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Published on 12/14/20

Great gifts for gardeners everywhere

By Sheri Dorn

Both veteran and novice gardeners have spent many hours taking care of plants and gardens while spending extra time at home this year.

Whether they were trying new things, expanding their gardens or sprucing up their landscapes, gardeners planted new shrubs, experimented with flowering perennials, mulched and tended lawns.

If you are looking for presents for the gardeners in your life, here are a few ideas for gifts that they will love from the Georgia Master Gardener Extension Volunteer office.

  • Gloves – All gardeners everywhere need a really good pair of gloves, and not all gloves are created equally. The best gloves are lightweight and supple leather. They are great for protecting hands from splinters, thorns and other abrasives that comes from working in the soil. Those who love roses might want a pair of gloves with long sleeves for extra protection while tending their prized beauties. Disposable rubber gloves would be great for gardeners making pesticide applications.
  • Pruning shears – New gardeners may be struggling with the inexpensive shears they bought this spring. Any gardener would delight in sturdy, sharp shears of differing sizes, such as needle-nosed shears for snipping perennials and annuals, especially for flower-arranging friends. Some may need a good set of bypass pruners that will do a great job on small twigs and those nips and tucks needed for shrubs. For the ambitious gardener, a new set of loppers or a pole saw for cleaning up small branches in trees may be welcome.
  • Garden fork – A short-handled, three-tined garden fork with a round handle comes in handy for many gardening tasks – loosening weeds at their roots, turning over garden soil in beds and fluffing mulch.
  • Wheelbarrow – This might be a tricky present to wrap and stash under the tree, but all gardeners need a wheelbarrow when working in the yard. For people with limited room for storage, there are collapsible canvas garden carts that will store in small spaces.
  • Drip irrigation – Since gardeners have all been making our yards, gardens, patios, decks and balconies beautiful with plants of all kinds, we now have to invest time to keep everything hydrated when we go without rain. A really impressive present might be an irrigation system, but if that is too pricey, the pieces and parts for a DIY system would be great, too. They are not too hard to put together and make it so much easier to keep plants evenly watered.
  • Gardening resource – Gardeners often need a good gardening reference. The Georgia Master Gardener Handbook can be ordered with a 50% discount code (Holiday50) at UGAExtensionStore.com.

Gardening gives many people joy and the opportunity to share extra plants and homegrown produce with neighbors and friends. This year, it has also helped people get out of the house and stay active with a much-needed positive experience during a challenging time. So, if you know a gardener, consider these gift ideas to surprise and delight plant-loving friends and family.

Visit UGAExtensionStore.com to order the Georgia Master Gardener Handbook and other University of Georgia Cooperative Extension publications. 

Sheri Dorn is an Extension ornamental specialist and state Master Gardener coordinator in the Department of Horticulture at the UGA Griffin campus.

Authors:
Sheri Dorn
Experts/Sources:
Sheri Dorn
Garden tools are a great gift for any gardener.
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