Written by Kristina Hicks-Hamblin
Are you looking for the perfect gift for a green thumbed pal? Here are 9 terrific gardening gifts that are sure to delight Square Foot Gardeners:
1. Rainbow Kitchen Vegetable Garden Seed Collection
When you’re looking for a simple and useful gardening gift, it’s hard to go wrong when you offer a collection of seed packets.
The Rainbow Kitchen Vegetable Garden Seed Collection includes:
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Rainbow Kitchen Vegetable Garden Seed Collection. Photo via Renee’s Garden.
One pack of tricolor yellow, green, and purple bush bean seeds, which is a mix of ‘Golden Roc d’Or’, ‘Purple Queen,’ and ‘Green Slenderette.’
- A pack of tricolor yellow, dark green, and pale green zucchini seeds, comprised of a mix of ‘Salman,’ ‘Golden Delight,’ and ‘Raven.’
- A single pack of red, yellow, and orange cherry tomato seeds, including a mix of ‘Sweet Gold,’ ‘Supersweet’, and ‘Sungold.’
- A pack of farmer’s market lettuce seeds with leaves of different shapes, sizes, and colors, composed of ‘Little Gem,’ ‘Tango,’ ‘Outrageous,’ and ‘Cimarron.’
- A pack of “Delicious Duo” red and green scallions seeds, which includes ‘Green Feast’ and ‘Red Robin’ cultivars.
That’s 15 varieties in five seed packets!
Culinary herb seed collection. Photo via Eden Brothers.
2. Culinary Herb Collection
When choosing gardening gifts for those who enjoy having a selection of fresh herbs to elevate their culinary creations, why not offer a collection of herb seeds?
This culinary herb collection contains enough seeds to grow a complete herb garden, and includes packs of arugula, basil, chervil, chives, cilantro, curly parsley, dill, fennel, flat parsley, and garlic chives.
Pick a pack of 10 different herbs – you’ll find this collection for purchase at Eden Brothers.
3. Seedling Heat Mat
Seedling heat mat. Photo via Renee’s Garden.
When food growers cultivate their own transplants, such as tomato and pepper starts, keeping seedlings warm can mean the difference between success and failure.
A heat mat helps indoor gardeners maintain comfortable temperatures for young seedlings as they germinate and grow.
Keep those seedlings toasty and warm with the Seedling Heat Mat from Renee’s Garden.
4. Seed Starting Kit
When selecting gardening gifts for those who have never started their own transplants, a seed starting kit is a fun way to help them begin!
Seed Starting Kit. Photo via Gardener’s Supply.
Starting frost-sensitive seedlings indoors frees SFG practitioners from relying on nurseries for transplants, and makes it possible to try new and exciting seed varieties. The GrowEase kit comes with two 24-cell seedling inserts, two waterproof trays, two humidity domes, and a bag of seed starting mix.
You’ll find this seed starting kit available for purchase from Gardener’s Supply.
5. Introductory Course
Do you know someone who has an inner food grower inside them just waiting to sprout?
Why not offer them some guidance with the SFG Foundation’s Introductory Course?
The course includes six video tutorials, downloadable handouts and planning worksheets – and can be completed in less than two hours.
6. Seeding Square
Seeding Square. Photo via Seeding Square.
Once it’s time to start sowing seeds in the Mel’s Mix of your raised beds, there’s a nifty device that turns the process into a breeze – the Seeding Square. By fitting perfectly into a square foot section of your grid, this square foot template with its color-coded holes serves as a guide for perfectly spaced seeding.
First holes of the proper depth are poked through the template with the help of a graduated dibber (included with the template), and then you simply drop seeds into the holes. Using the Seeding Square makes sowing seeds feel like a fun game – turning it into a great way to help get kids interested in growing food!
7. Garden Snips
Felco Kitchen and Garden Snips. Photo via Renee’s Garden.
Once those seed sowing efforts pay off, before you know it, there will be homegrown food to harvest!
While any old pair of scissors can be used for most harvesting tasks, plant lovers will appreciate having their own dedicated pair of snips at the ready.
Weighing four ounces, Felco’s Kitchen and Garden Snips are 7.5 inches long and can be used to collect cut flowers, harvest herbs and greens, or snip cucumbers and melons from their smartly trellised vines.
Hop on over to Renee’s Garden to purchase these Felco Kitchen and Garden Snips.
8. Hori Hori
Hori hori. Photo via Gardener’s Supply.
SFG is a no-till method, so there aren’t many tools required! However, a gardening implement can be helpful in removing spent roots, stems, and stalks from raised beds in preparation for a new round of planting. Some SFG adepts use trowels for this purpose.
However, once most food growers try a tool known as a “hori hori,” they permanently trade in their trowels for this far more useful tool.
Originating in Japan, a hori hori has a pointed, long narrow blade, with one serrated edge. It can be used for digging, opening bags of compost, and cutting off vegetables from their stalks.
For those who really dig gardening – hori horis can be purchased at Gardener’s Supply.
9. Square Foot Gardening Books
Square Foot Gardening books from the SFGF.
While the SFG Method is super easy to learn, even experienced food growers might find themselves in need of handy reference guides on their shelf for when SFG questions arise, such as:
“How many pea seeds do I sow per square foot?”
“How exactly do I build a crop cage?”
“How many days does it take lettuce seeds to germinate?”
The answers to these questions and so many more are held within the pages of the several books published by Mel Bartholomew and the SFGF!
Peruse our selection of SFGF books and buy them from your favorite online bookstore here.
Top photo by Julie Scribbles, via Wikimedia CC BY-SA 4.0.
