Winter will soon be here. The weather is turning colder, the garden is bedded down, insects are doing their form of hibernating, many birds have migrated, and passionate native plant gardeners are dreaming about plans for next Spring. But before Spring arrives, we have the holidays! Make dreams come true with a special holiday gift for the native plant gardener in your life.
My top gardening gifts to receive (if I already didn’t have them) would be a Hori Hori garden knife, Bellingham Bamboo Gardener gloves and a water wand. Any of these items would thrill a gardener.
But what if you don’t know what is already owned? Surreptitiously sneak a peak into your favorite gardener’s garage or tool shed and look around to find out what may be needed. Perhaps she or he already has practically everything. Then you will need to think more creatively. A gift certificate for a Mt Cuba Center membership or classes would be a sure hit. If you still need more ideas, check out The Grommet website, which has 100 + ideas for your gardening friend.
Winter is the perfect time to settle in with a good book. Any of Doug Tallamy’s books would be the perfect gift. His latest is The Nature of Oaks. Kim Eiserman’s The Pollinator Victory Garden is another good choice. An excellent book to help a friend learn about the importance of our bee pollinators is Heather Holm’s Bees: An Identification and Native Plant Forage Guide.
If you would like to give a gift and also make a difference for wildlife, give a donation in your friend’s name to an organization that supports biodiversity. Homegrown National Park, Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation and Xerces Society are all good choices.
And if you need still more ideas, don’t forget the birds. Most likely, your gardening friend loves them and wants them in the garden. After all, we plant natives to feed the insects that feed the birds, right? Gifts that can be used now and throughout the winter season are a bird bath heater and special suet for woodpeckers and other birds that overwinter instead of migrating. Do I need to mention how thrilling it is to see these beautiful birds during the winter? I put out suet all winter to attract and feed these lovely creatures.
If you’re thinking more towards Spring, how about a water mister to attract hummingbirds? In my mind, nothing is more exciting than the arrival of hummingbirds in early May. I look forward to seeing them every year, and I bet your friends would too.
Have other ideas? Please share your thoughts on creative gifts for native plant gardeners.
