Denny's Soapbox

Gift Ideas for the Gardener

The number one hobby of the majority of homeowners is gardening. Buying a gardening type gift for a homeowner should be well received. The range of garden gifts can range from a $5.00 gift card for a new perennial which will be available in the spring to a full blown new landscape design that includes installation which could be installed next spring. And of course there are many other choices in between.

Here are some garden gift suggestions I would like to make that will make for a large gift to a stocking stuffer. Let’s start with a great gift for first time homeowners. Start with a wheel barrow. Then fill it with as much as you want to spend. Great fillers would include scissor type hand pruners, set of hand tools, a long handled shovel, spade, a leaf rake, garden gloves, rain gauge, and a gardening book showing plants that grow well in this area.

Stocking Stuffers

Some of the above items will also make great stocking stuffers. Added suggestions include a bird feeder (large stocking), advance tickets for the Cincinnati Home and Garden show (March 1 – 9 2008), a membership to the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden or the Civic Garden Center, and a gift certificate filled out for any gardening purpose.

Give a Living Plant

Speaking of gift certificates, they can be used to give that special gardener hardy plants that can be acquired in the spring at the recipient’s convenience. Great plants to give include Knock Out roses. Choose any the seven varieties including the new yellow Knock Out variety being introduced in limited quantities this coming spring in ’08 – Sunny Knock Out. Other great plants to give through gift certificates include a shade or flowering tree, an Endless Summer Hydrangea, or any of the newer shrub varieties. You could ask the nursery center that issues the gift certificate to furnish you with an empty 3 gallon nursery pot to put the certificate in and then it wrap and place it under the tree instead of putting it in the stocking.

Gifts for a Couple of Special Groups of People

First time homeowners would love to have a landscape consultation with a designer who can tell them what is right and what is wrong with the existing landscape and what possibilities exist to improve their landscape. A letter from the designer you’ve chosen can introduce themselves to the gift recipients. They then can pick a convenient time to meet before the spring rush.

Gifts for the Children

Many of the same adult yard tools are available in children’s sizes. There are also garden gloves and gardening shoes or boots. Seed starting kits are a great gift for kids to enjoy during the bleak winter months. It’s never too soon to get younger members of the family interested in gardening. It can be a gift that lasts the child’s entire life.

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