With the holidays here, everyone wants to find the perfect gift. A thoughtful gift that resonates with the recipient is a wonderful way to show that you care. But what do you about those friends and family members whose interests you don’t understand? Maybe you have a loved one who enjoys gardening, but have no idea what they would want. We have asked nurseries across the area what they would recommend for your gardening friend.
The Bremerton City Nursery offers some gift ideas. Justin Dreaney of the Dreaney family, who owns the nursery, shares that sun hats, mud rugs, kneeling pads and tools are great gifts for gardeners. Sun hats protect the face, neck and eyes from sunlight and heat. Kneeling pads are another wonderful gift, especially the Bosneeleze kneelers, which are specially padded and extra thick, providing added comfort and support to the user.
The Bremerton City Nursery also offers Jellybean machine-washable accent rugs in a variety of patterns. The best part of these rugs is their easy-cleaning method. Unlike other mud mats that can’t really be washed, the Jellybean rugs can simply be thrown into the washer.
A universal recommendation from all nurseries is to gift tools. “Tools are always the best,” says Els Heyne, the owner of Bay Hay & Feed.
Regular tools are great, but Japanese tools are recommended by Dreaney and Maria Taylor, who is a container designer and special events coordinator at Valley Nursery. “We carry a wide variety of Japanese tools that are really beautiful,” Taylor says. One of them is called the EZ-Digger, which Dreaney also recommends as a versatile tool that you can use to “scoop around” and weed.
Another tool Dreaney recommends is Grampa’s Weeder, perfect for older gardeners. The weeder is attached to a long stick, with a lever at the bottom to grip the weeds. This removes the need to bend down, as all the weeding can be done standing up.
Besides tools, Heyne and Taylor recommend plants. Taylor suggests aloe, zygocactus, poinsettia, helleborus and various houseplants for the holiday season. “Most gardeners love houseplants,” Heyne says.
These plants can be placed inside the beautiful pots that Bay Hay & Feed sells, and each pot can be chosen to suit the recipient’s personal style and preferences. Heyne also adds that “you can never, ever go wrong with giving gloves.”
No matter what you decide — whether it be a garden hat, mud mat, kneeling pad, tool, plant, pot or gloves, any of these options should make your dearly loved gardener happy. And, if none of these ideas resonate with you, don’t worry. “You could give anything, really,” Taylor says. Just go with what you think they would enjoy and appreciate.
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