🎄 my gift guide for gardeners 🎄

my favorite tools, apparel, books, & whatnots

is fluffy chicken butt not what you expected to see when you opened this email?

🌲 CHRISTMAS IS COMING 🌲

I personally love when others around me assemble gift guides because I am not the greatest at gifting.

All year long I see cool or interesting things that I know someone in my life would love, and then at Christmas my mind goes blank and I haven’t taken my notes or saved my links. Yes, I know I should be buying things when I see them, but for some reason this very obvious solution has not enacted itself yet.

I would say that despite gardening extensively and running a fine garden & landscape company, I am a minimalist when it comes to “tools and things.”

I do not like accumulating a lot of stuff that requires cleaning, storing, and digging through. If something goes missing, I want so few objects that I know immediately. I want one tool that can be used for five things so that I do not have to carry much around or walk back to the garage or trailer. To a fault, I have refused adding new things whenever they’re recommended, but some (like a power auger and a poly scoop) have truly saved us from a lot of back pain!

I hope this list of my favorite things is useful as you try to shop for gardeners you love, helps you get the gifts you really want, or just provides you with better gardening solutions in the year ahead!

1. Nisaku Hori Hori Knife

#1 on last year’s guide and all future guides, the Hori Hori knife is my singular must-have tool in the garden. It replaces spades, weeding tools, a ruler, sometimes a hand saw, 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 and is only $5-10 more.

BUY HERE / $30

2. Niwaki Insulated Garden Gloves

These are only sold in Europe, so it’s really nice that GardenHeir began carrying them. This will be my first winter using them, and they come highly recommended by other professional gardeners I follow. During most of the year, I use these 6-pack Nitrile coated gloves because they’re thin enough to feel what you’re doing and maintain a great grip. But, they’re rough in 19° degree mornings when you’re dragging wet bags around, so time for FLEECE LINING!!! 🐑

BUY HERE / $24

photo by broomling

3. 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.

BUY HERE / $58

4. 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 farmers have much to say that is worth hearing. It is compiled of short individual letters written by very different people. It is poetry, science, personal essay, agricultural history, journal entries, wisdom, and love.

BUY HERE / $15

5. ProPlugger Bulb Planter

I bought this last year because hand planters are for the biiiirds. So far I’ve used it to plant over ten thousand daffodils, tulips, and crocuses. I recommend it to everyone. Be the cool person in the neighborhood that can lend it out!

BUY HERE / $40

6. Rite In The Rain Notebook

This is a waterproof notebook produced in Tacoma, Washington. Can’t have enough.

BUY HERE / $9

7. GardenHeir Japanese Cotton Gardening Chemise

I have this shirt both in Oxford Blue and Porcelain. Every time I wear one of them, I get asked where I bought them. They are exceptionally lightweight and feel like hotel bedsheets (in a good way). It is a 100% Japanese typewriter cotton fabric woven so tightly that it is naturally water repellent but still breathable. (For apparel lovers, Japanese typewriter fabric is made by the finest high twist 120/2 yarn on a complex loom set up that is only found in Japan.) This shirt works when it’s 90° outside or in the winter layered under sweaters and chore coats. They are unisex, so size down. I am typically a Small (or medium if I prefer a loose fit) and the XSmall is roomy for me.

BUY HERE / $118

8. Bully Poly Scoop

Of all the tools I wish I’d discovered ten years ago, this is it. This is superior for moving compost, soil, pea gravel, sand, mulch, and whatever else. Also will likely work for snow. It grabs 2-3x more material than a shovel and has such good weight distribution that it’s easy to use. Will never dull, rust, dent your truck, or scratch your driveway.

BUY HERE / $46

9. Barebones Beacon Lantern

These handy little lights get grabbed for night gardening, firepits, evening walks, camping, and so many other times I need a temporary hands-free light. They clip to a belt loop with their own mini carabiner. They are rechargeable, have a little disappearing USB cable, and have lasted me for many years. You also can spin the dimmer top to use it as a soft warm low light or a much brighter light!

BUY HERE / $50-65

10. Agriframes

If you are ready to graduate from functional garden elements to timeless elements, Agriframes is one of my favorite secrets. As we have moved into more formal gardens this year, finding wrought iron pieces that stand on their own architecturally — rather than plastic or coated steel pieces — has been a challenge. In particular, I love their 12” tall and 39” tall elegance plant supports, fluted peony supports, and gothic gazebo. I typically buy supports in rust and not the green powder coated, but choose whatever fits your style!

HOW TO BUY / Okay, only their UK site offers gift cards so you’re gonna have to handmake one, give them cash, or get them a Visa giftcard!

If none of this strikes your fancy, I have created Amazon lists to track my recommended tools and books too! You could also pick up many of the smaller things on the lists and assemble a little gift collection of your own.

PS. I just realized that any of my garden planning & educational resources would make a good gift as well. You can find them here, and the bundle deal is the best! It can be gifted to anyone.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and above all, may we have Peace on Earth.

Lauren