In this season of gift giving, the garden can be both the recipient and provider of gifts.

Some of the best gifts are from your own garden. Pesto made from easily grown basil is always a hit even though it is the same gift year after year. Dried herbs are easy to put together and always appreciated for their flavor and freshness. Canned and preserved vegetables and fruits from a gardener’s own garden, are a treasure that anyone would love to receive.

From one gardener to another, plants and seeds from your own garden are special. Most plants need spring planting, give a gift certificate to your own garden for plants to be shared in warmer weather. You can even give a gift certificate of your time to help in another’s garden. For seeds choose flower or vegetable heirlooms or plants that will grow true to their parent plant. From my garden I share tall tobacco (nicotiana sylvestris), purple coneflower (echinacea purpurea), small black-eyed-susan (rudbeckia triloba), hyacinth bean (dolichos lablab), and angel’s trumpet (datura wrightii). The angel’s trumpet seeds are going to friends who took me up on an invitation to watch datura flowers open from closed bud to opened flower over the course of an hour at dusk. As we shared wine and food we watched in amazement as the intertwined edges of the bud popped open to reveal a trumpet shape that shouted out a glorious fragrance and beauty.

From-the-garden gifts can also be found locally at garden centers and farmer’s markets. The selections will be much more extensive, along with expert help in making choices. These are also the places where for-the-garden gifts are found. These can be plants, benches, ornaments, tools, bird feeders and other gifts.

For all gardeners there are never enough plants. There is always room for one, or maybe hundreds, more. Plant gifts can range from tiny seeds to large trees. The possibilities are endless. A gift certificate that can be used for proper planting time is a perfect garden gift. Of course there are other gifts for gardeners too. Tools that make jobs easier are always welcome. They can range from electric lawnmowers and other eco-friendly power tools; to quality built shovels, hoes and rakes; to hand tools like the gardener’s saw (sworn to be a favorite by many) to the Korean hand plow EZ digger (which is the only too I use for planting thousands of plants every year). A bench or place to sit in a garden is a must for every garden, and ornaments brighten and enhance all year round. The garden year never ends for the birds that come into the garden for food. They bring year round life, song and movement to the garden.

Let the garden be the source of inspiration for gifts to and from the garden, for both gardeners and non-gardeners. Along with the gifts already mentioned there are gardening books, flower vases, fairy garden ornaments, and endless other items that will brighten anyone’s life.