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Gifts for Gardeners

Tools (and more) guaranteed to delight any green thumb

Just because it’s snowing outside, don’t assume that the gardeners on your holiday gift list aren’t thinking about gardening. If you’re a gardener, you’re always thinking about gardening.

By “gardener” I’m not talking about people who devote unseemly sums to perfecting their lawns. I’m talking about people whose solution to the problem of an imperfect lawn is to dig it up. I’m talking about people who wrestle huge pots indoors in late October knowing full well the plants contained therein will be half dead by mid-February, festooned with spider webs and dropping their leaves all over the carpet. Gardeners are fine with the mess as long as they think they can nurse the thing through until spring, when it will recover completely within a week of being back outside.

So what does a gardener want as a gift at this dark time of year? I mean, besides an English-style conservatory? If you really want to know, pay no attention to cliché “garden gifts” targeted at gift givers who are desperate and will fall for the showiest and least important thing. You’ll end up with a gaudy pink tool belt that doesn’t fit. Or a book of idiotic garden verse. Or a photo guide to the gardens of India, as if your gardening friends will ever get there or grow anything in Minnesota that flourishes in steamy Calcutta.

What do gardeners want? They may not know, exactly. But I do. Some of my favorite garden tools became indispensable to me only after I used them in my garden—until you’ve used that little gadget to speed the chore of peeling onions, how do you know you need one? Trust me, if you get your gardening friends these tools, they will put you in their will.

Top of the list? The Hula Hoe by Flexrake, $29.99. This nifty item is a long-handled weeder. What makes it the best of all weeders is the square of metal at the business end that has a sharp, serrated edge and wiggles. Hence, the name. The Hula Hoe gets weeds up in a hurry, without pulling up the good plants or the grass.

A Hula Hoe is inexpensive. Want to blow the budget? Get your loved one a Black & Decker mulching mower. The plug-in kind. Black & Decker 19-inch Electric Lawnhog Mulching Mower, $229, also sells a pricier model with the battery attached, but who needs a cumbersome battery when you can get a very long cord that will never run out of juice? (Plug-in tools of any kind are my idea of heaven, but if you have a huge lawn or garden you’ll need something more maneuverable. That’s where this battery-powered number comes in.)

This mower is unlikely to run over its cord, thanks to the nifty cord-management system. But even if it does, it won’t matter because your gardening friend will set the adjustable mowing blade high enough to keep the cord and the lawn safe (buzz cuts are unhealthy for growing turf). You can get a bag for this mower (for another $50), but skip that. Grass benefits from the nitrogen in the clippings. Your gardening friend will know that.

The Black & Decker electric mower also has a handle that flips back and forth, so you don’t have to hoist the mower itself around tight turns. Of course, you don’t have to empty the gas out in fall. And you’re not spewing carbon dioxide or annoying the neighbors (because the mower is quiet).

Big yards and small gardens alike have trees and shrubs that need trimming. I love the 316 Electric Husquvarna chainsaw, $249.95, which is styled and sized for a small person, and has low vibration and noise levels.

Like the mini chainsaw, a downsized spade is helpful for gardens and people of all sizes. You can wedge it between tightly packed plants, and carry it around and use like a trowel. One brand I use and love is the Lady Gardener perennial spade.

Speaking of ladies, you just might win a woman’s heart if you found a scaled-down carpenter’s tool belt and custom tailored it to fit her size and needs. You can skip the flower decals and silly slogans. Just make sure there’s a spot here for a trowel, there for a hand pruner; and a pocket for plant labels, bits of twine, cans of pop, or whatever.

If the coffee-table-worthy is more your gift-giving style, consider Great Gardens of the Berkshires, a new book out from Down East Publishing that is reasonably priced ($35) and packed with ideas. A truly inspirational tome by Virginia Small—she labored at the editorial desk of Fine Gardening magazine for nine years and now lectures on garden design and history—the book focuses on the hilly western part of Massachusetts. It’s a region that has a climate remarkably similar to ours, and is also endowed with a handful of the most fabulous public gardens on earth, including The Mount, the stunning estate that writer Edith Wharton considered her finest achievement (outranking both Ethan Frome and House of Mirth in her estimation).

Small begins with tours of these great gardens and then segues to a dozen private gardens inspired, in part, by their famous neighbors. The smaller gardens are, if anything, even more amazing and certainly more stimulating to the imagination of someone on a budget than the famous ones.

The book contains dazzling photographs by the talented garden photographer Rick Pomerantz. It’s one of the richest collections of garden design ideas, relevant to us in the Upper Midwest, that I’ve seen in years.
Regardless of which gift you choose, your gardener friends are sure to thank you.

Happy holidays!

Bonnie Blodgett publishes The Garden Letter and is writing a book about smell.