Are you hunting for the perfect gift for the gardener in your life?

You're in the right spot!

🤚Before we dive in, I want to give you a FREE guide that will help you grow your best garden yet! Grab your free copy of the From Seed to Supper guide here and grow a bountiful garden this year!

If you're not a gardener, then it can be hard to find something that your gardening friend would actually like. I mean, no one wants to buy a gift for someone thinking they've picked out an awesome gift, only for their friend to end up tossing it out or regifting it to someone else.

​And, if you're looking for looking for items to put on your own Christmas or birthday gift list, then I'm sure you'll find some pretty awesome gardening gear that you'll enjoy.

I've been gardening for over 20 years. I've bought a ton of things to help make gardening easier on myself. And honestly, I'll be the first to tell you that there are some things that are plain junk. Some things that are meant to make your life easier actually make you a worse gardener.

But don't worry my friend. I'm going to let you know what things you want to buy and which ones you don't want to waste your money on. I think I've wasted enough money on crappy garden tools for the both of us, so learn from my mistakes!

​Alright, let's talk about what gardening things you do want.

This should be a no-brainer. There's only so much gardening that you can do without tools, so garden tools are a must have.

​Of course, you want the right garden tools. You want the best garden tools. The ones that are going to last a long time and actually make your gardening tasks easier.

The best gardening tools are the ones that will get used frequently, make gardening easier and will last a long time. Some gardening tools are cheap, while others are expensive. But, keep in mind that the ones that are expensive are usually the ones that make the biggest impact on how much physical labor you actually have to do while gardening.

​And, this isn't always true, but, when it comes to gardening tools, you tend to get what you pay for. I'm not saying that you won't be able to find good deals on gardening tools, but generally speaking, the pricey tools tend to last and hold up longer than the cheap tools.

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There's nothing better than a perfectly manicured flower bed or vegetable garden. Clean, weed-free rows full of healthy plants are every gardener's dream.

Every gardener's nightmare? Flowerbeds full of leaves, mulch that has washed out of the flowerbed, and weed-filled clods of dirt in the garden. The best way to tame a flower bed or garden up? A metal leaf rake.

A good metal leaf rake will run you anywhere from $25-45.

Before you read any further, let me warn you: Don't buy a plastic leaf rake. Ever. For no reason. It's a waste of money.

A plastic leaf rake is best used for pretending like you're raking leaves. A plastic leaf rake is weak. It will rake up most of the leaves, but the tines aren't strong enough to grab and hold onto all of the leaves like a metal leaf rake.

And if it won't move leaves, it for sure won't move mulch or dirt clods. Trust me, you'll just get mad at a plastic leaf rake.

A good metal leaf rake can be used to spread mulch, smooth garden beds, level dirt and keep leaves out of the garden.

​PRO TIP: When you're looking at metal leaf rakes, avoid ones with fiberglass handles. Fiberglass handles are prone to splitting and cracking when you put pressure on them. Wooden handles that are well-cared for will outlast fiberglass handles.

A rear-tine tiller will change your gardening life. I'm not kidding.

I've used a few regular tillers in my life. All in all, I've probably used five different ones, for a total of maybe 15 minutes. I've spent hours using a rear-tine tiller.

Want to know the difference? With a normal tiller (you know the small ones that only cost about $150?)... You'll literally rattle your skeleton clean out of your skin. And you still may not even get your garden tilled.

I tried to use a small tiller to break up an area that I wanted to put a flowerbed into. Worst. Idea. Ever. I cranked it up and set it in the flowerbed. It shook so hard that I had to physically hold it and press it in place to bust up the ground. After a few minutes of my teeth trying to rattle out of my head, I turned it off.

And do you know what the ground looked like? Like I had scraped it with a toothbrush.

A rear-tined tiller is like the Cadillac of tillers. They're almost all self-propelled, meaning you just walk behind it and it pulls itself.

The tines of a rear-tine tiller are also much larger so you're actually tilling the soil instead of just brushing the dust off of it. It's the perfect way to create new garden and flower beds. They're so strong that you can even bust through thick sections of weeds or grass. Simply till through it twice and then go back with a leaf rake and rake up the clods with weeds in them.

​Oh, and as long as you take good care of it, your rear-tine tiller will last. I think my mom's rear tine tiller is about 15 years old. So when you think about the cost of the tiller each year, it doesn't seem so scary.

For a long time, I didn't have a seeder. Gardening should save me money, so I'm always leery of spending a ton of money on gardening tools. If I can manage decently without it, I'm not going to spend money on it.

It wasn't until I started gardening during my third pregnancy that I got a seeder. I'll never plant another vegetable garden from seed again without it.

I don't know how many years I planted a garden and spent days putting seeds out. All of the stooping, bending and squatting is hard on your knees, ankles and back. I was able to plant so much more seed in about 30 minutes than I'd ever planted in multiple days.

The seeder has a hole on the side or bottom where seeds can be picked up out of a hopper and dropped into the soil. You have interchangeable plates that make sure only one seed is dropped onto the soil and it is evenly spaced.

​An EZ seeder will make it so much easier to plant a garden out. It's best used for vegetable gardens since it's not the best way to plant tiny seeds like many flowers have. If you are looking for a gift that a vegetable gardener will love and enjoy year after year, then get them an EZ Seeder.

Does your gardener wish that they could garden all year long? (Most gardeners do)

A mini greenhouse is the perfect gift so that they can turn their summer hobby into a year-round hobby. Those gorgeous ferns that hang from their porch all summer can sleep through the winter in their mini greenhouse.

If your gardener is more of a vegetable or herb gardener, then they may be interested in growing a few vegetable or herb plants in their greenhouse.

​And who knows, they may even enjoy it so much that they decide they want to get a big greenhouse. Spoiler alert: greenhouses are a booming business!

This may sound silly, but an organized seed system is a wonderful and thoughtful gift for gardeners.

It doesn't matter if your gardener is into vegetables, herbs or flowers. Odds are they have a drawer that is full of ripped open and taped up seed packets. There may be a few sharpie-labeled ziploc bags of seeds in there. We'll just act like there aren't a million tiny seeds floating around in the bottom of the drawer that escaped that worn-out packet of forget-me-nots.

Seed packets come with way too many seeds, which is a good thing if you can organize them. That's part of why gardeners will buy seed packets instead of started plants. You get way more bang for your buck with seed packets.

Well, as long as you can identify them anyways.

Once your seeds start to get mixed up, it's over with. (Coming from a person that thought they were planting flowers in the flowerbed one year and got carrots instead because of some loose random seeds)

​Just get the seed organizer and trust me on this one. Your gardener friend will thank you.

Heirloom seeds are seeds from plants that are old varieties, hardy and productive. They're the same plants that our grandparents and their grandparents grew. These trusted varieties of plants will produce and will also develop seeds that you can save and plant the following year.

Many conventional seeds that you find today don't breed true. So you may plant a certain type of tomato, keep the seeds and then the following year, end up with a totally different type of tomato. Heirloom varieties breed true so you'll get the same type of plant year after year.

​In a seed vault, you'll get hundreds of varieties of plants that you can plant and use to grow your own food year after year. One vault of seeds contains thousands of seeds, which is more than enough to get your gardener on the right track to growing their own food each year.

Every gardener needs a good set of small hand tools. You may find yourself digging up weeds right next to your favorite squash plant and need small tools. Or, that flowerpot full of breath-taking dahlias may need some work.

Either way, garden tools are the way to tackle small problems or little workspaces.

Look for steel garden tools that won't bend and again, stick to wooden handles.

​A carrying tote is also helpful. Your gardener can fill the tote up with tools, seeds, bulbs or anything else they need (like their phone with a mini speaker for music) and carry it right where they are.

A stackable planter is the best way to make the most out of limited space. These planting pots stack onto one another and have notches in the sides that stick out, allowing for plenty of growing room for each plant.

You can use these stackable planters to turn a small corner of a porch or patio into a salad garden, herb garden or a tower of strawberries. It's even attractive when filled with flowering annuals or succulents.

​Gardeners can never have too many planters, and this one is a planter that they may not already have. It's an inexpensive gift that they're going to love.

Did you know that a bunch of vegetable plants and flowering plants don't like to be watered with a regular spray nozzle? Sounds, crazy, but it's true!

In fact, some of the most popular vegetable plants and flowering plants don't like to be watered from above. I know you're thinking 'but... doesn't rain fall from above onto them...?"

Technically yes, and too much rain will have the same effect but generally, rain doesn't affect them the same way. Tomato plants are notorious for being picky about how they are watered. In fact, watering them from above can cause them to develop a disease called blight.

Blight's not curable, will spread to other plants and will kill your tomato plants quickly. So, it's best to avoid it and keep it away at all costs. One of the easiest ways to prevent blight? Keep your tomato's foliage dry and just water the plant at the ground.

Another plant that doesn't like its leaves to get wet is the rose bush. Roses will get a fungal infection called powdery mildew if the leaves get too wet. Roses with powdery mildew will drop blooms and even leaves, leaving behind a ball of scraggly thorns (not cute).

Do you need help figuring out what's going on with your plant? Check out this article about common plant health issues and how to prevent them.

Enter the soaker hose.

These hoses are designed to allow water to slowly leach out through the hose. You simply lay the hose around the plant on the ground and turn it on. It moistens the soil without you holding a spray nozzle over the plant, trying to avoid water from splashing up onto the leaves.

​These hoses are so handy. You can lay them out in your garden or flowerbed and just turn them on to water all of your plants.

I know you think gardening and then you think outside but I promise you there's not a gardener that doesn't have or want plants inside also. Not only are indoor plants an easy way to liven and brighten up a space, but they work wonders for the air quality in your home.

There has never been a wider selection of plants to go inside your house either. From traditional potted plants, herbs to colorful succulents, cacti and flowers, your gardener will surely find a plant that is easy to care for and matches their home décor tastes.

​Make indoor plants even more interesting by putting them on the wall. We've all seen the typical palm trees in large pots taking up unused real estate on the floor but those bare patches of wall space? They're the perfect place for a few spider plants, African violets, orchids or even some hanging succulents.

This is a gift that even the most experienced vegetable gardener doesn't have. Hydroponics is a method of gardening where you grow plants in water, with no soil. It's a clean and efficient method of growing vegetables and herbs.

There's no soil to get your plants dirty or to absorb nutrients, withholding them from the plants. Instead, the plant grows in clean, nutrient-filled water.

​Hydroponics is the perfect method to grow lettuce, leafy greens and herbs. The best part about these small hydroponics kits is that they sit right on the kitchen counter. They're right there in reach when you need to grab a handful of basil for your favorite pesto or you want to toss up a quick salad with some fresh lettuce.

A yard cart is a perfect gift for both vegetable gardeners and flower gardeners alike. I use mine like it's my own personal pack animal. I use it to tote around mulch, flower pots, tomato cages, buckets, water hoses, seed packets, shovels, and the whole nine yards.

I've even laid an empty mulch bag in the bottom of it and used it to move dirt around in my garden.

It's one of the most handy gifts you could give a gardener, especially if they have a spread out yard and garden.

​Many of them have sides that detach so that you can lay several flat bags of mulch or soil on them and move them around easier. I've found that I didn't use that as much as I thought I would, so you don't have to get sides that come off if you don't want to.

Herbs are really easy to grow. You can grow them indoors, in a vegetable garden, a small flowerbed or even in little pots outside. Nothing adds flavor to your dishes better than fresh herbs.

A herb drying rack is the ideal way to preserve herbs and continue getting the flavors of fresh, home-grown herbs.

Simply hang the drying rack and lay cut herbs on the shelves to dry. Once they are dried, they can be chopped up and put into small containers. There's a big difference in the parsley, oregano, basil and chives that you'll put up yourself and the ones that you'll buy in the store.

Herbs that you put up yourself are more deeply colored, fragrant and tasteful.

​Some drying racks come with bonuses like gardening gloves and shears, so keep that in mind when you're looking at drying racks. Bonuses are always nice!

The best gardening gifts are the ones that will get a ton of use, year after year.

​Look for high quality when you're choosing the perfect gardening gift. And remember that while some of these items are a bit on the pricey side, they'll last for years to come.
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​If you haven't yet, grab your FREE copy of the From Seed to Supper guide and learn how to start growing delicious, fresh vegetables and herbs!

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