Garden Gifts – The Garden Lady

Lou Manfredini is Ace Hardwareâ€™s Home Expert. He is a nationally recognized DIY expert, hosting his own home improvement call-in radio show on WGN Radio in Chicago and a nationally syndicated home show, HouseSmarts. Lou is also the official home improvement expert for NBCâ€™s TODAY Show. To learn about more tips and projects from Lou visit here:

Lou has written the following post in which he recommends four gifts for the garden lover.

While itâ€™s still cold outside, itâ€™s never too early to start thinking about gifts for the garden enthusiasts in your life. Even though they may have to wait for warmer weather, itâ€™s the thought that counts, and here are some great ideas for your green-thumbed friends and family (check your local Ace Hardware store for availability):

FiskarsÂ® 18in Momentum Reel Mower

Not much has changed in the mower arena until now. This push, people-powered mower has a new design, an easier height adjustment and a self-sharpening blade. It also contains an inertia drive system that actually helps the unit propel with the help of your arms and legs. It retails for about $230.00, so this one should be for a really special person.

Garden Weasel Garden Cultivator

This is truly one of the most useful tools for the garden. Itâ€™s lightweight and can accomplish a variety of tasks. The rotary action will turn and aerate the soil and help to control weeds. It retails for around $30.99.

Continue reading “Gift Ideas for the Garden Lover”

December is the holiday month with Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanza and numerous other festive gift giving days. In my family, December is also the birthday month for four members. In these hard economic times, TheGardenLady likes to come up with creative but inexpensive gift ideas so as not to break the bank.

You can give IOUs to friends. Make or buy a pretty card- preferably with a flower on it – and offer your friend your services in the friend’s garden. For example, write on the card that you owe your friend one day of weeding time or if your friend is going somewhere, offer to water the flowers – indoors and/or outdoors when your friend is away. Or if your friend is away from the college campus while you will be around, offer to care for any plants.

Or one can propagate plants from your own plants. This is a little late in the year to get started for the plant to really be showy in time for Christmas and is really not the time to propagate outdoor plants; but one can attempt to propagate some simple indoor plants even at this late time of the year. The easiest way of propagating indoor plants is by taking leaf cuttings. Not all plants will propagate by leaf cuttings. Some simple, pretty plants amenable to this type of propagation are coleus, begonias and African violets. Sometimes all that is needed to get a root to form is to just put a stem with leaf cutting in water.

Continue reading “Creative and Inexpensive Garden Gifts for Hannukah, Christmas, and Kwanza”