Christmas Gifts for the Gardener

Winter may not be the best time for gardening, but because of Christmas it can be a great time for giving gardening gifts. Here are some ideas.

Practical Gifts

You can give practical gifts such as a shovel or trowel, garden hoses or other digging and planting tools. These gifts can be very nice if you know what your particular gardener is in need of. Also if the gardener on your list is less into the more whimsical and more into the horticultural, this is a good way to go.

Whimsical Gifts

These are items that aren’t really practical, but they can give a garden some personality. These kinds of gifts include step stones with quotes on them, weather vanes, statuettes, gazing balls and the like.

Gift Baskets

With a gift basket you can give your gardener a selection of both practical and whimsical gifts. The basket itself can be a gardening item, too! Some things you might include in a gardening gift basket are:

• gardening gloves
• poison oak/ivy medication
• potting soil and/or fertilizer
• twister ties
• rain gauge
• disposable towels
• trowel and rake
• an Old Farmers Almanac
• light catchers
• wind spinners
• seeds and/or bulbs

Let your imagination … and your knowledge of what your gardener my like … help you choose just the right items.

Books

Books on gardening are also a good gift for the gardener. Gardening books can be found anywhere and on a variety of topics. Choose specialty garden books, such as vegetable gardens, wild flower gardens or formal gardens. Buy a book on the subject of perennials and/or annuals. Which flowers are best suited for your climate? How to buy the plants that are best suited for your soil type. These and dozens of other questions can be answered in the many books on gardening available to purchase. Your local bookstore will have a whole section devoted to gardening books.

Specialty Garden Items

Does your gardener want to attract butterflies or hummingbirds? There are appropriate types of flowers to plant to draw them to the garden. You also will find delightful hummingbird feeders or bird baths that will keep these beautiful birds coming back again and again. You can include a book on how to create this specialty garden, as well.

Exotic Items

Maybe your gardener likes to be a little different. You could give them a more exotic gardening gift such as a rare plant like a amaryllis exotica or a shitake mushroom log. How about an Italian herb garden or a ginkgo tree growing kit? (Just be careful to make it a male gingko — the females smell something awful!)

Gardening Gift Resources Online

• www.behnkes.com
• www.harrisseeds.com
• www.americanmeadows.com
• www.cleanairgardening.com
• www.gardenfun.com