Gifts for Gardeners

A gardener’s fall is split in two. Half the yard is winding down: tomato vines collapsing, perennials going brown, leaves piling up. The other half is quietly getting started, because fall is when garlic goes in, spring bulbs get buried, and some seeds do their best work after a cold winter. A gift basket that … Read more

A committed gardener already owns the trowel, the gloves and probably three watering cans. Anything from the garden-gift shelf is a gamble on her taste, her soil and the tools she is already loyal to. A handmade gift avoids most of that gamble, but only if it is something she will use or display rather … Read more

Most garden gifts fail for one of two reasons. Either they’re decorative things a plant person already has too many of, or they’re cheap versions of tools that frustrate the person using them. A gnome with a solar light ends up in the garage. A flimsy trowel bends the first time it meets clay. A … Read more

A man who gardens seriously usually owns a shed full of tools already, and the ones he uses most are the ones he has put up with longest: pruners with a slack spring, a wheelbarrow wheel that wobbles, gloves that have been patched twice. That is the real difficulty with buying for him. A new … Read more

A gardener’s mother-of-the-year wish list usually has a catch: she already owns a trowel, three pairs of gloves, and a watering can she’s attached to. Buying her another generic “garden gift” is how you end up with a pair of pruners that sits in a drawer. The better approach is to think about what her … Read more

Someone who loves garden tools usually owns most of the obvious ones already. They have a trowel, a pair of pruners and a rake leaning in the shed. The gift that lands badly is the nearly identical duplicate, the cheap version of something they already own, or a tool that doesn’t fit their hand or … Read more

A gardener who builds their own raised beds usually owns more tools than the person shopping for them realizes, and has firm opinions about most of them. That’s what makes this person hard to buy for. A pair of floral gloves or a decorative trowel gets a polite thank-you and ends up in a drawer. … Read more

The easiest gift for a plant lover is another plant, and it’s often the worst one. Someone with a crowded windowsill has already made decisions about light, space, and which species they can keep alive. A new plant adds to the workload, may not suit their conditions, and may be toxic to a pet. It … Read more

A new gardener usually owns a kitchen spoon they’ve been digging with, a hose that came with the house, and a handful of seed packets bought on impulse. That’s the gap a gift can fill. It’s also why gardening gifts so often miss: the shelves fill with decorative signs, 40-piece tool sets and “grow your … Read more

A backyard gardener is a harder person to shop for than someone who grows tomatoes on a windowsill. The yard has a fence line, a patio, a shed, a path that turns to mud in November, and a corner where nothing grows. The gardener has probably already bought the good pruners. What they usually haven’t … Read more