With Christmas just around the corner, some folks have already begun shopping for the perfect gifts. Tim Holcomb, owner of Holcomb Garden Center, offered suggestions for people who garden and those who don't.
"Picking a gift for a gardener is not hard because there are many choices and gardeners are so easy to please," Holcomb said, noting that gardeners get excited about things like a green tomato turning red.
Even nongardeners will appreciate garden gifts, he said. "Give a gardening gift to someone who might have never thought about planting a tree or feeding a bird. Give a child a gardening gift to encourage the wonderful life lessons that gardening has to offer. Let them see a seed sprout, let them watch a tree grow, and let them share some vegetables that they grew all by themselves."
Holcomb offered the following gift ideas and said there are more at the business' website, www.holcombgc.com.
FIVE TIPS
1. A living plant. "As you go to Christmas parties this season, take the host or hostess a poinsettia, a Christmas cactus or an amaryllis bulb. Long after the party is over, the blooms will continue to bring a smile."
2. A tree. "The variety is not so important. You can choose from Japanese maples, native dogwoods, fruit trees or a red maple. Trees are wonderful gifts for a new homeowner or to plant in memory of someone or in honor of a new grandchild."
3. A gift of nature. "If your gardener is a birder, a bag of bird feed or an assortment of suet cakes will be a welcome gift. If your gardener is not currently enjoying birds, get them started. Choose a bird feeder, a bird house and/or a bird bath. For the advanced nature lover, choose a beehive and beekeeping equipment."
4. A rain gauge. "If your gardener is a weather watcher, get them an illuminated rain gauge. These easy-to-read gauges let you see how much rain you get in the day. Then at night you can point your remote control at the gauge, and it will light up to see how much rain that midnight storm just dropped."
5. Gardening tools. "Think about a pair of garden gloves, a pair of pruners, a bulb auger (to make planting bulbs and flowers an easy task), a sprayer or a fertilizer spreader, a garden statue or a lovely flower pot for the porch. Try one of the new Earth Boxes to grow a garden in a small space."
Feature writer Karen Nazor Hill covers fashion, design, home and gardening, pets, entertainment, human interest features and more. She also is an occasional news reporter and the Town Talk columnist. She previously worked for the Catholic newspaper Tennessee Register and was a reporter at the Chattanooga Free Press from 1985 to 1999, when the newspaper merged with the Chattanooga Times. She won a Society of Professional Journalists Golden Press third-place award in feature writing for ...
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