Unusual gifts for gardeners

What makes unusual gifts for gardeners worth buying

A garden gift is unusual when the gardener does not own one already and is still using it a year later. A watering can with a frog on it is odd. A rain gauge with a sowing diary is unusual. After a few seasons it starts telling them things about their own plot.

So start with one question. What did they grow this year, and what do they grumble about? Roses, tomatoes, slugs, the shady corner. The best gift answers that.

Gifts that go to work in the garden

• Heritage Seed Library membership. Garden Organic's Heritage Seed Library lets members grow varieties you cannot buy in the shops any more. It suits the person who has grown every usual vegetable already.
• A soil test kit. A cheap pH kit shows whether the soil is acid or chalky. That explains a lot about which plants sulk in a bed and which romp away.
• A rain gauge and a sowing diary. A rain gauge by the veg patch gives a number to put beside each sowing date. After a few years the notebook is hard to part with.
• Wool garden twine. The Woodland Trust's list of green gifts for gardeners includes twine spun from Dartmoor sheep wool, naturally coloured and biodegradable. It does the same job as string, and looks far nicer tying in a sweet pea.
• Wildflower seed balls. The same list has native wildflower seed balls, 20 to a pack, enough for about a square metre. Good for the gardener with a bare corner and no time.

Gifts for the gardener who has everything

Someone with every tool and a shed to keep them in is easiest to please with a gift that gets used up, or one that helps the plot, not the person.

• Autumn bulbs. A bag of tulips, narcissi or alliums goes in the ground in autumn. The RHS planting dates are in our tulip guide.
• Something for the birds. A feeder, a bird bath or a nest box. These give the gardener a reason to stand at the kitchen window. Our garden birds guide says who to expect.
• Their own garden, framed. The one gift on this page nobody else will think of. Print their own photo as it is, or turn it into art in a style like Garden colour or Soft watercolour. You get a free watermarked preview first. The art style redraws the photo, so hold it up against the original.

A print that fits what they grow

If you want a print from our range, pick by what they love most, not by what matches your sofa. The finder on this page does the choosing. Tell it what they grow and it shows the print, every size and the price, and you can add it to your basket without leaving the page.

Two prints to start with, for the two most common kinds of gardener.

If you know their birthday month, a birth flower print is a safer bet than guessing a favourite plant. For more, browse the flower prints, the bird prints or the greenhouse prints. Our sizes and framing guide helps with the wall.

What we would leave on the shelf

Steer clear of tools. A keen gardener has a favourite trowel and secateurs and will not swap them. Gift sets of cheap tools, anything that only says "garden" on the label, and plants you have not checked will suit their soil are the usual ways to a gift that goes in a drawer.