By Jennifer E. Beaver
Columnist
Got a gardener on your gift list? Lucky you! Shopping is a cinch. Following are some of my suggestions for gardener-friendly presents at pocket-friendly prices:
Stocking stuffers abound. Your gardening friend can have a delightful time with a simple packet of wildflower seeds. For best results, look for one mixed specifically for California. You’ll find them at OSH, Home Depot, Lowe’s and on the Web. I threw some wildflower seeds on the edge of my vegetable garden last year. Great pollinators, they also make wonderful cut flowers.
No gardener can have too many hand tools. I paid a buck apiece for several dark-green trowels at OSH and use them constantly to pop the weeds out of the front garden.
Gardeners Supply (gardeners.com) is offering nitrile gloves for $6.95 (two or more, $6). Nitrile is “an extremely tough yet thin and flexible material that can withstand punctures or even small thorns.” I’ve never used them, but I like the bright colors (violet, teal, pink, and more).
Since I’m always sticking and nicking my hands (perhaps I should be wearing nitrile gloves), I swear by tea tree oil to prevent infection. You’ll find it at Vitamin City on Spring and Palos Verde and also on the Web. Keep it away from your cats— it doesn’t agree with them.
When I’m not gardening, I like to read about it. Perhaps the gardener in your life feels the same. This year, having spent so much time out front pulling up grass and installing unthirsty plants, I’ve developed a slight obsession about what others are doing with that space. Author Rosalind Creasy gardens in northern California and pioneered the modern version of interplanting edibles with ornamentals. Just out, her new book is called, appropriately, Edible Landscaping. It features drool-worthy pictures of her frontyard garden, full of technicolor vegetables and flowers that have never seen a bug or pesticide. Sigh. I so want my plantings to look like hers, but I’m under no illusions. Of course, Ros Creasy has staff to manicure, hover, move, plant and replant, and I have Snap and Crackle, the wonder cats. But I still want the book.
Other ideas: Membership in a local gardening club delivers year-long enjoyment for a paltry $20 or so. And Sloggers waterproof rain boots in garden prints ($35; sloggers.com) will cheer your gardening pal even if the beets don’t sprout and slugs have had their way with the strawberries.
Jennifer E. Beaver, a Wrigley resident, is a master gardener and author of Container Gardening for California.
