Gifts for gardeners

We sell everything for the garden, all selected on the principle of enduring high quality.

Gardening tools, the best varieties of garden plants, garden games, wildlife accessories, gift vouchers for gardeners...... everything on this website could make an excelent gift for a gardener. In fact we've recently been discovered by the clever people who run Gift Genies, a stylish and exceptionally useful website which makes finding presents online a real pleasure - we are delighted to be in the company of some other excellent businesses.

We have selected some items which are particularly suited, from modest trowels to deck chairs and outdoor cooking sets. Garden tools are timeless - they should be of lasting quality as they never go out of date. High quality tools cost less in the long run, generate less waste and function better on a day-to-day basis. Gardening is an activity that needs only a blessedly small amount of equipment. If one tool reigns supreme, it must surely be the humble spade. The quality of modern tools can be poor - they look shiny when you buy them, but they break after any serious work. For that reason, it's worth searching for a spade that is made to last, such as Bulldog's Irish spade. It's made to a traditional Irish design, as brought to England many years ago, where it is still made in Wigan. It has a long ash handle with a T-shaped grip. It has steps at the top of the blade, so you can use your foot without cutting into it. It has strong, reinforced shaft which means it won't snap when you try to shift a heavy stone. And it's made from forged steel - much stronger than stainless steel, even if it isn't so shiny.

Second in line after a spade, secateurs are another essential garden tool. And as gardener will tell you, the best ones are made by the Swiss company Felco. They work for year after year, and if any bit of them does wear out, spare parts are available to keep them going forever. You rarely see a professional gardener using any other brand. The most popular model is the No 2, but they have every conceivable size and type, including for smaller hands, left-hands, with rotating handles and so on. We also exclusively stock Berger garden tools in Ireland: made in the heart of Germany's steel producing area, they make topiary shears, hedge shears and trowels - all hand-forged, many with solid beech wood handles.

The ultimate 'status symbol' for any gardener is a Haws watering can. Conjuring up images of Beatrix Potter stories, they have long spouts, brass roses and wonderfully classic designs, unchanged for decades. Apart from looking so nice, they work better than most. The long spout means you can get right to the base of the plant, and the clever handle that wraps over the top and down the side makes them very nicely balanced. These aren't watering cans to be confined to the shed - you can leave one of these in your living room!

For many people the garden is the easiest and best place to enjoy the outdoors. Whether it's sitting down and reading a book, playing a game with family and friends or cooking a meal, a garden can be the perfect venue. Simple things which fold away are the best in this climate as anything left outside year-round doesn't last long. A traditional deck chair conjures up images of lazy afternoons and folds away to almost nothing, meaning they can be kept indoors when not in use without taking up valuable space. Simple, old-fashioned games such as boules and croquet can be endlessly entertaining, and don't have to have perfect grass to be enjoyed. And for anyone who want to cook an entire meal outdoors, the new range of outdoor cooking utensils from Bon-Fire in Denmark uses a tripod from which grill, kettle and pan can be suspended, either over a fire pit or a brazier. These are all low-tech. Looked after properly they can last forever.

Gardens aren't just for humans - we share them with the natural world. We can attract butterflies, birds, bees and mammals to our gardens by providing them with food and shelter. Managing our gardens with a view to helping wildlife is easy, and less work for ourselves. Allow out-of-the-way areas to become overgrown. Let the grass grow taller in the outer reaches and cut down only at the end of the summer. Do your main tidy-up of flower beds in early spring rather than in the autumn so that birds can use seed heads as a food source. Avoid the use of chemicals such as slug pellets or weedkiller, both of which are expensive and can work their way into the food chain. To encourage them further you can install nesting boxes, bird feeders, insect habitats, hedgehog houses and bat boxes. The best bird houses are made from renewabe sources, and the best guarantee of this is to chose which bears the FSC symbol. FSC stands for Forest Stewardship Council and is the most widely respected certification scheme for sustainably managed timber.

Buy a gift vouchers for gardeners:

• A real-life paper voucher and card which is posted either to you or straight to the recipient. We include an atrractive card. Delivery time is 3-4 days.