Find a gift that keeps giving year-round from this list of useful and inexpensive gift ideas for the gardener on your gift list.
Finding creative, useful, and inexpensive gifts for gardeners is both easy and fun. Regardless of whether the gardeners on your list grow plants, vegetables, flowers, or herbs, there are plenty of great gift options that don't have to break the bank.
Gifts for gardeners can be purchased at online garden supply retailers or at big box home improvement stores like Home Depot or Lowe's. Stores like Wal-Mart, Target, Tuesday Morning, Marshall's and T.J. Maxx also have gardening sections, although the selection in these types of stores is usually seasonal. Craft stores such as Michael's and Ben Franklin Crafts usually have the supplies needed to make great DIY garden gifts year-round.
Inexpensive gift ideas for all gardeners
- One-year subscription to a gardening magazine. Popular suggestions include Better Homes & Gardens, Organic Gardening, and Fine Gardening.
- Collection of seed packets, tied together in a pretty bow or with twine
- Gardener's gloves
- Knee pads
- Plant markers
- Watering tin
- Garden clogs
- Gardener's apron
- Pruner
- Water (rainfall) gauge
- Gift certificate to a local or online garden supply store
- Gardener's hand cream. Even with gloves, gardening can be tough on the hands. A good-quality, therapeutic hand cream designed with gardeners in mind is a wonderfully thoughtful gift. Consider Crabtree & Evelyn's Gardener's Hand Therapy Cream or Le Couvent des Minimes' Gardener's Hand Healer. Believe it or not, many men love this gift too!
- Garden journal for tracking what is planted when and where and noting observations or reflections from the garden
- Cargo liner for transporting plants, dirt, mulch and other "dirty" items home from the store or nursery
Inexpensive gift ideas for flower and plant gardeners
- Yard art. Many local craft and home decor stores sell signs, flowers and animals (to be placed on the ground or on metal poles) that can brighten and beautify any garden.
- Wind chime
- Stepping stone. DIY kits are available online and in many local craft stores.
- Wildflower seed mixture
- Bulb planter
- Rooting vase, like this one from Gardener's Supply Company
Inexpensive gift ideas for herb gardeners
- Small pots. If you're creative, buy plain terra cotta pots from a local craft store and paint them in bright, fun colors. Fill each pot with a packet of herb seeds and paint the name of the herb on each pot.
- Book on creative uses for dried herbs.
- Book on cooking with herbs.
Inexpensive gift ideas for vegetable gardeners
- Seed mat
- Farmer's Almanac
- Vegetable cage, like those sold at Clean Air Gardening or Veggie Cage
- Canning jars and labels
- Book on canning and preserving fruits and vegetables
Copyright Sydney Thomas. Contact the author to obtain permission for republication.
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