Recently, I saw a cartoon online that made me laugh out loud, because it is so true.
It showed a gardener jumping up and down yelling, “Ten yards of compost? You DO love me!”
And the caption said, “The great thing about shopping for gardeners is you can give us rotten crap and we’ll be happy.”
It’s pretty hard to wrap 10 yards of compost, and even the most ardent gardener wouldn’t want it dumped under the Christmas tree, but if you have a gardener in your life, gift certificates can be one of your best friends.
From plants to topsoil, garden structures to labour, a gift certificate, from a landscaping company or from a sturdy garden helper, pertaining to something for the garden will make the green thumb in your life smile.
Birdwatching and gardening go hand in hand in many households, so you might want to do a gift basket including a feeder or two and several different types of seed, suet cakes and bird pies. A heated bird bath is also an excellent choice, as it is important that birds have an open source of water in the winter months.
The Birds Nature Shop in Mahone Bay has an excellent selection of bird feeders, baths, binoculars, as well as garden items such as wind chimes and water features.
The must-have gardening tool, in my opinion, comes from the imaginative people at Lee Valley Tools, where it is easy to spend your entire Christmas budget on gift ideas.
The Hori-Hori weeding knife is good for many tasks, including dividing perennials, planting bulbs, edging garden beds and, of course, removing unwanted plants from your garden beds. It comes with a carbon steel or stainless steel blade and a protective belt sheath.
The only thing it lacks is a GPS chip for locating it when it gets misplaced. (If some innovative designer invented something to find lost tools, they could retire.)
If you really want to score points with the gardener in your life, a selection of items in a basket, garden trug or bucket makes a terrific choice. Include a good set of gardening gloves from Atlas, Foxgloves, or Ethel. These are three of the top garden glove makers, with a variety of styles for every size of hands.
Add some SeaBoost liquid seaweed fertilizer, which is good for houseplants as well as for your outdoor gardening needs, a good hand protecting cream, like locally made beeswax-based Naturally Nancy’s Protective Cream, and a good sunscreen and sun hat.
Perhaps tuck in a steel or non-BPA plastic water bottle to keep the gardener hydrated during hot weather. Finish your gift basket off with a sampler of different seeds from any of a number of local seed companies, including Halifax Seed, Gardens North, Hope Seeds and Annapolis Seeds.
Enhancing your landscape and garden is an investment in your property, so you might consider having a landscape architect come in to design an addition to your existing plantings or “hardscaping,” which are structures like patios, retaining walls and walkways.
Perhaps your gardener would like a pergola or other timber-frame structure from Wise Owl Joinery Company in Port Williams or a welded metal signpost or sculpture from Avon River Metalworks in Falmouth.
James Chadwick creates wonderful garden art at Metal Petals, a garden art company located in St. Peters, Cape Breton, while Jerry Walsh makes a varied line of garden art, birdhouses, benches and more at Distinctive Garden Accents in Lake of the Woods.
For smaller works of art, check out the desktop and wall-mounted botanical sculptures by John Welling of Botinicals, available at the Blomidon Inn House of Gifts.
If none of these suggestions appeal to you, check out your local nursery or garden centre. Those that are open until the end of December or year-round carry a fascinating selection of garden-themed items, as well as gardening books and journals.
And if you’re really stumped, there’s always the gift certificates, as noted above.
For a gift that keeps on giving, consider making a financial donation to one of the public gardens in the province, including the Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens at Acadia University, the Halifax Public Gardens, the Rock Garden in Truro or the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens.
These gardens rely on the generosity of donors to keep them growing and blooming for everyone.
Gardening addict Jodi DeLong is getting at least one new knee as a present for next year’s garden season. Talk about your favourite garden gifts at bloominganswers.com.
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