Almost everyone has a gardener or home owner with a yard on their holiday gift list. Gifts for the gardener are abundant, many inexpensive, and the selection and presentation can be great fun for the creative gift giver.
Books are always a great gift and can be enjoyed by anyone. Neil Sperry's "Complete Guide To Texas Gardening" is a favorite of all Texas gardeners as well as a beautiful coffee table book. Books for the flower lover consider "Antique Roses" or "Perennial Garden Color" by William C. Welch, a landscape specialist with the Department of Horticulture at Texas A & M. Another very good general gardening book is the "Reader's Digest Illustrated Guide to Gardening".
Hand-tools and garden gloves, kneeling pads, etc. are attractive as individual gifts or packaged together. Hand-tools and gloves come in many price ranges and the price usually reflects the quality. The best hand-tools are formed out of one piece of heavy rust-proof metal with a good grip while the best gloves are moisture proof and easily cleaned.
Some inexpensive gift are herb pots with packages of seed, attractive garden markers for herbs and/or vegetables, a gift certificate to a nursery, garden hose guides (to keep the hose from injuring the plants), a watering can for potted plants or an IOU for a few hours of garden labor.
Larger and more expensive gifts might be either a garden caddie (a cart with a seat and a place to store tools), a potting bench, decorative garden sculpture, a fountain, bird baths and houses, or any of the many major garden tools and devices for storing them.
There is no end to ideas. Gardens are enjoyed by the entire family and the chief gardener will surely have a long list for Santa. So, include a trip to a nursery or garden center when shopping for your favorite gardener.
Betty Tirey, Smith County Master Gardener
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