Gift Ideas for Gardeners

Do you have a gardening friend or relative for whom you'd like to buy a gift? Read on, then.  I have some suggestions for you.  

First and most importantly, quality matters when it comes to things we gardeners need and use the most.  In the picture above you see my favorite hat, my only pair of hand pruners and my worn out gloves.  These are my essential take-alongs when I visit the garden and none of them were inexpensive, but they've all lasted and lasted.  Of course, the hat (which came from ) and the gloves are personal items, because they have to feel just right on the head and hands, therefore, I don't recommend you give hats and gloves as gifts.  If that's what your gardener needs, then give him/her a gift certificate for a store that carries these items and let the gardener pick them out.  As for the pruners, this would be a fine gift.  But, they must be quality!  You have no idea how quickly the bad ones show themselves for what they are - junk - and then they get tossed aside.  

Another hand tool I'd highly recommend is a hori-hori knife.  This is a kind of all-purpose garden tool that is a mix between a trowel and a weeder and a knife.  Only get a quality hori-hori knife.  Anything with a sharp edge should be trusted not to break with ordinary use.  

I can only speak personally, but the other garden tools I think should be of the highest quality are garden forks and shovels.  Now personally, I don't trust the big, box stores to carry quality garden forks and shovels.  I think you have better luck ordering these online or finding a specialty retailer.  I will say this though, the garden digging fork I'm using now came from a garage sale.  It is probably 30 or 40 years old, the wood has a beautiful patina and it has lasted this long precisely because it is a quality tool. 

If you're willing to spend the money and get quality stuff, then any of above named tools make fine gifts.  I recommend you look for brands like Felco, Dewit, and Clarington Forge.  If you go to the website for Lee Valley, you should find all these brands represented.  And here's a little secret.  Shop the bonsai suppliers for a good pair of pruners.  They generally carry good quality stuff.  Just make sure the pruners are general purpose.

Now, if you don't want to spend much money on your gardener, there are still great gift ideas.  For instance, I'm willing to go mid-quality on hand held things like trowels because they are typically used for small jobs in small garden beds and can stand up to this kind of light work.  They also tend to get left at the garden and lost more easily than big tools, so all the more reason not to have invested much in them.  

How about a really, pretty gathering basket to put those cut flowers in, or those vegetables?  

Here's an inexpensive idea.  Why don't you encourage this gardener to keep a garden journal?  Barnes and Noble have 2 entire walls dedicated to journaling books.  Don't get one too pretty-pretty or else your gardening friend or relative won't want to take it out of the house, and they will need to take it to the garden with them on occasion.  

Finally, if you know of a gardener who is relatively new to this hobby, go online and request every seed catalog you can find. Have them all sent to your house, then stack them up, wrap them up and present this gift to your gardener.  This won't cost you anything but the person receiving it will appreciate all the work it took to assemble the gift.  And believe me, they will have lots of fun looking through the catalogs!