Top Ten Gift Ideas for Gardeners

Do you know someone who is always puttering around outside, or thumbing with green fingers through a gardening catalog?Then you might find something on this list they would enjoy recieving as a gift.

1. New Garden Tool: Spades, shovels, shears, pruners and weeders; there are a wide assortment of tools both large and small, gardeners use on a regular basis. Depending on how much you are spending on this person a small tool like a spade or pair of gloves could be the whole gift, like for a Secret Santa gift exchange for a co-worker you know enjoys gardening, or tied on the outside of the package of a larger gift. New gardening tools always come in handy around the yard!

2. Indoor Seed Starting Kit: Many gardeners enjoy starting seed indoors before planting outside and some even save seeds from plants intheir garden from last year. A seed starting kit would make an excellent gift, allowing your gardener to enjoy his or her hobby indoors during a season why typically very little is happening outdoors. Some deluxe kits come with warming trays, covers or even grow lights.

3. National Home Gardening Club Membership: Memberships are available by the year or for life and include public garden directories, a garden design magazine, and more. I enjoy feeling connected to the hobby on a broad level, meeting gardeners all across the country. I also love the magazine that is part of my membership. If your gardener isn't a member yet consider purchasing a membership for them as a gift. It will be something they enjoy and appreciate each time the new magazine comes to the door!

4. Beautiful Containers: Container plantings allow a gardener great flexibility in the garden, brightening up any trouble spot with moveable plantings that aren't permanentlyin one spot. Consider giving your beloved gardener a designer container to plant in. Generally speaking, larger containers are better as they have more possiblities in terms of what can be planted in them. Look for containers that have drainage holes, and are treated for year-round outdoor use.

5. Garden Tiller: Has your gardener been renting a tiller each year to prepare flower and vegetable beds? Or worse, having to turn over all the beds by hand with a shovel as my husband and I did last year? Treat them to a gardening power tool that will be a real time saver when it comes to bed preparation! The larger the horse power and tine depth the better the tiller will be, and the more money you will spend on it. Anticipate spending $100 for a decent quality tiller.

6. Garden Cart: Another tool many gardeners try to do without, but greatly appreciate having, is a good quality garden cart. No longer do you have to fight with tipsy wheel-barrows, garden carts usually have a very solid base and don't tip as easily. Look for one with wheels large enough to manuever easily in rough grass rather than only rolling smoothly when on pavement.

7. Yard Art: Garden accent pieces can come in the form of statues, bird houses, stepping stones and gazing balls and all add an extra dimension of beauty to a landscape. The fun thing about garden art is the wide variety of styles and figures to choose from. Whether your gardener likes horses, fairies, dragons, frogs or cute cherub children you will find plenty of suitable options to choose from. Take a peek next time you look at their garden and see what types of pieces they have already so you can select something that compliments.

8. The Ultimate Gardening Book: Described as "eye-candy for the gardener" this book shows a wide variety of gardening styles pictorially. Not a book for learning in-depth gardening techniques, this book is for enjoying the many types of gardens and landscaping themes available. I keep mine on the coffee table where I can drool over it regularly.

9. Shopping Spree: Offer to take your gardener to a landscaping store or nursery and feed their addiction. It would be an awesome day to spend together; perhaps go to lunch and then spend the afternoon browsing a garden center together. Who knows, you might learn a thing or two about plants yourself!

10.A Working Weekend: One of my favorite baby-shower gifts was from my choir friend who volunteered to come over a help me finish my flower bed before the baby was born. It didn't cost her a dime, but the help was priceless to me! This is a gift that would be especially valuable to a gardener who is physically unable to do some of the heavier or more active gardening activities. Consider giving them a few hours to rake leaves, dig planters, prune larger trees and shrubs or set up raised flower beds.