Gardening Tools: rakes, shovels, pruners and other hand tools
Vegetable & Flower Seeds: Buy open-pollinated or heirloom seeds
Garden Stakes: Buy unfinished garden stakes and paint a solid color. Then paint the names of vegetables on the stakes using outdoor paint. Paint on a few carrots, beans or peas on them to dress them up.
Soil: Manure, Topsoil, Sand, Potting Soil - Gardeners always need organic soil and fertilizers each year
Garden Buddies: Like pet rocks. Paint flowers & vegetables with faces. Add frogs or other common garden visitors like slug rocks. Or paint an inspirational saying on your garden buddy.
Stepping Stones: These are easy to make. Buy cement and a bag of miscellanous junk jewelry or trinkets at a thrift store. Then make a mold, add pebbles or rocks and decorate with the jewelry and trinkets. Be sure to use lots of sparkly items.
Gardening Calendar: Learn how to make a personalized gardening calendar here. Lists monthly gardening tasks to keep on schedule.
Antique Garden Art: Go to auctions and garage sales. Find interesting conversation pieces for your friend’s garden.
Old Boot Planters: Use old boots, teapots, buckets or anything with space enough to plant a few vegetables or flowers. Hens and chicks work great in boots. Makes for a unique diy garden gift.
Rain Barrel: Collecting rain water is a green idea for your green thumb friend. If they have a good location for a rain barrel, like the corner of a building where there is no gutter or where a gutter could be removed and replaced with the rain barrel, this would make a neat gift.
Garden Rain Chain: This goes excellent with the rain barrel. Secretly measure out the length of chain needed from eave to ground, rain barrel or water catch basin on ground. Buy chain and tack weld old gardening hand tools onto it. The rustier the gardening tools, the better.
Straw sunhat, colorful gardening gloves, gardening boots or slip on type sandals for gardening.
A cold frame for growing cool crops year-round. Easy to make yourself or you can buy. Toss in some lettuce or cabbage seed, potting soil and a misting bottle.
Bushel Baskets: Gardeners love bushel baskets for their looks and usefulness. They are the perfect gift to harvest the bounty of one’s garden.
Wheel Barrow or Flatbed Wagon: The double tires on wheel barrows is nicer to avoid tip overs. Flatbed wagons with big, fatty wheels are great to avoid getting stuck in marshy areas.
Gift Certificates: To a local nursery, seed shop or even online seed companies. Here is a good place to start shopping for seeds.Links to a list of seed companies selling organic, open pollinated and heirloom seeds.
Tickets to Local Garden Show or other Gardening Events
Worm Box & Red Wigglers: Build a worm box and add red wigglers. Worms are great in the garden, produce one of the best organic fertilizers known and make nice fishing worms too.
Herbs in Painted Terra Cotta Pots: Buy the pots or find used ones someone is giving away. Give them new life with the stroke of a paintbrush. Make them colorful, match your friend’s kitchen or just leave them plain. Fill with potting soil and several different varieties of herbs–one per pot. Line 3 to 5 pots up on a window sill. You can even personalize it by painting the letters of your friend’s name on each pot so it is spelled out when the pots are placed side by side. Great herbs to start with are: Oregano, basil, thyme and rosemary.
Magazine Subscription: Mother Earth News or Backwoods Home have very unique, diy articles and projects.
Seed Screens: A rather expensive gift, but an absolute dream gift for anyone who saves their own vegetable seeds.
Canning Jars: Most gardeners can their vegetables. You can’t go wrong with pint-sized wide mouth canning jars and lids. You can even make your own canning jar labels. Use material to make jar toppers for homemade jam. Click here to learn how.
Gardening Books: There are SO many wonderful books. For seed saving however, there is one that truly stands out. It is called, Seed to Seed by Suzanne Ashworth. Northwest gardeners will also thoroughly use and enjoy the year-round gardening calendar and information found in Maritime NW Garden Guide put out by Seattle Tilth.
No-Sew Garden Print Blanket: Come winter, gardeners are tucked up in the house thumbing through seed catalogs and reading the latest gardening news. A no-sew blanket would keep them warm. A fast, easy project and a great gift too. Learn How to Make a No Sew Blanket or Prayer Blanket Here.
