With 12 days until Christmas, choose gifts carefully

By Jimmy Williams

Invariably, Christmas gifts fall into two categories.  The fruit cake and garish tie group accounts for perhaps 90 percent.  The other 10 percent or so consists of gifts people really want and sometimes even need.  (In this land of bounty, almost all of our gift wishes are made up of wants, not needs.)

It's the thought that counts?  Well, I believe anyone who goes to the trouble of getting me something I really want thinks more of me than someone who picks up the first garish tie that is spotted.  Gifts for gardeners should be as carefully chosen (maybe more so) as those for other people.  Tin pruners and Bangladesh trowels pretty quickly prove their mettle (and metal) or lack thereof.   (Shoot, let's go all the way:  They deserve no medal).

A column here several years go early in the Christmas season warned against just such cheap tools as gifts, and also added a caveat against falling for gimmicky gardening adjuncts such as new "revolutionary" hoes or giant balloons that are claimed to scare birds and squirrels away from fruit crops.

If hoes could be improved on it would have been done years, or centuries, before now.  The scary balloons?  Once a squirrel has discovered your peach crop a howitzer won't do it.  (A .22 slug will, if it is placed carefully).

There are, however, on the market a few relatively new products that can, in some circumstances, prove to have acceptable mettle and metal.  (Enough, already!)

A couple of years ago I received for Christmas an adjustable leaf rake.  The tines are connected to a movable grip that slides up and down on the handle shaft.  At the top-most position, the tines are forced closer together, marking the total width about 6 inches.  At the other extreme of extension, the tines are farther apart and a good 18 inches wide total.  This ingenious set-up allows for large-scale leaf gathering in open law areas or tighter maneuvering in, say, a rock garden or between closely spaced shrubs.  The whole thing is of light-weight aluminum, handle and all, with a comfortable rubber grip that minimizes fatigue.

I have come to use this rake almost exclusively instead of my old non-adjustable one.  It is, however, wearing out and the adjusting mechanism refuses to stay locked into place.  The early ones like mine have proved so popular they have, fortunately, led to stronger models.  A great gift that will, depending on quality, sell for $10-$20.

Another excellent tool is a little shallow cultivator with revolving tines that dig into the soil surface and put it into good tilth for such as seeding bare spots in the lawn or gently working around young vegetable plantings.   Brand name is, I believe, the Garden Weasel.

I used the Weasel this fall to cultivate damaged lawn for overseeding.  By turning the long handle one way or the other, depth of cultivation can be controlled from one inch or so to about two.  The Weasel is also an excellent weeder for shallow-rooted things.  It won't phase a dandelion.

I'm guessing they sell for between $25-$40.  Why am I guessing?  I don't own one, but might as well.  I've had my good friend Bucky Purcell's borrowed since August.  (Why keep a cow when you can steal milk through the fence?)

Garden books are always acceptable gifts.  Just follow a few guidelines.  If the recipient is a relative novice, a "how-to" type of book will prove the most useful.  Once a person has graduated into upscale gardening, it is the artsy books that have more appeal and provide inspiration to attain higher rapturous altitudes of garden art, as opposed to mere science.