![]() Tom Atwell has been writing the Maine Gardener column since 2004.Many gardeners have a particular horticultural interest, such as orchids, roses or rhododendrons. So in addition to whatever items your friend or family member buys with her certificate, she’ll receive sound knowledge and advice – and that is often the best gift of all. The center’s staff can provide advice on which plants grow best in the area and which tools work best. If none of these ideas strikes your fancy, buy a gift certificate to a garden center near the recipient’s home. Or give your favorite gardener a stirrup hoe, $51 at Johnny’s and similar to the hula hoe we bought several years ago and that has proved invaluable. One, a narrow collinear hoe, with a 3 ¾-inch blade, looks like it would work effectively around the plants Johnny’s sells other collinear hoes with blades up to 7 inches. But while perusing the website for Johnny’s Selected Seeds recently, I saw several hoes that would work as well as ours. My wife, Nancy, and I inherited two terrific garden hoes from her grandparents, and for years I’ve wondered how people work with the clunky hoes I see at hardware stores. A smaller version for children costs $115. Add a greenhouse cover and micro-mesh insect cover, and the total comes to $339. Anyhow, if you know a similarly absentminded gardener, I suggest the pruner.īack to raised beds for patios and decks: For a gift on the ornamental side, check out the VegTrug, available on several websites including Amazon and for $279, and solidly made of wood. But somehow I suspect that since I spent so little on them, I won’t lose these. Even though the red-coated grip came off my first one, it still does the job, so I bought four more, in case I lose them and/or Pinetree stops selling them. Pinetree sells a $6.95 hand pruner that cuts very well. After I lost my third $50 Felco hand pruner, I vowed never again. ![]() To explain this, a confession: I often lose things in the garden. While you are on Pinetree’s website, check out my favorite low-price stocking stuffer. It’s more than 6 feet tall and 4 feet by 6 on the ground, with a roll-up door and two tiers of shelving. If you’d like to give a more generous gift, consider Pinetree’s walk-in greenhouse for $140. At $40, it costs much less than most other purchased cold frames. It’s 47 by 24 inches, so could be used on patios and balconies. One is a garden cold frame with a raised bed, tubular steel frame and roll-up zippered panels for easy access. Pinetree Garden Seeds ( ), a catalog company in New Gloucester, has several season-extending products at reasonable prices. ![]() Gifts that’ll be useful once gardening resumes in the spring will be appreciated, too. Putting the terrarium together is like designing and planting a small garden, and it’ll keep pining-for-spring gardeners entertained. They come with tropical plants, potting soil, pebbles and sand, along with the glass and metal house. They vary a lot, from simple blown-glass balls with a hole for watering plants that start at about $25, to jars with removable covers and even one, for $169 from White Flower Farm in Morris, Connecticut, that looks like a miniature Victorian pavilion. I’ve noticed a resurgence of kits for terrariums this year, both at garden centers and in gardening catalogs. But you always could get your gardening friend a terrarium. OK, admittedly orchids, at least the easy sort, aren’t too big of a project. That way, even if the recipient fails to get the orchid to rebloom, the plants are attractive for longer. Orchids are an obvious choice – especially if you buy them with buds instead of, or in addition to, full blossoms. You can always give a gardener a houseplant as a gift, but it’s hard to know which one. And for $40, it has a habitat hotel that provides shelter for butterflies, native bees and beneficial, pest-eating insects such as ladybugs and lacewings. The company offers similar shelters for butterflies and birds at the same price. The Gardener’s Supply Company sells a good-looking woven bamboo bee house for $20. Others on your list may prefer a ready-made, spiffier-looking bee house. 7153 ( /publications/7153e) on native bees, which includes instructions for building the houses. ![]() ![]() If the recipient is a do-it-yourself sort, wrap up material – basically 2-by-6-inch lumber and 1-by-3-inch strapping – to build some bee houses and print out the University of Maine Cooperative Extension bulletin No. Consider giving habitat for those vital insects. The need to provide habitat for pollinators such as native bees and butterflies has become more important as the honeybee population seriously declines. Simpler single-species bee and butterfly homes are also available. A fancy “hotel” for bees, insects and butterflies may charm the gardener on your gift list who is keen to provide a habitat for crucial creatures. ![]()
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