Good Green Gifting
By Elizabeth Licata
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A selection of fun gardening gifts.
Photo by Josh Flanigan. |
Never Enough Tools
Normally, I would be hesitant to recommend tools as gifts, but perhaps the fact that these tools can’t be used for months lends them their exotic cachet. The other reason these are always welcome is that your avid gardener friends probably spent the past season viciously abusing their current pruners, shears, and spades, so that now they can’t bear the bent, rusty, chipped sight of them. Even if they’re the types who keep their well-oiled implements nested in specially-made holders all winter (I don’t know any of these people), they still probably need some specialty pruners. When thinking of gardening tools, keep in mind the two F’s: Felco and Fiskar. Everybody knows the names; everybody knows they’re moderately pricey, and thus acceptable as gifts.
Watering wands wear out or break at an alarmingly brisk rate—I usually go through two a season—and would also be welcome as gifts.
Garden Pornography
Just as husbands who keep a few Playboys around accept the fact that real women don’t look like this, so do gardeners manage to enjoy glossy garden books in the certain knowledge that their gardens will never, never look anything like the ones in the pictures, no matter how much money they spend. Visit timberpress.com for some great suggestions; they publish by far the best and most comprehensive selection. There are several gorgeously illustrated references that offer exhaustive lists of plants and how to care for them; every gardener faced with an unfamiliar plant has turned to one of these, and they look great on the shelf.
For some really drool-worthy images, try the calendars from Smith and Hawken and Horticulture.
Play Time
Most of the really scientific garden implements frighten me. I don’t want to know my soil PH; I’m sure it’s incorrect and I’d probably have to uproot everything to fix it. I’d rather be surprised by the weather than predict it; and I find anything to do with homemade compost messy and unsightly. But a truly meaningless gadget that’s just for fun is something else indeed. Last year, I received an electronic version of the New York Times 1,000 Gardening Questions. It has plenty of useful information, and it’s interesting to fool around with. Other fun gifts might be a hypertufa kit (that’s cool just to say) or a waterproof radio or CD player for those who aren’t into the whole earphone thing (and many of us are not).
Kidding aside, there are some great gifts available for compost geeks as well, including special turners and accelerators that hasten its progress from icky garbage into useful plant food.
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A pre-rusted steel buffalo from Eminent
Design on Allen. Photo by Josh Flanigan. |
The World of Art
There’s a lot of truly hideous garden sculpture out there. I refer specifically to the insipid life-size children of contemporary make who have infiltrated garden centers everywhere. It is to be hoped that their high price acts as a natural deterrent. But there are also plenty of more interesting choices, many created by Western New York artisans, or sold at local shops. Think small, and think useful. Hand-crafted trellises are almost always welcome and they need a remarkably small footprint, while ornamental stepping stones or tiles are both useful and pretty. Small sculptures—providing you know the tastes of the recipient—are fine if you’re going for the purely ornamental.
For inside the house, framed botanical illustrations have a very wide appeal, and provide additional respite during the long gray months ahead.
Elizabeth Licata is editor of Buffalo Spree.
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