🎁 Your Christmas Garden Wishlist 🎁
fwd to your fam + friends -- or use it as your personal shopping checklist!
Well, we made it! November is wishlist season!! Partly because it’s my birthday month and partly because it’s when the most organized people in the world start Christmas shopping. 🎄
Besides all that, so many new gardeners have been asking me this year what tools I recommend — and I have compiled them here!
Nisaku Hori Hori Knife
The Hori Hori knife will always be my #1 tool in the garden. It replaces spades, weeding tools, a ruler, and often scissors or shears. I have found it to be the most superior and universal tool — a must have for both casual and advanced gardeners.
JP650 is the entry level knife
JP651 is a higher grade stainless steel that will stay sharp much longer. i recommend this one if you have the extra $20.
BUY HERE / $40
Felco #2
I honestly didn’t get the hype until Max gifted me these and now I understand why rosarians say it’s your lifelong tool. Yes, they’re pricier than a Fiskers, but you could literally own this pair until you die. There are a handful of Felcos and here is a great rundown. Felco 2 is the most universally used and it stays in my toolbelt 24/7. If you are leftie though, grab a Felco 9 or 10. They made some just for you!
BUY HERE / $60
Felco Sharpening Stone
If you already own Felcos, or feel like PAMPERING THE HELL out of the Felco lover in your life, get the Diamond Sharpening Stone and maybe even the 980 Spray. I absolutely love the idea of repairing and caring for my one personal pair of pruners rather than tossing some into the landfill every 1-2 years. If you have had Felcos for several years and wear them hard, you can also get or gift the replacement blade/key/spring set.
BUY HERE / $30
Create Academy’s Gardening & Floristry Courses
I just completed Dan Pearson’s Naturalistic Garden Design course and recommend it for anyone who wants to develop their vision for a natural, non-traditional garden aesthetic. He also presents a straightforward process on where to begin which is very helpful if you do not have a formal landscape design background. I honestly appreciated the workbooks the most — Dan is philosophical and verbose in nature, but the workbooks house lists and lists and lists of plant recommendations. I was surprised how many of them are actually native to the US and will thrive in the southeast, despite being in more of a pacific northwest climate.
I also am very familiary with Arthur Parkinson’s work and will be taking his “Grow A Spectacular Garden In Pots” course next. If you live in an apartment or home with very little property — Arthur’s creativity will give you SO MANY MORE OPTIONS for adding life to your space.
I asked them if I could give my readers a discount and they said yes! Use FLORI15 for 15% off!
BUY HERE / ‘FLORI15’ discount code
Row7 Gift Card
Ten years ago chef Dan Barber [if you haven’t watched his episode of Chef’s Table yet, you must] challenged vegetable breeder Michael Mazourek to build a better butternut squash. This was the beginning of Row7 seed company — where chefs have been collaborating to help breed and create varieties specifically for their flavor. Most of our seeds are bred for their ability to produce as much food as possible and be resistant to disease, pests, climate volatility. These are good things, but flavor is often the first trait sacrificed. These seeds produce food that just…tastes how food is meant to taste.
Letters To A Young Farmer
I read this book once a year. Even if you do not farm and never plan to farm, this book will move you. I am not sure there is any profession that results in more time spent pondering the earth and our place in it, and they have much to say that is worth hearing.
BUY HERE / $12
Botany For Gardeners
Brian Capon just released his 4th edition of this marvelous book that I read as a textbook for one of my horticulture classes. Brian writes science in a non-academic way, full of storytelling and imagery. If you have forgotten what you learned in plant biology as a middle schooler and really want a great refresher, I recommend this! Please note that RHS published an identical book by another author. I have not read it and I am sure it is great, but that’s not the one listed here. :)
BUY HERE / $20
10 Year Garden Journal
Full disclosure, I have not used this yet but this is what is on my wishlist. I absolutely love that you can see 10 consecutive years of THE SAME DAY on one page. And since you customize it, you could also skip a year if you take time off from gardening, or you could even use one year for another creative pursuit (cooking, photography, writing, etc) if you really wanted. Perks: Tracking the weather as it gets more volatile! Space for sketching your garden in the back! Garden charts!
BUY HERE / $40
Bulb Planter
I bought this last month and wow, hand planters are for the biiiirds. So far I’ve used it for daffodils, tulips, crocuses, and garlic.
BUY HERE / $40
ME!! I AM A GREAT CHRISTMAS PRESENT! 😂
You can gift someone a consultation for next year’s garden planning ($85) or you can gift them a 2023 membership to the Floricult Garden Club! ($45) Here’s a handy little button for the gift subscription, and if you want to arrange a consultation, just email me and I will work it out with ya. <3
6-Cell Lifetime Seed Starting Trays
This is another item on my wishlist that I will be investing in for next year’s growing. Kevin @ Epic Gardening partnered with his friend to create plastic trays that would last FOREVER. They are recycled here in the USA. It’s very hard to garden without contributing to the plastic problem, so if you must use it, either find some old ones from a neighbor or purchase heavy duty plastic that will never break and end up in the trash.
BUY HERE / $60
Jardin Rose Arch Trellis
If you are feelin’ splurgey or have a special someone looking for one of those niiiiiice gifts for you, this is one of my favorite garden arches. I also love the company — their customer service is unmatched. You can put it in raised beds, along a path, on a patio surrounded by pots, etc.
BUY HERE / $250
Kouboo Harvest Basket
This is harvest basket is my favorite and unfortunately you do have to pay for the ~aesthetic~ but it holds up exceptionally well! I have left it out in the rain, left tomatoes to rot in it, and hosed it off under the jet setting. Plus, the cats love it. If you want a more functional and affordable harvest basket, I do also like Fiskers’ new basket!
BUY HERE / $80
Rite In The Rain Notebook
This is a waterproof notebook produced in Tacoma, Washington. Enough said.
BUY HERE / $9
BONUS: WILL + MEREDITH’S PICKS
I also asked my bffs / Floricult teammates what they couldn’t live without! Meredith says a horse hoof brush & pick. She uses it to brush mud off her boots when she gets into the car or house. Will says this manual edger, which may be a passive aggressive submission to this list as he’s been edging many garden beds around Winston with me. 😂 In seriousness, it is a great, easy tool for creating new garden beds in your lawn and cleaning up the beds that exist.
If none of this caught your fancy, I have a running list of my favorite tools and books.
Go outside and enjoy this unseasonably warm weather today — and forward this email around to everyone you hope is buying you gifts for your garden. 🌲
I’m off to go camping! 🏕
Lauren
PS. I initially created these lists on Amazon as a simple way to keep myself organized, but I’ve found they’re quite helpful in compiling for friends & readers, so feel free to bookmark. Please note that for a few items on this list I have an affiliate relationship. I have reached out to a few companies I love to see about discounts, etc. It does take me many hours to write each newsletter, so this is a nice lil way to offer you some savings and also make me a few monies! 💸