Holiday Gifting for New Gardeners

If the holidays have you contemplating what you should buy that wannabe gardener on your list, I have a few suggestions.  A basic book on how to start and plan yardscaping with easy care plant suggestions is always useful.  I have a library of books that just seems to get bigger with each book sale I attend.  A new book is fine for a gift, but useful information can be found in any basic book as long as the information is clear and concise and there are color pictures to help the new gardener envision the possibilities.

Other good gifts that will be used on a continuous basis throughout the growing season, pruning shears, weed puller, pruning saw, small spade, utility scissors, hand rake, or gift certificate to a local nursery.  Other items I wouldn't mind receiving if my yard was in need of added interest would be a bird feeder with supply of seed, compost bin for outside (and compost pail for inside), simple lawn statute, and stepping stones.

As a gift one year, I asked for, and got, a rain gauge.  It was a glass tube with inches marked off on the inside so that I could measure the amount of rain when it rained so that I could track which days I needed to water the yard.  Rain gauges are fine if you 1) are diligent enough to manage your watering needs based on rainfall and 2) remember to bring them in for the winter, lest they freeze and shatter.  Unfortunately neither 1) nor 2) applied to me.  I often forgot to check the rain gauge after a rainfall, and, sadly, I did forget one fall to bring it inside for the winter and I found glass shattered in the yard when cleaning out in spring.  A more practical guide for weather watchers might be Farmer's Almanac or a wireless weather station (fancy talk for indoor/outdoor thermometer).