In the garden: Gift ideas for the gardener in your life

The freezing temperatures of last week have been replaced by rain, and plenty of it, but also milder temperatures.

The wet weather is not good news for working on any part of the soil, as compaction can result from too much traffic at this time of the year, which will create challenging growing conditions for plants and damage to the structure of the soil.

It’s best to stay off the soil during very wet spells and retreat indoors, planning for the festive season and the springtime!

As December has arrived, it is now officially time to think about presents for the gardener in your life.

Every year brings an array of new and interesting books to the garden world and this year The Farming For Nature Handbook is one that looks at the wider landscape and aims to help people to manage their land to increase wildlife and harness our natural processes.

The book is designed to encourage a more sustainable way of farming the land, using tried and tested techniques that have been written about by experienced farmers.

Information has been gathered from 50 farmers around the country, and provides valuable methodologies that work in practice to help us to help nature. It combines scientific research with local knowledge to adopt practices that work.

Farming For Nature is a non-profit project which was set up in 2018 to , encourage, and inspire farmers in adopting methods that and work with nature. They organise farm walks, seminars, online sessions, and mentoring, and have resources on composting, soil, and many gardening-related topics on their page - check out www.farmingfornature.ie for more details.

It may be on a larger scale to gardening in some cases, but many of the same principles apply, particularly for the soil, native planting and habitat creation.

The Open Gardens Of Ireland, by Shirley Lanigan, is a useful book documenting 427 gardens county by county across the 32 counties of Ireland which are open to the public at various times throughout the year.

It gives an honest and colourful of gardens and it is a great companion if you’re visiting different parts of the country throughout the year to check where can be visited.

It gives details also so that opening times can be checked and appointments made if necessary.

Essentially, it provides the eircodes for the gardens, which takes a lot of hard work out of navigating Irish roads.

This is an updated version of the 2017 edition and many new gardens have been added and some no longer opened to the public have been removed.

A must-have for the gardening enthusiast in your life who is partial to a busman’s holiday!

Hometree has some sustainable gifting options available on its website, from ‘Adopting an Acre of Wild Atlantic Rainforest’, to pledging native trees, subscribing to a monthly hip, making a donation, or purchasing gift items from their online shop. Check out www.hometree.ie/ for more green gifting ideas.

There are always new gardening tools coming on the market, many of them faddish and short-lived, but occasionally a gem of a tool appears that cannot be lived without once used. The hori hori knife may well be one of these gems.

It has grown in popularity recently, probably as it is one of the most useful tools a gardener could have on their person.

It is quite imposing, with a big blade, but it is invaluable for planting plugs, digging out perennial weeds like dandelions and dock roots, and hacking back briars if needed. It has all of the functionality of a trowel, fork and some of a spade and secateurs.

For one of the best selections of quality garden tools, Fruithill Farm, near Bantry, offers a great range of quality tools, seeds and all kinds of garden accessories which can be viewed and ordered online, check out www.fruithillfarm.com for more details.

A plant is always a great gift, perhaps an easy-to- care-for house plant like the spider plant or a nice fern. A pot of planted spring bulbs is a great option that the receiver will have to look forward to in spring.

A pot of planted herbs is also a good one, particularly with all of the cooking that will be done over the festive season.

If you know somebody has space, then a good small garden tree like cherry or amelanchier makes a great gift, or a nice oak tree if you know that there is room for it.

Future Forests in West Cork have a great range of plants for every situation and they offer a delivery service and vouchers also, check out www.futureforests.ie for more details of what they have on offer.

Seeds are a great gift and Special Plants Nursery, which are based near Bath in England, offer a range of unusual perennial, annuals, biennials, and many more. It is owned and operated by Derry Watkins, an avid plant hunter and knowledgeable plant person, having made several plant hunting trips to South Africa. Check out the mouth-watering seed catalogue on www.specailplants.net and perhaps gift yourself this Christmas also! When you click onto this seed catalogue, it is going to be hard not to!

Planning ahead for the spring, there are a number of dates for the diary already: the Snowdrop gala on January 25 is a great start to the gardening year, tickets are available at www.altamontplants.digitickets.co.uk/tickets.

The GLDA seminar on February 22 is always a day full of inspiration on a global scale, and this year the theme is ‘Resilient Gardens and Landscapes’. Tickets are available at www.glda.ie.

Happy Garden Gifting this Christmas.