AS THE TURKEY leftovers are finished, let’s turn our attention to gift-giving and your favorite gardening friends.
Here’s a list of perfect horticultural presents.
1. Live Christmas tree.
Why not go to your favorite nursery and pick out some superb specimens known for growth characteristics or color? These trees can be expensive, so wrap it as a gift card and have it outdoors ready to plant. The Christmas tree will become the best plant in your yard for years to come. Excellent varieties would be evergreen such as Cryptomeria japonica “Elegans” (beautiful red with leathery foliage), Chmamacecyparic “Thai temple” (outstanding pendulous yellow), Pinas strobus glauca pendula (weeping white pine), or some other favorite such as the gorgeous blue Cedrus blue Atlantica glauca pendula.
2. Orchard ladder.
Now here is a real treat for the would-be pruner. What good is that nice new Felco pruner and orchard saw when all you have to stand on is a 5-gallon bucket?
Orchard ladders are very strong, three-legged and designed for uneven ground, and it uses a third leg for closeness into tree limbs.
3. A dump truck load.
Every gardener would revere a gift as useful as a dump truck full of “whatever”. It is your chance to match product with recipient.
Maybe it’s a 10-yard load of rock for the long desired rock garden. Or decorative gravel for a pathway. Or decorative bark and decomposed mulch. Who among us wouldn’t relish a 10-yard load of premium topsoil or compost/manure?
4. Heavy duty cultivator (spreading fork).
Get a professional steel or alloy-tined model. They tend to be a very useful tool for your garden.
5. Double-wheeled wheelbarrow.
Two wheels give stability, increasing weight loading capacity. It’s another perfect gift for the elderly or disabled. They make moving product around your garden so much easier.
6. The Mantis (or something similar).
This is the greatest little cultivator ever made, eager and able to fully cultivate and mix the best flower and garden beds. They are small, lightweight, easy to carry around with four tines, each designed to mix the soil and additives most efficiently. They do this to a depth of 6 to 8 inches — perfect.
7. Hanging baskets or window boxes.
You can also buy a gift certificate for some neat container planting to go into the basket or window box.
8. Mattocks. The vast majority of people on the Peninsula garden on top of some sort of hard dirt or gravel pile and could use some digging help.
Mattocks are pickaxes on steroids. A blade at one tip and a root cutting, ground slicing on the opposite end make this tool the “Terminator” of the yard.
9. Load of rocks.
Rocks are great! They don’t die, get sick, need to be watered, pruned or sprayed, never rot away. Rocks and real value to the home and are most aesthetically pleasing.
10. Tarps.
Yes, that’s right, tarps. I just adore tarps because they transport leaves, cover the wood pile, as well as wrap up the mess, and cover the driveway and sidewalk, weed and soil messes.
They also work well in the shop floor as I oil my tools. Get several sizes from small to large, and don’t forget the green- or brown-colored ones.
So again, here we have it, 10 more essential ideas for you to purchase to make life easier around your yard and garden. (and don’t forget about Felco pruners or amarylils bulbs)
And please remember … stay well all!
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Andrew May is a freelance writer and ornamental horticulturist who dreams of having Clallam and Jefferson counties nationally recognized as “Flower Peninsula USA.” Send him questions c/o Peninsula Daily News, P.O. Box 1330, Port Angeles, WA 98362, or email news@peninsuladailynews.com (subject line: Andrew May).
