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Samantha Schoech is a writer focusing on gifts. She spends her time finding things that combine quality, beauty, usefulness, and delight. High Precision Plate Stamping Mold
We’ve updated our gardening gift guide and added a lovely classic harvest basket, rubber clogs from Italy, and a place to keep track of seeds.
All avid gardeners have their preferred tools of the trade. So getting your favorite gardener a gift that relates to their area of expertise could leave you feeling trapped between the technical (what is the best hose, anyway?) and the utterly useless (gazing globe, garden gnomes). The picks on this list are a combination of tried-and-true yet not strictly necessary (aka not something they already have).
Highlights include a push-pull wonder that makes short work of weeding, our staff’s favorite trowel, and excellent, unexpected garden shoes. Each item is a joy to have on hand, especially if your giftee’s hands are happiest in the dirt.
Looking for more gardening info? Check out our guides to shovels, pruners, and even fire pits.
This lidded, galvanized box comes with envelopes and dividers for organizing and storing seeds.
If your green-thumbed giftee saves seeds from annual harvests, or even if they just collect commercial seed packets, the Gardener’s Supply Galvanized Seed Saver Kit is a great way for them to keep everything cataloged. The 24 paper envelopes and six dividers help avid planters organize seeds by type, planting season, color, location, and other specifications in what is essentially a mini filing cabinet. It also has a little extra space for pens, plant labels, or twine. Envelope and divider refills are available for about $15, so the organized gardener can keep seeds fresh and rotated.
Harvest, wash, and store garden bounty in this classic French trug that comes in three sizes. It’s made from double-layered galvanized-steel wire and has a comfy beechwood handle.
True, gardeners can collect their bounty in an old paper sack if necessary, but the classic Garrett Wade Galvanized Harvest Basket, made by a third-generation French family, is so much more elegant and French. Aside from being pretty, the galvanized-steel wire vessel is sturdy and rust-proof, and it allows harvesters to rinse produce right in the basket. Available in three sizes that nest together, it’s delicate enough for collecting eggs and strong enough for toting firewood. During the off-season, the basket would look lovely on the counter holding produce (or even mail) in plain sight.
Nutscene has been making biodegradable 100% jute twine on the same machines in Scotland since 1922. This tin canister is the perfect solution for the problem of tangled twine. And you can refill it indefinitely.
Real gardeners know: Twine is as necessary as sunshine, water, and a good pair of clippers. But the chances of a hopeless tangle are 100%—unless your gardener has the Scotland-born Nutscene Tin o’ Twine, a satisfyingly simple answer to a frustratingly ubiquitous problem. It’s a small metal canister with a hole in the lid that comes filled with 400 feet of biodegradable jute twine in one of 14 available colors. It’s the exact same stuff, made on the exact same textile-winding machines, that Nutscene has been making for nearly 100 years. This is a gift trifecta: useful, timeless, and good-looking. Need a refill? This box of 24 spools of colorful Nutscene jute twine should last a very, very long time. It also looks great in place of ribbon on gift wrapping.
Available in 13 bright colors, these Italian rubber clogs, which were originally made for medical workers, are favored by both surgeons and fashionistas for their comfort, durability, and style.
The original rubber Calzuro Classic Clogs from Italy were designed for surgeons, nurses, and doctors and have a bumpy footbed that enhances circulation and feels great on soles. They’re also ideal for gardeners for obvious reasons: They’re waterproof, they slip on and off, and they’re easily rinsed off with a hose. The rubber is firm enough to protect toes against dropped tools (but not truly heavy things like rocks or branches), and the treads provide excellent traction on slippery surfaces. While the slight heel might seem suspect to anyone prone to ankle rolling, the lift is actually meant to reduce fatigue. The clogs come in a rainbow of more than a dozen colors and a wide range of unisex sizes.
This waterproof carryall has a rubber bottom, suede-trimmed handles, and eight exterior pockets for organizing tools and other necessities.
The Gardener’s Puddle Proof Tote will render your favorite gardener prepared, whether they’re facing a patch of weeds, a tray of starts, or a vigorous vine. It has a large main pocket and six narrow side pouches, for clippers, gloves, or twine. There are two mesh cinch pockets (big enough to hold a water bottle) on either end, and the whole thing is sturdy and waterproof without being bulky or heavy. It comes in a bright blue or subtle khaki. Your gardening pal will never lose their towel in the flower bed again.
This heavy-duty, UV-resistant polycarbonate precipitation gauge meets National Weather Service standards. And it measures up to 11 inches of rain, sleet, or snow to the nearest 0.2 millimeters.
Serious gardeners keep careful track of water, and knowing how much precipitation they’re getting helps to determine whether further watering is needed. The Stratus Rain Gauge is not the most decorative item, but it is accurate and scientific and great for weekend meteorologists. It’s manufactured to National Weather Service specifications, with a wide top to funnel rainwater into a tube that measures to 1/100 of an inch. Any precipitation over an inch (and up to 11 inches) is measured in the spillover container. This is the official rain gauge for CoCoRaHS, a volunteer network of backyard weather observers who submit their daily readings to help accurately measure and map precipitation at a hyper-local level.
This durable watering can endure all kinds of weather. It’s comfortable to hold and carry through the garden, and it pours beautifully.
For some of us, watering by hand is one of the great pleasures in life. For balcony gardeners, it can be a necessity. The sturdy, plastic Dramm Premium High Grade Long Spout Watering Can holds a generous, totable 2 gallons, and it comes in six cheery colors. This is our pick for the best outdoor watering can because it can be left outside all year without harm, it’s comfortable to hold, and its pour quality is excellent.
The Hoselink hose pulls out easily and retracts on its own, making it a great choice for those who need the length but want minimal hassle.
Putting away the hose is one of least pleasant, least rewarding garden chores. Our best retractable hose pick makes all of the muddy, irritating mess disappear with a slight tug. The Hoselink Retractable Hose Reel comes in 50- or 82-foot versions. A guide roller at the reel guarantees that the hose spools evenly when it retracts, instead of in a big lump. Because you can mount this reel at any height, it also eliminates potential back strain from bending over. Our only reservation is that the hose is just ½ inch in diameter—the standard is ⅝ inch—so big watering jobs may take longer.
This 100% plant-based soap has ground apricot kernels and coffee for scrubbing the dirt away.
May be out of stock
This two-sided nail brush is made of boar bristles and olive wood, and it can get even the dirtiest nails squeaky clean.
A gardener’s hands will get dirty—very dirty. A good soap and a quality nail brush are must-haves for working the soil out of nail beds and fingerprints. Organic Gardener’s Soap smells like an herb garden, and it contains ground apricot kernels and coffee, for scrubbing particularly dirt-encrusted hands. If there’s anything left over, a lovely little nail brush can do the second shift. The polished olive-wood handle resists mold, and two sizes of stiff boar bristles—short for fingernails, long for fingertips and palms—leave hands soft and clean.
This sturdy, rust-resistant garden kneeler–bench combo is extra wide for stability and extra cushy for comfort.
Gardening is hard on the knees. Anyone who’s spent even an hour on bended knee will appreciate the comfort of this half bench, half patella-saving kneeler. Turn the Deep Seat Garden Kneeler bench side down, and you have a padded protector with handles for balance and hoisting. Flip it over, and it’s a comfy seat for yard-work respites. The powder-coated steel frame is rust-resistant, so your favorite gardener needn’t worry if it’s exposed to the morning dew or an unexpected rainfall.
A more sophisticated version of the comfortable classic Crocs, the Dylan has a solid toe box and a leather-like finish.
While Crocs Dylan Clogs aren’t specifically gardening shoes, we’ve had great success using them as such. Like all Crocs, they’re squishy and comfy, and you can spray them clean with a hose (heftier stains might require a little more effort). This close-toed version does a much better job of keeping water and dirt off of feet than their holier brethren, and the very small lip at the heel keeps them from slipping off. They’re not right for messy garden jobs (and they won’t protect toes against heavy objects), but for padding around with a hose and a pair of clippers, they’re perfect.
They’re sharp, durable, smooth, easy to repair, and easy to find—and they may be the last pruners your recipient ever needs.
Lopping, pruning, and deadheading are three of the great joys of gardening, and good pruners are essential to get the job done. The Felco 2 Classic Manual Hand Pruner is our pick for the best garden pruners. These pruners are sharp and smooth. And with a little TLC (don’t put them away wet and dirty), they might just last forever. If something does go awry, Felco offers a lifetime warranty and replacement parts.
This rectangle of rigid foam does one thing and does it well: It saves a kneeling gardener’s knees. It also lasts longer than thinner, less expensive versions we’ve tried.
A rigid rectangle of foam isn’t exactly sexy, but it will save your gardening pal’s knees while they’re weeding, mulching, trimming, composting, and all of the other low-to-the-ground tasks a garden demands. Made from 1.5 inches of springy foam, the Gorilla Grip Thick Foam Kneeling Pad is rugged enough to resist discoloration and tears, even if it does get dragged around in the dirt (as it should). About the size of a newspaper, this pad is not particularly big, so it’s great for maneuvering into small spots. The dozen available shades are cheery—but even more fun is the gift of non-achy knees.
This single-piece, stainless steel trowel slices through dirt like a soil knife, but it scoops a better-than-average amount of dirt.
This indestructible, razor-sharp trowel is a garden workhouse, ideal for planting, weeding, and breaking up soil. In truth it’s a multi-tool, working as a hand shovel when backfilling transplants, a blade when perforating a bag of soil or fertilizer, and an edger when tidying up rowdy borders. (Its versatility is also why it’s an indispensable addition to an urban gardening kit.) The trowel comes in a range of lengths. But we found the 14-inch version was long enough to make short work of substantial holes, without the need for a bigger, bulkier shovel. One staffer reported that, on a group planting day, a neighbor liked her trowel so much that she took it home—so do warn the recipient to keep tabs on their new score.
These worth-the-price goatskin gloves protect hands and wrists from briars and brambles. Although they will dirty with age, they don’t crack or tear.
These supple goatskin gloves count passionate garden enthusiasts among their many fans. They’re tough but not bulky (unlike many leather work gloves). The material will stretch and mold to one’s hands after a few afternoons of gardening, making them fit like, well, a glove. They arrive almost blindingly white, and even though a rinse in the hose will take off large debris, they do brown with age. If your favorite gardener is a more practical type, our guide to the best gardening gloves offers a handful of great options.
Made from wild savannah grass, this wide-brimmed hat offers generous shade and stays put, thanks to a secure leather chin strap.
Sure, a baseball hat will do. And so would a hiking hat. But a more-stylish choice is this wide-brimmed straw hat, handmade in the Bolgatanga region of northern Ghana. Because the brim is straight, it blocks the sun but not the sight line. And one needn’t worry about the hat flopping off, thanks to the comfy leather chin strap. Staff writer Samantha Schoech has worn hers while beaching, hiking, and gardening. She’s even dunked it in a river (for cooling and shaping purposes), and it still looks great.
The convex double-sided blade of this push-pull weeder loosens soil as it cuts weeds at the roots. You’ll have to buy the handle separately, though.
May be out of stock
This comfy, snap-on plastic handle fits a range of Wolf-Garten garden tools, including our favorite weeder.
Help the garden lover in your life get a grip on weeds. The double-sided blade on this weeder slides back and forth under the soil, nipping weeds at their roots and loosening packed dirt. It’s basically a more versatile version of Wirecutter’s favorite stirrup hoe. Handles are sold separately (currently for $12 to $50, depending on length), can be easily switched out with a click, and are compatible with all Interlocken hand tools. A short handle works best for more-precise work; a longer, back-saving handle is best for big areas. Samantha has used hers with the 7-inch short handle for at least five years to tackle thick spring weeds, and it remains her favorite tool in the shed.
This old-fashioned wooden contraption turns newspaper into seedling pots in about 15 seconds.
For gardeners who spend their late winters and springs germinating seeds for summer gardens, this simple, two-piece wooden pot press is the gift that keeps on giving. Whenever one is struck with the desire to plant something, they’ll just need a long strip of newspaper and about 15 seconds. By wrapping the wooden dowel in paper and then pressing it into the base, your favorite gardener can make a suitable, 1.75-inch seed vessel. Once the baby sprouts are ready to transplant, your pal can protect delicate root systems by sticking the entire pot in the ground, where it will eventually disintegrate.
These pretty, pest-proof reusable tins are stocked with 10 packets of organic seeds for themed gardens. And if they don’t flourish, the company will replace them.
Each of these reusable and pest-proof tins is stocked with 10 packets of organic seeds in a range of clever, useful themes, like herbal teas (lemon balm, licorice mint) and prepper survival (bush beans, sugar pumpkins). Peaceful Valley also has a super-knowledgeable staff ready to answer questions, and it has a library of how-to videos for all things garden-related. And if the seeds don’t germinate, the company will replace them.
These bright, tough tubs are the perfect garden catch-all, and the flexible plastic stands up to all sorts of lugging and tugging.
These cheery buckets are the way to go when it comes to toting pretty much anything in the garden, including—but not limited to—weeds, clippings, transplants, and compost. These buckets are made of a bendy rubberized plastic that doesn’t crack or fade, and their flexibility allows users to squeeze the handles together and carry them one-handed (provided they are not full of rocks). Samantha has them in three sizes, and she uses them regularly. And she doesn’t stress about needing to put them away after each use, since they also look great just sitting around. In the offseason, they happily pitch in as ice buckets, laundry baskets, and toy bins.
This rustproof brass watering wand fits standard 0.75-inch hoses. The smooth ball valve and finely perforated rose create a fine, adjustable soak.
We feel like a 19th-century gardener when tending to our plants with this handsome brass watering wand. And that’s worth every bit of the very steep price tag. Made in England of solid, rustproof brass, with a ball valve to control the water flow, the 24-inch shaft allows the waterer to reach faraway plants without blasting them with a high-pressure nozzle. Depending on the location of one’s spigot, this wand also eliminates the need for outdoor watering cans on patios or decks. The flow is rain-like, the brass is shiny, and—let’s face it—it looks pretty good just lying around on the gravel.
This soothing skin-care treat is perfect for dry hands and post-gardening skin flare-ups.
Although gardeners love getting their hands in the dirt, they don’t necessarily want to look like they do. Enter a good, healing hand cream. Weleda Skin Food is a longtime Wirecutter favorite for very good reason. It soothes dry, chapped skin with a thick mixture of calendula and chamomile in a base of oils and beeswax. And it contains no parabens or other questionable chemical nasties. This cream also has a nice, subtle scent—yet no synthetic fragrance—that works even for the scent-averse.
We love finding gifts that are unusual, thoughtful, and well vetted. See even more gift ideas we recommend.
This article was edited by Hannah Morrill and Jennifer Hunter.
Except for the time she gave a boyfriend her mother’s old toaster for Christmas, staff writer Samantha Schoech has a reputation as an excellent gift giver. She lives in San Francisco with two teens, two cats, a geriatric betta fish, and a bookseller husband. Her first book of short stories, My Mother’s Boyfriends, is coming out in 2024.
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Functional Plastic Chair Plastic Molds Wirecutter is the product recommendation service from The New York Times. Our journalists combine independent research with (occasionally) over-the-top testing so you can make quick and confident buying decisions. Whether it’s finding great products or discovering helpful advice, we’ll help you get it right (the first time).