The Brewing Shed The Veg Plot

It’s the digging and swigging Christmas Gift Guide 2015!

Booze Gardening Christmas Gift Guide

Another year of sowing and mowing and growing and brewing and digging and swigging is nearly over and the ‘to do’ list has mostly been done, ignored or forgotten. However, there is one important task reaching red warning status: the Christmas gift shopping.

But fear not, help is at hand in the form of our annual round up of finest treats money can by, carefully suited to appeal to the most important diggers and swiggers on you Christmas list. Fill your basket, crack open a drink for yourself and have a very merry Christmas – you deserve it.

Serravinci Italian Liqueurs

Serravinci Italian Liqueur Selection

Price: £11.99
Sweet-toothed Italians are liqueur-making masters and this trio of tasty delights is as good as liqueurs get. Enjoy hazelnutty ‘nocciolino’, lemony ‘limoncello’ and a stunning pistachio cream ‘pistacchino’ in 100ml bottles, all packed together at a bargain price.
Available from: www.drinksupermarket.com

Fiskars Secateurs

Fiskars P100 Quantum Bypass Secateurs

Price: £38.95
Prune it like Wong with this top-notch set of secateurs. Equipped with a comfy, non-slip handles and razor sharp blades, it’ll make mincemeat of brambly allotments, and is the perfect tool for cathartically de-branching threadbare, post-festivity Christmas trees.
Available from: www.tooled-up.com

 

Bottle Botanist Gin

Botanist Islay Dry Gin

Price: £33.83
We’ve drunk a lot of gin this year (purely for research, you understand) and the Botanist happens to be one of our favorites. The embossed typography on the bottle is a thing of beauty and the gin inside so fragrant, you could dab it on your neck and wear it as perfume.
Available from: www.masterofmalt.com

Trowel Bottle Opener Sneed

Sneeboer Transplanting Trowel with Bottle Opener

Price: £32.95
From the Dutch masters of garden tools comes this ace transplanting trowel. It’s a heart-shaped, forged steel wonder, with the added bonus of a bottle opener notched into one edge. The ultimate implement for thirsty gardeners.
Available from: www.harrodhorticultural.com

 

Zubrowka Bison Grass Vodka

Żubrówka Bison Grass Vodka with Limited Edition Sleeve

Price: £20
Forget the worm in the tequila – go for the bison grass in the vodka instead. Distilled in Poland and flavoured with rare bison grass, Żubrówka is one of the finest vodkas around. Great as a shot on its own or mixed with apple juice. Grass included.
Available from: Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s

Balconera Self Watering Planter

Balconera self watering balcony planter

Price: £29.99
We tried out a self watering pot from Lechuza earlier this year and were mightily impressed with its good looks and practicality, perfectly suited to our lazy gardening preferences. If you’ve got friends too busy enjoying summer refreshments to remember to water their plants give them one of these to help keep their flowers blooming.
Available from: www.lechuza.co.uk

Sweet Potato Liqueurs

Sweet Potato Spirits

Price: From £15.95
Distilled from sweet potatoes plucked from the furrowed fields of North Carolina. This heady range of botanically bombarded, spud-based boozes will bring rosy-cheeked cheer to all that sup from their quirky, cartoon-like bottles.
Available from: www.thesweetpotatospiritcompany.com

Battery Heated Socks

Warmwear battery heated socks

Price: £29.99
For the cosiest toes this winter, pull your socks up, strap on your battery pack, and let the temperature rise. With maximum warmth and comfort, digging the frosty parsnips will seem much less a chore.
Available from: www.primrose.co.uk

Glue Mulled Wine Kit

Mulled Wine Tea Light Set with 2 Glasses

Price: £32.95
Serve hot spicy booze in style with this smart looking mulled wine decanter. Pour in the gluwhein, light the candle and away you go. Looks like something you’d find in Walter White’s Winnebago – and that can only be a good thing.
Available from: www.harrodhorticultural.com

Kaboom Seedbombs

Kabloom seed bombs

Price: From £3.50
Wreak wild-flower havoc with these grow-your-own grenades. Simply lob the cardboard bomb onto your bare ground target and wait for the seed and compost mix to activate. With collections including flowers specially selected for bees and butterflies it’s gift to nature as well.
Available from: www.notonthehighstreet.com/kabloom

Hozelock Watering Globes

Hozelock AquaDeco Gift Pack (Pack of 3)

Price: £11.90
Why should Christmas trees bag all the baubles? Treat your houseplant-loving pal (or just treat your houseplants) to one of these psychedelic, hand-blown watering globes. Just fill with water, stick them in a composted container and – by the magical powers of capillary action – they will slowly hydrate your plant for up to two weeks.
Available from: www.hozelock.com

Godminster Bloody Mary Kit

Godminster Bloody Good Mary Set

Price: £32
Give the gift of hangover cures with this ruddy red booze making kit. Decked out with a bottle of horseradish vodka and 5 bottles of spicy tomato juice, we’d hope this would last you well into the New Year.
Available from: www.godminster.com

The Half Hour Allotment Lia

The Half-Hour Allotment, by Lia Leendertz

Price: £16.99
Ace allotmenteer Lia Leendertz has teamed up with the RHS to produce a book worthy of any allotment shed. Rammed with all year round tips and growing advice it’ll help you plot a course to growing perfection in next to no time.
Available from: All good bookshops and, of course, Amazon

Drink In Tubes Cognac Selection

Drink in Tube cognac gift pack

Price: £18.99
Three different premium Cognacs in generous 50ml tubes, and full tasting instructions, will soon turn your gleeful recipient into a cognac connoisseur. And if this kind of booze education sounds like fun, there are plenty more wines and spirits to master.
Available from: www.drinksintube.co.uk

Victorian Cucumber Straightener

Victorian Cucumber Straightener

Price: £29
Grow the most enviable cucumbers with this Victorian glass device designer to keep its inhabitant straight and warm for maximum length and girth. Originally designed by steam railway legend George Stephenson it’s a design classic that’s long overdue a revival.
Available from: www.henandhammock.co.uk

Brew It Yourself Book

Brew it Yourself by Two Thirsty Gardeners

Price: £14.99
It’s the best booze-making book money can buy, with recipes ranging from beers and ciders to cocktails and liqueurs. We’ve even thrown in a few festive tipples including a Scandinavian mulled ‘glögg’. But don’t just take our word for it, here’s what Amazon reviewer Fuzzy had to say: “Brilliant book with lots of added humour”. So there.
Available from: All good book shops and Amazon

 

Thanks to all the suppliers featured for sending us their products to review and photograph

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