8 Great Gifts for Gardeners
Here are my top recommendations for holiday gifts for gardeners:
Here are my top recommendations for holiday gifts for gardeners:
1. Membership to a botanical garden—There are hundreds of botanical gardens and arboreta around the country and they need the public’s support. The benefits of membership usually include free admission for two, discounts at the gift shop and free parking—for a whole year. A membership makes a nice gift.
2. Gardening books—I have four book recommendations for gardeners, all very different from each other:
- Food Rules by Michael Pollan has just been re-released with illustrations by Maira Kalman, who is one of my favorite illustrators/artists/commentators on life.
- Founding Gardeners by Andrea Wulf is a great read for someone on your list who likes history and botany. It tells the story of the first four presidents (Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Madison) and their passion for plants.
- Embroidered Ground: Revisiting the Garden by Page Dickey, one of my favorite garden writers. I have every book she has published.
- Pushing Up Daisies is a novel by Rosemary Harris, a master gardener and mystery writer. It’s a fun read for mystery lovers who are gardeners. Available in paperback for $7.
3. Handmade Gift—My daughter Eve discovered a designer on Etsy.com who makes plantable seed paper with garden markers. Check out Alison Cecil’s “Seed Paper Herb Kits” for Basil and Dill. (Also available on the Anthropologie website.) They’re handmade in the USA and start at $12.
4. Eco Watering Spouts—Transform your empty plastic bottles into watering cans with these patented twist-on bottle adapters in three designer colors. Priced at $5 each or 3/$15.
5. Dramm Water Wand—Not all gifts for the gardener have to be gifty, so to speak. As an avid gardener I would like nothing more than to receive a fan nozzle spray gun or rain wand from Dramm under the Christmas tree. Dramm products are available at most garden centers. I won’t use my watering wand until spring, but boy will I use it then!
6. Garden gloves—We humbly submit that we think Womanswork garden gloves make great gifts. Visit the Womanswork website to see all of the choices we offer for the female gardener in your life, along with gift boxes and gift cards. Prices for our gloves range from $8.50 to $38.
7. Fabrics by Felicity Miller—I discovered Felicity Miller's colorful fabrics this year and fell in love with her designs. If you like to sew, or the gardener in your life likes to sew, you can view this up-and-coming designer’s collection online at www.felicitymiller.com. To order yardage of her fabric, send Felicity an email at felicitykatemiller[at]gmail.com). Her designs would be great for a gardener's apron, a quilt or garden bag.
8. Subscription to a gardening magazine—My favorite garden magazine is Horticulture and I will be giving subscriptions to some of my gardening friends this year.
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Dorian Winslow is the president of Womanswork, and is passionate about making the best products on the market for women who garden and work outdoors.
Horticulture publishes the free weekly e-newsletter, "Smart Gardening Tips," and "The Curious Gardener," a free monthly e-newsletter with more tips and articles by Dorian Winslow. Subscribe to our e-newsletters.
