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Garden gifts: tools for Christmas

Looking for what to buy for a gardener for Christmas? Here is the essential tools to buy as gifts for gardeners

Gardens Illustrated picks out garden furniture, tools and lifestyle items that we think are the best and most exciting, based on independent research and careful consideration. On some occasions we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products. But this doesn’t affect what we choose to highlight and we will never let it bias our coverage.

October 2, 2020 at 8:58 am

Looking for the special Christmas gift for that gardener in your life? Here are a few items we’d love in our stockings this Christmas to help with your Christmas shopping. We’ve picked the top tools, but don’t miss our other gift guides on games, memberships and furniture for gardeners too.

Don’t miss our round up of the 55 best gardening gifts for Christmas.

Kitchen garden trugg

Every gardener needs a good trugg. Whether it’s for gathering fruit, veg or flowers a reliable trugg is something a gardener will likely use throughout the year. This trugg design riffs off the original 1950s galvanised metal trugg which was sleek and iconic. Crocus have redesigned it somewhat, offering a lacquered surface of protection from rust and scrapes and measuring 45cm in length , 32cm in width and 11cm in depth.

£24.99, Crocus

More from our Christmas gift guide

Victorian Grow House

Perfect for those of us with a paved garden, very small outdoor space or even no outdoor space at all. This Victorian grow house allows you to care for seedlings, cuttings and small plants easily. The grow house has separate components for lid, sides, tray and base, which all stack on top of each other and can be used altogether as a growing unit or in separate combinations. It’s a hugely versatile option.

Rectangular, £189.99, Crocus

Copper plated watering can

A stylish watering can option for indoors, this copper-plated beauty features a curved handle and long, narrow spout for ease of pouring.
It’s crafted from zinc, with copper plate, and is the sort of can any gardener will get satisfaction from using.

It’s a dinky, space-saving option too, with a height of 17.5cm.

Cost £34.95
Buy from Graham and Green

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Wirework string holder with black string

Who else hates getting their twine in a twist? This is a perfect solution to every gardeners’ nightmare, allowing easy access to your twine ball and ensuring that you’ll never loose the end. It comes in a nifty and stylish little basket which can be hung from anywhere handy – inside, outside or even from a belt. It may be a small gardening gift but it’s mighty.

£15, Garden Trading

Natural Leather Thermos Flask

Everyone needs a brew in the garden and this attractive natural leather thermos flask could be the perfect gift for the gardener in your life. It’s a natural, earthy aesthetic that we love. Spanish company Sol and Luna, the flask keeps things hot or cold and is made with Paraguayan leather. The capacity is a litre and comes in at 31 cm high.

£105, Conranshop.co.uk

Canvas Garden Apron, Khaki

If you know someone that spends most of their time in the garden, often with damp soil on their jeans and hand wipe marks on their top, this waterproof canvas apron from the National Trust Shop is the perfect gift for them.

Designed to ensure that their clothes will stay dry and clean underneath, ready for a full day of gardening, the apron is a practical piece of kit. The waist strap is long enough to tie at the front of the apron for an even better and closer fit. In addition to this, there is a handy front pocket for keeping gardening tools close to hand which is separated into sections for better organisation.

Cost £25

Buy from The National Trust Shop

Terrarium bottle and extending tool set

Terrariums may be all the rage, but there’s a reason for that: they’re beautiful and easy to maintain too. If you know someone who’d be great at experimenting with growing their own this 5 litre glass bottle terrarium is an excellent place to start.

There’s a telescopic shovel and rake for you to help adjust your curated ecosystem, but note: this gardening gift doesn’t come with the soil, pebbles or plants themselves. Those will need to be sourced separately. For tips on how to plant a terrarium, head to our guide.

Cost £39.99

Buy from Primrose

Upper steps

A sturdy pair of steps can be an absolute necessity in the garden. And we’d wager this is the sort of gift the gardener who has everything would love. These are particularly funky, with a see-through design and non-slip steps – for extra safety.

Made from polycarbonate and metal, these aren’t the sort of steps you leave out, however, but could be used for pruning high spots, picking fruit and more. They are available in lots of different colours too, in case you want a particularly unusual gardening gift.

Cost £262

Buy from Heal’s

Niwaki tool roll

Niwaki tools are some of the best in the business and we’d recommend this as a gardening gift for the gardener who has everything. It’s a handy tool roll, with five lined pockets for all your essential tools. Made from weatherproof canvas, you could fit anything in it from pruners to cutlery for picnics. The linings are for the sharp items, so you won’t cut through to your clothes and it wraps easily and neatly round the waist for ease of transportation. A perfect gardening gift.

Cost £18
Buy from Niwaki

Carrie Portable Light

Portable lights: a portable garden light from Nordic Nest

The Scandinavians know a thing or two about darkness from those long, cold winters. This design comes direct from Nord Architects and has a powder-coated steel base and an opal glass shade which offers diffused light.

This option is probably not for the hardworking gardeners among us, but it offers a handy way of transporting your light from garden room, balcony, to sitting room. One charge lasts between six and eight hours.

£170,

Buy from Nordic Nest

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Blue Steel Folding Knife

Niwaki is the company specialising in traditional Japanese garden tool designs and are top of the range. It has a brass handle and a hand forged 3 inch folded Hitachi aogami Blue Steel blade. The action loosens with time and you can easily retighten this if needs be. A pocket knife is an essential tool for gardeners, and can be used for anything from propagating, to pruning to cutting. For more suggestions we love, head to our pick of the best pocket knives.

Kanekoma Higonokami Blue Steel Folding Knife, £32, Niwaki

Multi tool

A gift for gardeners who have everything. This is a 12 in 1 pocked sized tool that works a little like a pen knife, but with more of a gardening focus. Included in the multi tool is a pruner, a knife blade, a Phillips head screwdriver, a can opener and a ruler.

This product is designed by Kikkerland Design, a New York based company with a functional and practical focus. It’s the perfect gardening gift for either a beginner or a pro and fits easily away into the gardener’s pocket for easy of transportation. The gardener in your life may have all these tools separately, but do they have one nifty tool that acts as each? A space-saving gardening gift idea.

£22.50

Buy from Trouva

Mango wood garden tools

A perfect set of tools with a traditional feel made from iron and mango wood from Nkuku. This trowel and fork are functional and durable with a no-frills approach. Lightweight and tactile, something to enjoy while using in the garden.

Ikel Garden Tools, iron and mango wood, £39.95, Nkuku

Hori Hori Tool

If you didn’t know, hori hori means dig-dig in Japanese and these knives were originally used by bonsai collectors. Light but strong, the tool has a measuring line on the blade and has a shallow scoop, which means you can use it for trowel-like activities if you need to. The plastic sheath and belt holder is included and there is a serrated edge on one side. The blade is made from stainless steel and measures 135 mm.

£45 Genus