Gardening Gifts

Matching gardening gifts to the gardener

Start with how they garden. A gardener with a balcony of pots has little room to spare, so a gift for a windowsill suits them better than one that needs a corner of the shed. Someone who has gardened for years already owns the tools they trust, so a gift that celebrates the hobby often goes down better than more kit.

Then think about the occasion and where the gift will sit, checking the measurements if it is meant for a narrow shelf. Let their taste lead as well as their hobby: for a gardener who loves their borders, some of our gifts are flower-themed, and for one who watches the birds, a few are bird-themed.

Gifts for gardeners, and for the cooks and teachers among them

Gardeners are rarely only gardeners. Some of our gifts also suit a cook, a good fit for someone who grows herbs by the back door or veg in a raised bed and carries the harvest straight to the kitchen. A few suit a teacher who gardens, and a few are gifts for teens, a kind way to encourage a teenager who has just sown a first tray of seeds. Some suit her and some suit him, but the plants they love and the jobs they enjoy are the better guide.

Christmas, birthdays and a new home

Some of our garden gifts suit Christmas, which falls in the quiet weeks when gardeners are planning their beds and leafing through seed catalogues. For a stocking, look at the size on the product page so you know it will fit.

A few suit a birthday, and a few suit a new home, a warm welcome for a gardener still getting to know their plot. Birthdays and moves do not keep to the gardening calendar, so match the gift to what they will be doing outside when they open it, whether that is sowing in spring or tidying up in autumn.

What a storage tin is good for

Some of the gifts in this range are storage tins, and a tin stays useful long after the wrapping comes off. On a shed shelf it keeps seed packets, plant labels and twine together and easy to find. Seeds keep best somewhere cool, dry and dark, so a tin on a shelf indoors often suits them better than a damp shed over winter.

In the kitchen, a tin keeps odds and ends in one place, from recipe cards to clips and string, and like any tin it lasts longest when kept dry.

Putting a gardener's gift together

Adding something of your own makes a gift feel more personal. If you garden too, fill a tin with seeds saved from your own plants, a label in your handwriting saying what to sow and when, and a note about where the plant came from. Wrap it simply and tie it with garden twine.

Two gifts can say more than one: pair something for the potting bench with something for the kitchen. You will also find a few that come as a set of two, so you can keep the pair together on one shelf or share them between two gardeners.

Looking after metal, wood, paper and plastic

Care depends on what a gift is made of. Some of ours are metal or steel: wipe them with a soft, dry cloth and dry them straight away if they get wet, as damp and scratches are what let rust in. A few are wood, which prefers a dry cloth to a wet one and lasts longer away from radiators and strong sun.

A few are paper or card, so keep them indoors and away from steam. Some are plastic, and a damp cloth with a drop of washing-up liquid is usually enough. Unless a piece is described as suitable for outdoors, treat it as an indoor gift, however much it belongs to the garden in spirit.