10 Holiday Gifts to Please Every Gardener on Your List
Whether you’re looking to splurge on a loved one or need a small but thoughtful gift for an avid-gardener friend on your list, this guide is a good place to start your search. With 10 crowd-pleasing ideas to choose from, you can check off all the urban farmers and backyard bird watchers on your list in no time.
1. Indoor-Garden Supplies
If your favorite gardener is stuck indoors with the seed catalogs all winter, feed his or her need to garden with a terrarium or forced bulbs in a pot. Add an elegant little watering can or mister to make this gift really sing.
2. Harvest Basket
When next year’s harvest starts rolling in, it will help to have a sturdy basket to tote to the garden for collecting fresh produce. Gift the basket on its own, stuff it with colorful seed catalogs or fill it with farm finds like local honey, jam, beeswax candles and botanical hand soap.
3. Kitchen Composter
A compost canister that’s good-looking enough to leave out on the counter makes collecting kitchen scraps less of a chore. Other eco-conscious kitchen goodies to consider include reusable bowl covers and beeswax wraps, and cloth produce bags.
4. Bird Feeder
Help keep nonmigrating birds healthy through the winter with a new bird feeder and a bag of high-quality seed designed to support birds in your region. Want to go the extra mile? Volunteer to help hang it up!
5. Bug ‘Hotel’
Honeybees and butterflies may get all the attention, but there is a whole world of critters doing their part to pollinate the garden — like the humble solitary mason bee. Give the gardener on your list a bug “hotel” to attract these lesser-known pollinating stars.
6. Hand Tools
Quality hand tools are gardening essentials. Treat the person on your list with a green thumb to a new pair of sharp pruners or flower-cutting scissors, along with a set of hardworking gardening gloves or a pair of rubber boots.
7. Egg Holder
Whether your giftees have backyard chickens of their own or simply love to buy those colorful farmers market eggs, give them a pretty place to display the bounty. Egg holders that can hold a dozen eggs safely are especially handy for backyard farmers, while individual egg cups (for serving soft-boiled eggs) make a sweet addition to the breakfast table.
8. Solar-Powered Lantern
Hanging from a tree, a fence or an arbor, solar-powered lanterns create a magical glow in the evening garden. Give one pretty lantern, or give a bunch to add sparkle to the entire yard.
9. Herb Planter
Give the gift of fresh culinary herbs with a planter to keep right in the kitchen. As long as they’re kept in a bright spot that gets at least four hours of sunlight a day, herbs can do well indoors.
10. Wish-List Project
If you’re looking to really spoil a green-thumbed loved one this year, think about he or she has been wishing for. Is it a potting bench, raised beds for veggies or an arbor covered in climbing roses? Hiring a carpenter or landscape designer to bring a dream project to life can be the ultimate gift.