Setting up house (to me) has always meant setting up garden too. It's a family tradition that I remember since I was a kid; house moves involved a couple days of packing furniture and home goods, and then a couple days of digging precious plants, potting them up and preparing them for their new garden. Gardens are an inherent part of a home, so when I happened across AllotInABox I immediately thought 'perfect housewarming gift'.

AllotInABox is just about the most clever thing I have seen in the garden world lately. It is all you need for your allotment garden or first vegetable garden, beautifully packaged in a pizza-like box (it is even perfectly sized to slip right through a mail slot!). Its a gorgeous gift and, as a sucker for typography, I find it tempting to buy the seed packs and never even open them.

But, AllotInABox is from the UK, which brings up a question that I don't have any answer for: Can you buy the seeds if you are in the US? I simply don't know — the USPS website says importing seeds is possible and it depends what you are importing whether or not it will be allowed to pass customs.... and they give little further guidance (and neither does the AllotInAbox website which simply says that you are responsible for checking the guidance for the country in which you live).

I think it might be worth a try (and if you do it, please let us know how the process went down!) but if you aren't willing to risk the 30+ GBPs, then here is a list of beautiful items that would be fun to include in your own homemade version of a garden allotment gift box:

• Seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds
• Plant Labels from Red Pig Tools
• Twine from Nutscence
• Hand Shovel / Trowel from deWit Store
• A Reference Book, How to Grow More Vegetables

But in classic housewarming gift style, the seasonal fruit and vegetable tea towel guide really seems like a must.

Images: allotinabox