What Holidays do You Give Your Favorite Gardener a Gift?
First off, let’s get something straight: Any time is the right time to give a gardener a gift!! We are loving, accepting people with an affinity for fun stuff. But seriously, I asked myself a question the other day during the Mother’s day gift run, and thought about what days/occasions are perfect for garden gift giving. So, here is a list:
Holidays
New Years – what better way to start off the year in anticipation of a whole new gardening season in spring. Great garden gifts here: Hori Hori, tool maintenance kit, new garden tool set, garden scissors, etc.
Groundhog Day – Not your traditional, but a cute idea to give your favorite gardener a gift on this day.
Valentine’s Day – What better day to adorn your sweetheart than with a gardening gift they will cherish for years.
St. Patrick’s Day – in our Celtic tradition, the green holiday is perfect for garden themed gift giving.
Easter – Our favorite holiday, the harbinger of spring blooms, is a time to celebrate all that is beautiful in the garden.
Mother’s Day – if your Mom loves gardening, then gift giving on this special day should always include a garden gift.
Earth Day – need we say more. Sustainable, earth loving gardening gifts are always a big hit on this day, even if it is just a small thought.
Ok, I have to admit, when I first used them out in our fields, I felt kind of funny. It’s like bringing a steak knife out to do cut lavender, right? Were they really up to the demands of the flower farm? We decided to evaluate a bunch of different garden scissors to find a set of these so called garden secateurs to see which ones we would put in our gardening tools section of our store. We used them to snip, cut, and prune. We ended up with a stainless steel garden snip that had a smooth action, was light and had nice small handles. Why stainless? Other garden scissors we tested (the black metal ones), rusted when they got wet, and became stiff, and did not fare well in the garden and farm environment. We love these scissors, for the following reasons:
They are beautiful. You have to look stylish when out and about 😉
The scissors are easy to hold and manipulate. When out in the fields, you need to be able to maneuver and snip at odd angles.
They are light. If you spend hours in the garden clipping, your hands can get tired from using the wrong, heavy garden pruners.
They remain sharp. Stainless steel scissors don’t rust and remain sharp even after snipping flower after flower, or stem after stem.
They fit perfectly in our apron. What good are garden pruner/snips if you can’t have them with you all the time. They fit perfectly in our garden apron.
Check out these great snips for yourself or a garden gift recipient and enjoy them today. You can read more about our garden tool sets here: Garden Tools and Gardening Tool Sets. You can also read more here: Garden Tools
There are a lot of poor quality florist’s aprons out there in the market, and when arranging flowers in a shop or in the field, the flower trade can be demanding: dirt, water, coffee ;). A high quality apron can be a decent investment, and you want it to last, protect your clothing and most of all make your duties easy by having what you need easily accessible. Here are our requirements that every florist or flow arranger should use when shopping for that shop apron that will provide years of use, and look stylish:
A good florists apron material is waxed canvas. It has to be of significant weight material (they call it heavy), and treated so it shuns water.
Linen aprons are fun and fashionable, but soak up water and rip over time (no pocket strength).
There should be ample apron pocket space, and they need to be arranged well: a place for snips, scissors, tools and your phone!
Main pockets should be double stitched for strength and durability in the florist’s apron.
There should be a towel holder on the apron for a quick drying of hands or rapid cleanup.
Smock Straps should cross in the back to distribute the load and be comfortable.
A good apron will cost you between $30 and $50, and you get what you pay for! We offer an affordable, high quality apron that will last years and the best part is, its what we wear on the farm and while arranging!
As I work on the farm and garden daily, I don’t go anywhere without my Hori Hori Knife and Tool. I find new uses for my this Japanese Gardener’s Tool every day. I carry it every where I go, and like to have it handy for all types of chores, and it saves me trips back to the garden shed. Either on my gardener’s belt or in my gardener’s/florists apron, it is always ready for action or any chore I can sum up. There are many known uses, but I thought I would create a list of expanded uses for this great garden tool i have found over the years:
As its namesake describes, it is great for digging with its concave Hori Hori Samurai-like blade.
It can be used as a quick soil aerating tool to get oxygen to a plants roots and surrounding soil.
The Hori Hori blade is great for getting weeds at their roots, and with a flick of the wrist can get them root and all.
The serrated blade is great for cutting through stubborn roots, and root balls.
The Hori Hori works quite well as a pruning device for small branches or as a small saw for larger branches.
It works great as a marker stake, and with a hole in the handle, and some string, it makes garden marking easy. You can also use it for planting rows as a line reference.
I use it as a propagation tool to cut through large root balls and separate.
The Hori Hori Knife edge cuts through landscape fabric quite well and makes cutting X’s simple.
Opening bags of soil and amendments can be done quickly with the sharp Hori blade
The sharp blade can help in harvesting flowers or vegetables.
It’s great for cutting through irrigation tubing
No matter your use, buy the Best Hori Hori you possible can and use it throughout the garden or farm to make your chores a breeze. Just be careful! The blade is sharp!
We’ve been doing a lot lately on the farm to get ready for another growing season, and have several garden and farm projects in the works, including: new irrigation system, a lavender field, new growing beds, refreshing beds in our home garden, an English garden and much more (yes I am tired 😉 ). There are two tools that are irreplaceable in our day to day efforts: The Hori Hori and the Dibber.
Let’s start with the Hori Hori. This is one of my favorite tools out in the fields. I’ll give you a quick summary of how I used this Japanese Garden Knife and Tool out on the property yesterday:
Cutting through stubborn roots while digging an irrigation ditch.
Digging out a sprinkler riser to replace
To put soil into a new pot
To cut lengths of drip line for a new irrigation zone
Cutting through landscape fabric for planting
As a garden trowel
To remove some stubborn weeds in the gravel driveway
The Hori Hori is really the Garden Samurai (You can read more here: Hori Hori Garden Tool), and a garden tool I wont leave in the shed.
Second on the list is one of my new favorites, the Garden Dibber or Dibble. This tool has been around since man started farming, and is essentially a tool for seed and bulb planting. It essentially provides a simple way to drill holes in your soil with minimal effort. Today, as I go out to plant, here is how I will use this unique garden tool:
To plant some new Ranunculus bulbs we just received (as a bulb planter)
To poke some irrigation holes around newly planted trees
To make holes in some new ground cover
As a seed starter to open up soil for new seed
This garden tool is light and simple to use and makes little effort out of starting you new plants in any type of soil.
As a gardener and farmer, there is nothing better that a fantastic garden gift. But with soooo many choices online, and a ton of junk, how do you pick the one that would be the best for your gardener friend or family member? Here is a list of my favorites, hopefully one sounds good to you:
A Gardening Apron – you don’t realize what you are missing until you wear a gardening apron with pockets out in the garden. It’s like bringing your shed with you. If you are like me, I spend more time going back and forth to the garage and shed than I do in the garden. A couple of things to look for: several pockets, waxed canvas, double-stitched apron pockets and adjustable straps. Here is a great apron: Gardening Aprons
A Hori Hori – The Japanese garden tool, named with the Japanese term “Hori Hori” which means “dig,dig”, is an amazing friend in the garden. The Hori Hori can be used to dig, weed, cut, scrape and measure. With roots back to the Samurai forges in Japan, this gardening sword will be a favorite for any gardener on your list. You can read up on the features in a quality Hori Hori here: The Best Hori Hori Tool
The Garden Tote – a garden carryall for tools, fertilizer, bulb packs, seeds and more, can be a great partner for the gardener. Our time gardening is limited, and having all you need a foot away can insure your time out there is saved for garden duties.
The Dibber (Dibbler) – having its roots (no pun intended) with the first gardener’s way back in time, a dibber is a tool for making holes in the soil for seeds and bulbs. The handy tool makes quick work for gardening tasks, and modern dibbers are an attractive wood and stainless steel tool any gardener would love.
The Garden Tool Holder – pruners, scissors and clippers, also called gardening sharps, are difficult to carry and can damage standard carriers. A thick and solid leather or heavy canvas tool roll can give any gardener a safe place to store their gardening tools.
Bonsai Scissors/Clippers – garden scissors are an excellent gift for the discerning gardener, and have become quite popular for many reasons. These sharp gardening tools provide many functions out in the garden, and stainless steel scissors will last forever.
So, hopefully this quick list of gardening gift ideas can provide you with the best gift for the gardener in your life (or a gift for yourself).
A Quick Guide to Finding That Unique Gardening Gift
First off, what does unique mean to you? Is it that handmade garden dibble set, or a Japanese Hori Hori Garden Knife? Maybe it’s a lovely garden gift box? Read on for some tips on finding the best unique garden gift for the gardener in. your life.
Our Garden Shop contains a wide variety of unique quality gifts for the gardener. We pride ourselves in only choosing the best unique items, and pick from those we use on a daily basis on our farm and in our gardening chores. These unique garden gift ideas will please even the most discerning gardener.
So, what makes the best gift for a gardener? How do you get gift ideas for that friend or relative that has a passion and love for growing? Here are some ideas on how to find the perfect gardening gift through some questions:
See our selection of unique, high quality garden gifts that are tested and used on our flower farm at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains in California.
She loves to garden, and you want to find that perfect, unique gsrdening gift. Here are some of our best choices in the “gardening gifts for women” section of our store.
The garden is where he is happiest, and you want to find that perfect gift. See our “gardening gifts for men” section to find that perfect, unique garden gift for him.
Gardening tools make the best garden gifts, but you want to make sure you are buying high quality tools. Our Hori Hori Garden knives and stainless tool sets are our most popular and unique garden gifts, and part of our hand-picked collectiom
Want to give a unique and special gift to your favorite gardener? Just looking for a new toy in the garden that’s unique and cool? We have a great selection of quality, special gardener gifts sure to get noticed and let you step out of the same old garden gift ideas.
Hopefully this gives you a broad idea of the types of unique gardening items that would make the best present for a gardener in your life, or for you. You can find more information and more gift giving ideas for the garden in our shop and on our site.
