gift from the nursery is a small act of repair. It keeps giving after the tinsel comes down. It feeds the birds and the bees, holds the soil together and asks almost nothing in return. That is the kind of Christmas gift I like best.