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Index : Miscellaneous Gardening Topics
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- 23. Great Gifts for Gardeners - Top
- If you still have some shopping to do, and some money left in your pocket, here are some great holiday gift ideas for that special gardener on your list.
Gardening Gloves, priced from $8 - $18. It may seem an uninspired gift, but a good pair of work gloves for gardeners are worth their weight in gold! It’s best to find a heavy leather work glove to keep out the thorns. Rose gloves are fine, and they have the advantage of being washable, but I prefer a thick leather glove. Not only will they keep the thorns out, they’ll hold up to the wear and tear of digging in our gravelly soils. Look for a range of offerings at local garden retailers.
Gardening Books, $10 - $25. Great books for Southwest Gardeners include; Sunset’s ‘Western Garden Book’ (various authors), ‘Plants of Dry Climates’ (Duffield & Jones), ‘Desert Gardening - Fruits and Vegetables’ (Brookbank), and a specialty book that even the experienced Southwest Gardener would enjoy, but probably doesn’t have - ‘The Low-Water Flower Gardener’ (Johnson & Millard).
Gardener’s Tool Totes, $16 - $60. Keeping your tools at hand is a must for the busy gardener. Tool totes allow you to carry hand pruners, folding saws, trowels, knives, and garden forks all together. Many gardeners like the Bucket Organizer. It’s a pocketed tool carrier made of tough nylon that slips inside a 5 gallon bucket. Tools are arranged on the outside and there’s plenty of room on the inside to collect trimmings or carry fertilizers. Tool totes also come in bag, basket and belt forms. Check for them at local garden retailers or try these web sites: www.bestbudsgarden.com and www.brakengardens.com
Plant Stands, $10 - $100. It’s always a problem having enough space to set potted plants, indoors or outside on the patio. Elevating plants on stands can afford more space for growing. It’s also more visually appealing to have plants sitting at various heights. For indoor use I like the plant stands that have the built-in space for a saucer to collect the drainage water. Outside, on the patio just leave the saucer out and let the water drip down to the patio. Multi-tiered stands, referred to as plant terrace stands are also nice and sturdier than many single plant stands. Plant stands are available from a variety of garden and home stores.
Electric Powered, Yard Blower / Vacuums, $49 - $59. For the gardener who loves to tidy up the yard on a regular basis, a Blower / Vac is a must for the job. Although you can purchase a less expensive blower, when you have the fallen leaves, flower petals and seeds rounded up, you need the vac to suck them up for easy disposal. Of course, all that good plant matter makes excellent compost. Blower / Vacs are available at all home supply and hardware stores. Unless you’re a landscape contractor, stick with the electric models. They have plenty of power for home use.
Folding Wheel Barrows, $49 - $99. Carrying and carting around heavy stuff is something all gardeners do. Saving the back with a wheel barrow is nice, but most of them just take up so much room to store. The solution is a folding wheel barrow! The Wheel Easy folding wheel barrow has a canvas body and metal frame with a rubber tire. There are two models, one for lighter duty that carries up to 100 pounds, and the other, a contractors model that carries loads up to 300 pounds. Both are low to the ground for ease of shoveling in things like rock, gravel and soil. Removable pins allow the Wheel Easy frame to be folded and stored in tight spaces. The Wheel Easy barrows are available through several internet garden suppliers; including www.amazon.com and www.yardiac.com
Wheeled Scooter Seat, $65 - $95. Another back-saving device for gardeners is the scooter seat or rolling planting caddy. They’re basically a swivel tractor-type metal seat on wheels for pushing yourself around. They’re useful for tasks that lend themselves to sitting and scooting such as; planting, weeding, and mulching. Check out www.yardiac.com and www.gardeners.com
Landscape Lighting Kits, $35 - $300. Something that really dresses up a landscape, not to mention the safety and security benefits, is landscape lighting. Home supply stores offer a number of lighting kits that include all you need, from transformer to the fixtures and everything in between. The larger and more diverse the system, the greater the cost. Solar powered lighting kits are also available and they work very well here in the sunny Southwest!
Written by John Begeman, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, the University of Arizona, 520-626-5161. - Updated: December 12, 2004
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