GARDENER GIFTS

Winter may not seem like the time to garden, but most of us would love a green-fingered Christmas

There’s only a week to go until the big day, so I guess I’d better make a start to the Christmas shopping... Only kidding! But despite my best intentions to get the gifts for the family bought in plenty of time, I’ve somehow still managed to leave it all until the last minute. So I cannot lie, I do still have a couple of gifts yet to buy.

If you’re in the same boat as me and needing some last-minute inspiration, have you ever considered a gardening gift for a friend or loved one?

A new tool, perhaps a book on growing veg, or how about a few of you chipping in together to a get a compost bin for the greenfingered member of the family?

It may feel like the wrong time of year to be buying such a gift but I can assure you it’ll go down a treat.

Now, before I go any further, I would like to make it clear to you and my editor that I’m not taking advantage of my position here to announce a wish list of mine. However…

What is it we say in Scotland? It’s not the fact we can’t go outside because it’s raining or it’s cold, it’s just that we don’t have the correct clothes on!

I’m looking outside the window at a cold, crisp morning with beautiful clear blue skies, just cracking for getting outside and cutting down a bit of herbaceous or turning the compost heap.

The chilly weather might be enough to put some folk off but at this time of year, we need to take advantage of these days to get jobs done. A nice warm hat and a thermal pair of gardening gloves is all we need to get started, with regular sips of tea from our insulated mugs to keep us going.

As far as I know, insulated biscuits have yet to be invented so maybe you could sweet-talk the indoor gardener to supply a wee bacon roll for your efforts, too?

There are lots of reasons why I’ve fallen in love with gardening but one in particular is that there’s usually more than the one way to reach the same goal.

And that’s why I enjoy talking to fellow gardeners so much — there’s always something new to learn from each other.

“Garden and let garden” is what I say but, if I can, I’ll urge you all to do so more sustainably next year.

A great source of useful knowledge on this subject, one I often refer to, is Plastic-Free Gardening by Fiona Thackeray.

She brilliantly covers many aspects of gardening, explaining what the problems are and then giving us simple, practical solutions to them.

I thoroughly recommend this book as a starting point as us gardeners lead the way in showing the world how we all must be caring for the planet better in the future.

Tools such as hoes, rakes, spades and forks can either make a nice wee gift individually or as part of a set for a new gardener.

You get some lovely looking ones as well as practical tools today.

I go for stainless steel options these days, finding them strong and reliable. Plus, for me gardening on clay soil, the mud doesn’t stick so much to them, making life a lot easier when on the job and cleaning them after.

I’d keep the receipt, though, as us gardeners can be a fussy lot!

To be fair, we do come in all shapes and sizes and, with the likes of a hoe, they are made with “one size fits all” in mind and therefore, sometimes, I find the angle of the head is just not quite right for my “Hen Broon” frame.

This is a key tool in the shed for me and needs to fit right.

You can whizz around the garden beds keeping the weeds at bay with a weekly light hoe of the soil but you’ll end up with a sair back if you don’t pick the right one.

Another essential hand tool I’d say is a good pair of secateurs, and you can get a nice lightweight holder for them, too, that clips on to your trousers.

No matter what I’m doing in the garden, I like to have my secateurs clipped on to me. The amount of times you walk past a job

needing done that gets forgotten — if you’ve got them with you, the job can get done instantly.

These, along with loppers and pruning saws, are all nice little gifts any gardener would love receiving.

Poinsettia is a plant that I think we all have in our homes at this time of year and has now become a festive favourite.

Grown for its Santa-suit coloured bracts — which also come in shades of pink and white — it will always have a special meaning to me.

My gran used to like getting one for her birthday, which was on Christmas Eve.

Right, I’m off to the garden centre to get my Christmas shopping done!

These days you can buy attractive tools, perfect for the festive gardener.

Traditional poinsettias are a lovely present to bring a little winter colour.

Your local garden centre will have a wealth of green-fingered gifts.