By Linda Stephens-Urbaniak
When looking for gifts for a gardener during the heaviest gift-giving season of the year, consider everything from garden statuary to kansen for flower arranging. Gardeners are very easy to buy for.
Perfect tools
Almost any gardener will appreciate superior tools. One of the easiest tools to use is a hand fork. It looks just like a fork with four straight tines and can be used for planting, weeding or dividing perennials. A narrow-pointed planter with an ergonomic handle will ease tired muscles at the end of the day, and a regular garden trowel made of sturdy materials is a must. A set of all three tools, along with a waterproof kneeling pad and a collapsible leaf carrier makes a terrific addition to any garden shed.
Almost every gardener has “lost” at least one pair of clippers somewhere under a bush or beside a plant. A strong replacement pair cuts down on frustration. A word to the wise: One well-designed, sturdy tool is worth 20 cheap ones.
Books for the soil tiller
Maybe your gardener has determined that more knowledge is needed about growing things here in the Pacific Northwest. Books by these prolific PNW authors will stir creative juices: Marianne Binetti’s Gardening Month by Month in Washington and Oregon; Marty Wingate’s Big Ideas for Northwest Small Gardens; Ann Lovejoy’s Fragrance In Bloom, The Scented Garden Throughout the Year; Ed Hume’s Gardening with Ed Hume or Cass Turnbull’s Guide to Pruning will inspire. Debra Prinzing’s The Northwest Gardener’s Resource Directory will help gardeners find everything they need.
A bag of Zoodoo from the Woodland Park Zoo is an unusual gift, but please don’t give it to your mother-in-law unless she is a gardener. If your soil tiller is an organic gardener, bags of cottonseed meal, bonemeal, blood meal, kelp meal or greensand or jugs of fish fertilizer would be most welcome. Almost any garden could find room for another compost bin.
Fabulous high temperature clay pots can be found at Half Price Pots or Pottery Time. These beautiful pots can be left out all year and come in many colors and shapes. For decks that need lighter pots, the newer heavy-duty formed plastic pots look so much like terra cotta or stone that you have to tap them to be sure, and your gardener will delight in creating new mini-gardens in either clay or plastic.
Outdoor entertaining gift ideas
The latest trend in gardening is creating outdoor rooms for summer entertaining. New patio tables and chairs, gazebos, trellises, garden benches and tables all can be appropriate additions. Subtle outdoor lighting will enhance your experience. A chimnea, a gourd-shaped wood-burning outdoor fireplace, or one of those tall radiant heat towers seen at outdoor restaurants will help take the chill off our cool summer evenings.
Gardening memberships
Membership in the Northwest Horticultural Society, Northwest Perennial Alliance, The Washington Park Arboretum, Bellevue Botanical Garden or any of the many plant societies specializing in everything from from roses to primroses is a great way for your gardener to talk with other “plantaholics.” A pair of tickets, with you as escort, to the Bloedel Reserve or Lakewood Gardens also would show your thoughtfulness.
Head to the nursery
With so many great new products on the market for the serious (or even the frivolous) gardener, there should be one that will thrill your special one. And if all else fails, a gift certificate to Wells-Medina, Bellevue, Squak Mountain or Molbak’s nurseries will unleash a quest for the perfect plant.
Contact Linda at lindagardenlady@speakeasy.net. She welcomes questions and will respond to as many as possible.
