My best gift was inexpensive but priceless! A Christmas morning with no rain and the time to be able to be in the garden and do a little clean up and pop some cutworms :-) !!!

I got my wife a little set of telescoping tools for the rock garden.

I got a book on rock gardening. I like rock gardening, because it's hard to kill rocks. I also got a cordless drill, which will come in handy the next time I attempt to build a greenhouse.

I got 15 yards of mulch and a japanese maple (orange dream).

Cordless drills may also be useful for collecting delinquent accounts.

Professional hand pruner with holder.

Maybe next year I'll get a jackhammer.

These are some nice gifts. It's funny how some of the things we gardners really enjoy/value others just don't think are good gifts. Keep the ideas coming!

Take care,
Grant

I bought one 'for the household' that I put in DH's stocking - Felco folding pruning saw for making cuts in tighter spaces than the foresters saw will allow. Given with the promise to supervise all pruning :)

Yesterday, I ordered a garden gift for myself, hope it isn't gimicky....Brother P-Touch GL100 garden labeler. Trying to solve the problem of fading seed pot labels for some of those long-to-germinate seeds that need the fluctuating temperatures of outdoors

Gift certificates to two nurseries. I guess they're catching on! I gave myself Felco hand pruners.

Maro

One thing to watch with hand pruners is that the hands are not pruned.

A jackhammer would be kinda hard to wave at somebody. You could threaten them with the noise, I suppose, until they paid your bill.

Not that I've had much trouble with deadbeats, myself. But I've known others who have, including one (a contractor) who was basically driven out of business for awhile by customers who didn't pay up.

You have to pin them to the ground first. OK, better quite that thread while I am ahead....

How do you gift wrap 15 yards of mulch? That must be a big stocking.

"Peel off china markers" available at art supply stores are great for writing on plant tags where other markers have a tendency to fade. A lot of people also use pencil but I prefer the china markers.

Ian, can you write with any detail with the china markers?
I've tried pencil, permanent (no they are not) sharpie, paint pens, and have some black plant tags that came with a stylus for scratching the identification and date onto the tag....these are kind of cool looking but it's hard to get all the information neatly scratched in, takes some pressure, worse, takes some time. I end up doing them in code that no one but me would understand if I want to pass the plant along to someone else.

Something like this?

Here is a link that might be useful: China marker

Yes, those are them. With my small handwriting so I have no problem fitting two lines of text on a standard plant tag. However, I have the habit of just putting the plant name with no further details. Of course one can also use both sides of the tag. I also had a Pentel fine tipped permanent marker once that was remarkably fade and weather resistant. It ran out of ink and I have never been able to find another one like it. Maybe it's time for another visit to Uwajimaya's, indisputably the best place to shop for pens....

Hort. supply houses have also carried the peeling pencils in the past.

The best gift I received was free! I finally found my way to somebody's list, and I got tons of catalogs: Territorial and Thompson and Morgan, of course, but also Raintree, Seeds of Change Certified Organic seeds, Growers Supply (greenhouses), Pinetree Garden Seeds (color photos of flowers and veg on the cover are arranged in the rainbow spectrum, pretty), Select Seeds heirloom treasures, Van Bourgondien. And more that I haven't gotten to yet.

Isn't January great? Keep them in the bathroom and learn all the botanical names!

You might want to look some of those up on the Garden Watchdog web pages.

One year I received a cordless chainsaw - yes! small, only a 12" blade, and it runs the battery down pretty quickly, but man do I love that thing! I don't remember where ex DH got it, Gempler's I think. Makes short work of larger pruning jobs! we had 5 acres of Scotch broom at the time and a LOT of it bit the dust real fast once I had that chainsaw.

My latest wireless weather station with all the bells and whistles. I feel gardening and keeping a close eye on the weather go hand in hand. Lowest temp. here so far was -5 C. (23 F.) this morning. We also have 6" inches of snow on the ground. Cheers, Banana Joe

From me to me ...

the English Garden by Ursula Buchan

SHADE planting solutions for shady gardens by Keith Wiley

From my sister, a beautiful copper birdbath. The exquisite handmade colored glass one died shardily as a result of a freak wind gust this past summer. (cleaning broken glass from a garden is fun)

... Don

The kind of garden gloves that I drool over but won't buy for myself and a neat smallish heart shaped copper birdbath that attaches to a post. My sister in law says she bought the birdbath for herself and when my brother saw it he thought she had gotten it for me...so of course she ahd to get a second one for herself. jwww

a gift certificate to shop at Seed Sprout, a nursery in FL that specializes in Brugmansias & tropicals.

a pair of Crocs...funny/ugly looking rubber clog-like shoes/sandals. I've seen a number of people wearing them - probably would never have bought them myself, but they're very comfortable & easily washable. maybe I'll call them my Ugly Betty shoes?!

daily visits from my Anna's hummingbirds.

Patrick

Here is a link that might be useful: Seed Sprout Nursery

DH bought me a greenhouse for my birthday!

Yes, it is only an el cheapo Harbor Freight but it is a greenhouse and my tropicals are alive and well and some are blooming.

Sounds like fun.

Two deep blue, 3 plant self-watering planters from Park Seed.