Gift Ideas for Every Type of Gardener

Finding meaningful and eco-friendly gifts for everyone on your list can be hard. Thankfully if there are a few gardeners on your 'nice list' you'll find there are lots of inexpensive, environmentally conscious and unique gifting options out there. We've put together a shopping gift guide to help you find the perfect little something for every type of gardener in your life.

• The Novice Gardener: have you heard of the "Covid Gardener" trend? In the last two years, there have been a record number of folks picking up spades for the first time and chances are you know one of these newbie gardeners. Our recommendation is to choose a collection of easy to grow seed varieties, pictured below is our Easy to Grow Wildflower Collection and our Seed Savers Exchange Easy to Grow Favorites Collection. Peas, beans, greens, radishes and beets are also great options for new gardeners.
  
  

• The Indoor Gardener: we all know someone who has a knack for creating an indoor jungle. Although it can be difficult and logistically a little tricky to get the perfect indoor plant for the house plant lover on your list, there are lots of other gifting options that are easier to come by and much simpler to ship. An indoor plant nutrient like worm compost is a totally unique idea and as a bonus it makes you seem super knowledgeable- we really like Jocelyn's Soil Booster. Herbs make great year-round indoor plants, we like this Seed Savers Exchange Organic Herb Collection. Also consider some 'new to them' pots- we always find the most beautiful indoor plant pots at our local thrift shop.
  
  

• The Chef + Gardener Combo: they grow it, they cook it, they probably also feed you- these people deserve some thoughtful gifts under the tree this year. To the seasoned chef (or home cook) the garden offers an endless opportunity for culinary exploration, so we recommend choosing gifts that allow them to test out some new flavours, aromas, colours and textures. Our Seed Savers Exchange Heirloom Tomato Collection and Culinary Wildflower Collection are great ideas, or how about a purple cauliflower, white beets, little baseball shaped carrots or a citrusy cucumber? A handmade garden or kitchen apron from a local maker also makes for a great gift idea.
  
  

• The Patio Gardener: beautiful wildflower and delicious vegetable gardens are for condo-dwellers too! For these gardeners you'll want to choose some compact, shallow-rooted varieties like the ones found in our Condo Wildflower Collection and Seed Savers Exchange Container and Small Space Collection. If you feel like getting creative, you can make some unique personalized garden stakes with compostable materials like popsicle sticks, or these DIY scrabble tile plant markers are a fun project too.
  
  

• The Hippy Gardener: if dinner table chat includes stories of permaculture, hugelkutur or ecological farming, you'll want to get this gardener items that help them to restore the soil and support a healthy ecosystem. We recommend our Soil Amendment and For the Bees Wildflower Collections. If you're looking garden tool suggestions, we really like the shuffle hoe and the U-Bar digger.

• The Gardener That Has it All: this is that one person that is at the garden store on opening weekend and has the seed catalogue release dates in their calendar. Don't despair, even the most well equipped gardener is happy to receive a Gift Certificate to their favorite online supplier or local garden center. You can also impress them by sourcing some hard to find items like these premium tulip bulbs (which you can also force grow indoors), or pre-order some rare dahlia tubers (we like the offerings at Roam Flora in Ottawa) or get them some newly developed, bred-in-Canada seed varieties, like these great tomatoes bred by Karen Olivier.

• The Seed Collector : this person may have their seed organized alphabetically (hey no shame there!) and just loves the rush of finding a cool rare variety. You want to gift this gardener with oddities- the more bizarre and obscure the better and heirlooms with a cool history are a bonus too! Some fun ideas are these Jelly Melon, Aurora Hot Peppers, Hillbilly Potato Leaf Tomatoes, Glass Gem Corn, Dotted Mint and Rattlesnake Master seed.
  
  

• The Young Gardener: kids love to garden, most of them just don't know it yet! Getting a child their own garden seed is such a treat, it gives them a chance to experiment with something that is totally theirs and hopefully gives them a greater appreciation for the superior flavour of fresh fruit and/or veggies. Kids love anything that they can pick themselves like sugar snap peas, berries, carrots, romaine and fast growing varieties like beets and turnips will be particularly popular.
  
  

• The Zen Gardener: this is the gardener that heads to the garden to recharge and enjoys watching the slow pace of life in the garden. Some recommendations are our Wild Tea and For the Hummingbirds Wildflower Collections. Garden journals are a great option too, this 10 year garden chronicle by Lee Valley Tools is the gold standard, but you can also find some lovely more affordable journals at your local used book store.
  
  

• The Eco-Warrior: looking to buy locally, support pollinators, avoid chemicals and just do good stuff is this gardener's motto. You'll want to make sure to source some GMO free, open pollinated, ecologically grown and locally sourced seed, like the vegetable seed collection we have from Three Forks Farm, or our For the Monarchs and For the Birds Wildflower Collections. Some light hearted farm-themed books might be fun options too, which you can likely find at your local used book store. We recommend Farm City by Novella Carpenter and The Quarter Acre Farm by Spring Warren.
  
  

Have any other gardener gift ideas you'd like to share? Tell us about them below.