By Mike Donahue

Moapa Valley Progress

Perfect Gifts For The Gardener

If you’re still looking for just the right Christmas gift for that special someone in your life, shame on you for waiting until the last minute. If that special person is a gardener, here are some gift ideas you can even pick up locally.

Every gardener uses tools and a new one under the tree is often the sort of gift that keeps on giving, not just for one gardening season or even throughout the year, but often for years on end. For that reason it’s always a good idea to purchase the best quality tool you can afford.

The right tool can save hours of hard work and well-made products will generally out-last cheaper ones and help make gardening an enjoyable pastime.

Spades generally have a square nose, a shorter handle than the traditional shovel and a D-grip, which allows the digger to put their weight behind the blade. They can be used for numerous garden tasks including edging and dividing root balls.

Shovels have a more rounded and pointed end for scooping, lifting and digging. Most American gardeners prefer shovels for all digging jobs. Many find the longer handle on a shovel easier on their backs than a spade.

There are all kinds of rakes available but for most gardeners a bow rake or level-headed rake to level soil, rake debris, and rocks from the garden, and a lawn or leaf rake to sweep up grass clippings or leaves are almost a must.

Hoes come in hundreds of variations and have hundreds of uses in the garden including weeding, loosening soil and thinning garden plants.

There are several types of forks that are useful in the garden including an English garden fork, a spading fork, a compost fork and a pitchfork. The garden and spading forks are similar enough so most gardeners can make do with either. Both are short-handled with D-grips and are used to break up and turn hard, stubborn soils, aerate garden beds, and divide perennials among other tasks. The tines are generally flat, thick and are much easier to dig with in clay soils than a shovel or spade. Pitchforks and compost forks have longer, curved tines and longer handles to provide leverage. They are used to turn or load compost, grass or hay.

If the gardener in your life is responsible for shrubs, trees, roses or any other plant that requires regular pruning, consider a specialized pruning tool.

Handheld pruning shears are a must for almost every variety of gardener. They’re used for stems up to ½ inch. There are scissor and anvil types.

The long handles of lopping shears provide extra leverage helping gardeners cut stems and branches up to 1 ½ inch in diameter. Blades can be anvil or scissor.

Hedge shears are used to formally trim hedges. Electric hedge shears make trimming jobs easier and faster than manual shears.

Saws are a must for the gardener and while any saw can almost be used for any job, specialty saws include narrow curved pruning saws, extension-pole saws, bow saws and even gas- or electric-powered chain saws.

If the gardener in your life prefers indoor plants, consider some new pots, a specialty plant or some smaller tools made especially for the inside garden.

And if you just don’t know what your gardener needs, you can always purchase a gift certificate from the local nursery or hardware store and let them choose the exact tool or item they want to work in their garden.