Well, it is that time of year again when we shop for people that we think we know well -- until it comes to getting them a gift that they will like. I understand and I am here to help you with the gardeners on your list.
First, it is a good idea to go to your local garden center for personalized help, especially if you are thinking of getting the person a real plant. It is tempting to go to the garden corner of the local big box store. The plant you pick out may look nice, but you don’t know what conditions it was recently exposed to. A garden center will have taken better care of the plants and they will probably have better advice on what to buy. They will know which outdoor plants will grow well in your area, which plants are native and which ones will attract wildlife. They will have a good selection of houseplants and be able to help you find the right one for the sun or shade conditions in the house.
If the person you are getting a gift for is new to gardening, either indoors or out, or if they have a landscape that needs work, then the “Greener View Gardening” book that I wrote will make a great gift. Anyone interested in plants will enjoy this book. The person getting the present will be impressed with the nearly 1,000 color pictures and graphics in the over 400 pages of the book. They will be very impressed when they look at the back cover and see the $79.99 price tag. I won’t tell if you won’t that you saved $30.00 off the retail price when you bought the book with the promo code ‘newspaper.’ This code will only work for a couple of weeks in the first half of December, so don’t delay. Go to greenerview.com for more information.
If you live east of the Rockies, the Garden for Wildlife program of the National Wildlife Federation has created native plant collections. They sell plants, not seeds, so the success rate is higher. There are plants for sun or shade. There are perennials for attracting hummingbirds, monarch butterflies or pollinators. There are native shrubs and grasses available as well. Go to gardenforwildlife.com to find the state you live in and the plant collection that will grow there.
I know it may sound odd, but if your gardener plants a lot of bulbs or a lot of small annual flowers in the spring, they may be interested in an Earth Auger. These augers are made in the USA, and they make planting easy. They insert into a cordless drill, and they dig holes easily. Go to powerplanter.com for more information.
If the gardener on your list grows vegetables or is a kid that you want to get interested in gardening, the Park Seed Bio Dome Collection is a great starter planter. It comes with a variety of vegetable seeds, but the Park Seed company also sells many varieties of herb and flower seeds. Go to parkseed.com for more information.
If you are looking for something to grow and eat almost immediately, try sprouts or microgreens. Botanical Interests has a sprout sampler seed collection with six different kinds of organic seeds ready for sprouting. They also have a new, improved seed sprouter planter tray system. The seeds can be sprouted and then stored in the refrigerator in the same tray. The new trays are taller to provide more room for the sprouts to grow; they also have better ventilation and draining.
