How to Plant and Grow Snap Peas

How to Plant and Grow Snap Peas
By James Draper

Snap peas are also known as sugar snap peas. They differ from snow peas by the fact their pods are more rounded in shape and contain slightly more mature peas. Snap peas are a cross between snow peas and garden peas. The whole pod is eaten and has a crunchy texture and very sweet flavor.

Snap peas are a very rich source of Vitamin C whereby just 100g contains 100% of the recommended daily intake. Furthermore, the vegetable provides a good source of dietary fiber (10% recommended intake), folic acid (10% recommended intake), Vitamin A (22% recommended intake) as well as being a good source of iron, calcium and Vitamin K.

Sowing snaps peas is an easy and rewarding experience, not to mention the luxury of having your very own fresh produce available in your very own backyard. Below is a step by step guide for sowing your snap peas:

Step 1: Soil Preparation

Snap peas can be grown from a wide range of soil types ranging from heavy to light soils, although needs good drainage and a friable well-structured soil. The vegetable prefers a pH range of 6.0 to 7.0 and lime should be added if soils are too acidic. Turn over your soil to aerate it, add some fertilizer, I recommend using horse manure and a slight amount of blood and bone meal.

Step 2: Planting the Seeds

Snap peas have a very delicate root system, therefore it is recommended to direct plant your seeds into the garden as opposed to growing seedlings in trays. Sow at a time to avoid flowering during the frost periods. Prepare flat trenches approximately 15cm (6") wide and 5cm (2") deep. Plant seeds at an interval of 7.5cm (3") and when sowing multiple rows allow 90cm (3.5") between each row. Cover seeds with soil and firm down gently.

Step 3: Water Well

Once sown, water well and keep well watered throughout growing. Since peas are part of the legume family of vegetables they are capable of fixing nitrogen from the air and as such require little fertilizer. Snap peas will need to be trained to go up a trellis or similar support (stay tuned for how to construct your own garden trellis).

Pests:

Birds can be a problem for emerging seedlings. If required, cover rows with bird netting until seedlings are 10cm high. Pests and diseases are minimal, although the most likely to damage pea crops are onion thrips which cause spotting of the pods. Caterpillars may also attack leaves and pods. Mildew and rot is also a common problem, whereby the seedlings are stunted and the vines are an off color. Typically mildew and rot is caused by poor drainage in the soil.

Harvesting:

Snap peas are usually harvested 8-12 weeks after planting and may continue for 8-10 weeks. Typically snap peas are harvested when the pod is still flat and the seeds are just starting to swell. Be sure not to leave the pod on the vine too long well before any etching of the veins show on the surface as it may become stringy.

Storage:

You'll get the best flavor if you eat the peas right away (typically same day as harvesting). Although peas can be kept in the pod in the refrigerator crisper for up to a week (be sure not to wash until ready to eat). Alternatively you can wash thoroughly, remove stems and leave peas whole, blanch for 90 seconds then chill quickly and freeze immediately in an airtight container for up to 12 months.

Enjoy!

James Draper has years of experience growing and maintaining his own backyard garden. James is now sharing his secrets to backyard gardening at http://www.backyardgardening.website. Covering all topics including vegetable growing, garden design and fresh food cooking. Visit http://www.backyardgardening.website today!

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Ground Cover Plants for Hard to Grow Areas

Ground Cover Plants for Hard to Grow Areas
By Cheryl D. Jones

Soil covering plants are highly desirable in the landscape. They can make a plain area into a blooming mat of beauty. They can fill in cracks between stepping-stones, spill over landscape stone, or even replace a high-maintenance lawn. Ground covers for hard to grow areas offer water-saving living mulch and will cut down the amount of weeds that you have to pull, making your gardening job a lot easier.

There are plenty of types of plants that make great covering for the soil, but several are staples that fill needs that are common, and are well-behaved enough to live happily in a well-tended garden.

Here, we'll discuss some of our favorite ground cover plants, ready to enhance your landscape with living green mulch and beautiful low-growing blooms.

Tough ground covers can beautify those areas that seem almost impossible to grow in. One such common area occurs under trees where shade is prevalent, and where the tree saps the surface soil of nutrients and moisture. In shady, dry spots like these, drought tolerant perennials such as vinca vine periwinkle and English ivy are shade loving plants and thrive even in dry areas. These ground hugging plants grow fast, so they work well when you need to cover a lot of space in a shorter amount of time. English ivy will climb up buildings, so some care has to be taken as to where it's planted. Vinca flower in beautiful violet-purple and sometimes white, brightening up dark areas.

In shady spots where you don't need a highly aggressive ground cover, but want coverage that's still hardy and healthy and looks nice, try pachysandra. An evergreen perennial and slow spreading, this long-lived low growing plant is at home in the shade among hostas, ferns, and other shade loving perennials. It won't bully them either, as it's well behaved. Ajuga also known as bugleweed is another well-behaved and hardy perennial plant for shade that blooms beautifully. There are lots of leaf colors of ajuga, making it a varied and interesting ground cover.

In partly shaded areas that receive some sun, coverage choices become wider. Liriope, or "monkey grass", is a very popular. It's related to grape hyacinth, the spring bulb that many enjoy. It blooms in the spring similarly to grape hyacinth, but after that it sports strappy and attractive clumps of foliage that stay neat and tidy. Liriope can withstand partial shade, but appreciates some sun, especially in the morning. Combine with highly variegated hosta plants, and you have a great start to a wonderful partially shaded woodland garden!

In full sun, there are lots of interesting plant choices. Sedum are succulent plants that come in many shapes and sizes; some of the best sedum make great rock garden spreaders, or spilling choices in the front of borders into pathways. Lamb's ear is a beautiful spreading perennial for sunny spots, with its silvery hairy soft leaves. Interplant lamb's ear in the front of the border with brightly colored ice plant for a splash of color that plays well together.

Ground cover plants are necessary and beautiful garden elements that complete landscapes and gardens as well as solve common problems.

Cheryl D. Jones, shares gardening tips and landscape ideas through her blog, newsletters and her nursery's website. Visit http://www.GreenwoodNursery.com/ for a full line of plants including trees, flowering shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses and ground cover plants.

Join the Greenwood Gardeners Club free to receive Greenwood Nursery's weekly newsletter, seasonal promotions and 10% off your first order.

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No Fail Perennial Plants for Any Garden

No Fail Perennial Plants for Any Garden
By Cheryl D. Jones

Perennial plants are basics that are essential to landscapes of all kinds. These perennials should be as reliable as they are beautiful. Reliability should come in the form of disease resistance, ability to "play nice" and not become a spreading pest and ecological threat, and add to the natural beauty that exists around and outside of the area the landscape is in. There are so many wonderful perennials today that suit needs just right and make great staples, but there is of course always the cream-of-the-crop that works in every garden, under most conditions, and look great doing it. Here are ten no fail perennial plants for any garden (in no particular order!).

Coreopsis: There are many types of coreopsis. The native Coreopsis lanceolata L. is a prairie native that grows quite large and sports beautiful sunny yellow flowers over silvery and textural foliage. In the wild, this coreopsis grows among tall grasses in windy plains where it's much loved by bees and butterflies when it blooms. Then in the fall when it sets seed, songbirds depend on flowers like coreopsis for meals as they bulk up for winter or make their way down the heart of the continent on migration escaping the cold. The types of coreopsis that one sees in nurseries are developed hybrids from lanceolata and others, with neat growth habits and long blooming periods of sporting many colors that include yellow, orange, red, and multicolored themes.

Favorite cultivars include:

- Moonbeam is an extremely popular cultivar of coreopsis that has very light, almost white blooms over neat mounds that stay nice and short and unobtrusive. The bloom time on moonbeam is almost all season long, with constant repeat blooming, especially if you deadhead, encouraging a new flush of growth mid-season. Ideal for areas that are dry and hot, such as in front of borders that line driveways or walkways along pavement or patios.

- Cranberry Ice is a beautiful and bold red petaled variety with white outer edges. The centers are orange ringed with yellow. The foliage is very fine on Cranberry Ice and the growth height is usually less than a foot. Spreading nicely in neat clumps, it won't take over your garden either. Use Cranberry Ice as a mass bed planting or as an accent point in the garden as its color is so punchy, it would certainly add a lot in small numbers to the design of any landscape. Perfect for the front of a border or in a rock garden.

- Rising Sun is a double bloomed type (meaning there are more than one set of petals giving the flower a fluffier look) that is yellow with some hints of red radiating out of the middle on each petal- beautiful! This Variety grows larger, true to its wild ancestor's size (height topping around 3-4 feet in height and spread) and is a serious butterfly attractor. Plant in the middle of borders or in naturalistic areas. Works well in native plant gardening, in prairie restoration, in rain gardens, and anywhere that a not-so formal setting is desired. Pair with beautiful Buddleia Black Night for dramatic contrast and more butterfly magnet power.

Daylily is a common sight in gardens around the country. Even if you don't know what a daylily is specifically, it's guaranteed you've seen them before and remember what they are without knowing their name. They are everywhere and of course, for excellent reasons. It's so well suited to landscape use with its neat growth habit, interesting strappy foliage, and beautiful (and long lasting) blooms of many colors that it makes its happy home everywhere. Here are some wonderful varieties that fill many needs and design requirements.

- Stella De Oro has been a hit ever since it came onto the garden market scene decades ago and continues to be one of the most sold plants for landscapes in America. Super hardy to frigid cold zone 3 and into warm zones 8 and 9, this daylily never complains about the weather. It grows in neat clumps of a foot wide and sends flower spikes up to about 2 feet in height over a neat mound of strappy graceful foliage. Stella D'Oro blooms in a neat and cheery solid yellow and blooms for a long time through middle of summer until fall. You can eat the blooms! They taste like mild cucumber and are beautiful on salads. Many landscapers plant Stellas in masses in home and commercial landscapes- but this limits the possibility of variation and interest thorough the entire growing season. Use Stellas as PART of a border, or as accents here and there and you'll be able to enjoy them as well as take advantage of other plant's attributes. The foliage is a good contrast to many other types of foliage and of course, it will last a long time in the garden without much care and attention.

- While Stella gets most of the attention, wonderful varieties like the Pumpkin Festival sometimes get overlooked- which is unfortunate! Pumpkin Festival is just as hardy as Stella and has the same growth habit, but the flower on Pumpkin Festival is so lovely! Centers are yellow, with a run of beautiful purple followed by cream where the three inner petals are then scalloped and edged in more lavender. What a perfect contrast to Stella! Try interplanting several Pumpkin Festivals in your landscape with yellow bloomers like Stella De Oro or Coreopsis Moonbeam in front for a beautifully designed look without much fuss.

Echinacea is another North American native like Coreopsis, often hailing from the same habitats. Wild Echinacea is also known as purple coneflower, or just coneflower as it's petals sometimes are held facing down below the center of the flower, giving it a cone shape when open fully. Echinacea is also the basis for many natural medicines- usually given as tinctures or teas and is used to combat colds or prevent sickness. In the wild, Echinacea is a highly valuable plant for pollinators and is essential for bees and butterflies alike. In the landscape trade, Echinacea has taken on beautiful new colors of not only purple, but reds and oranges and yellows and whites. They are wonderful in the landscape and a certain necessity. Here are some favorite varieties of Echinacea.

- PowWow White is an older, tried and true cultivar of Echinacea that blooms in clean and beautiful white. Its small height of around a foot and same spread makes it neat and tidy. It does naturalize well when seed is allowed to fall on the ground and overwinter, which in some areas is a wonderful habit.

- Double Scoop Bubble Gum is a double blooming pink and purple lovely variety that grows larger than the PowWow's, and is much loved by butterflies. It does reach heights of 2-3 feet, so using it as middle of the border filler or in naturalistic areas is recommended. Enjoy its punch of color as the deer avoid eating it and it handles drought well.

- Salsa Red is a super bright red blooming and short growing Echinacea that will certainly make a big impact in the landscape over a long period of bloom time. Try planting Salsa Red among Elijah Blue Fescue grass for a perfect bold pairing.

Nepeta is catmint- and where ever you need some problem solving, spreading and hardy, fragrant plant to fill in gaps among the landscape, nepeta will do the trick. If you have a kitty, even better! You probably know that catmint is kitty heaven, and if you let your cat outside, watch kitty enjoy themselves among the catmint. The blooms of all catmints are very attractive to bees, especially native bumble bees that depend on it for nourishment.

- A favorite cultivar of catmint is Walker's Low, because of its small and spreading habit. It makes a decent ground cover that's well behaved in hot and dry conditions and still sends up spikes of beautiful purple blooms that the bees love.

Perennial Geranium: Also known as cranesbill or bloody cranesbill. It's not like the geranium that's sold in American garden centers as a spring annual. This geranium is perennial. It grows well in sunny forest conditions and is of course, a long lived perennial. The flowers are lovely, and the foliage is an interesting shape and texture. Perfect for growing as a groundcover in areas where morning sun and afternoon shade is prevalent.

- Geranium x Cantabrigiense 'Biokovo' is the 2015 Perennial Plant of the Year. It's an absolutely lovely cranesbill, sporting white or slightly tinged with pink blooms over neatly mounded low foliage ideal for the front of a woody border. Very hardy, deer resistant, and long lived.

Sedum is a very hardy succulent plants group that come in a wide range of shapes, sizes, and colors. They are wonderful in borders, in foundation plantings, in large pots, and just about anywhere. They all tolerate drought well and love full hot sun. Their late season blooming is beautifully scented and highly attractive to bees and butterflies. There are lots of wonderful cultivars. Here are some favorites:

- Autumn Fire: A tighter and brighter version of Autumn Joy, Autumn Fire holds its heavy bright red heads of flowers up high and proud without flopping like Autumn Joy. In the fall, the red color is a lovely scene with falling leaves and smells lovely on warm breezes. Growing up to 3 feet tall, Autumn Fire sticks to neat clumps and is a perfect plant in the perennial border. Try planting among fall blooming perennial or annual mums of yellow and orange, and enjoy the blazing color when nothing much else is blooming.

- Japanese Ogon Sedum is hardy in a narrow range, from zones 7-9 (where most residents of the country live!). It's a creeping sedum and does prefer some shade in the very hot afternoons. Spreading and spilling over edges and walls, try planting Ogon over rock walls or terraces.

- Blue Spruce: This sedum does look a little like little branches of Blue Spruce with it's blue-grey cast of its foliage and stems. This sedum is evergreen in warmer areas, but is extremely hardy with a wide range of hardiness (zones 3-9). Blue Spruce grows low and wide and is an excellent groundcover for dry areas and rock gardens, and grows beautifully in landscape stone gaps. Try planting in front of yellow blooming coreopsis like 'Moonbeam' for a lovely combo of disease resistance, deer resistance, and vigor in the landscape.

Russian Sage is a standard in most gardens and landscapes where the gardener enjoys the benefits of long lived, slightly unkempt and wild perennials that live a very long time. Cottage gardens, naturalistic gardens, and borders that come between a yard and a greenbelt or natural scenery are all areas where Russian Sage fits well. 'Little Spire' is a smaller and neatly clumping variety of Russian Sage that tops out at 2 feet in height and spread, and is easily added into the landscape where larger cultivars have to be settled in more specific areas. Topped in purple blooming branched spikes of flowers with foliage of finely-cut silvery grey, this lovely plant resembles an airy version of lavender, and in colder climates can even take its place! Hardy from zones 4-9, there's not much area in the country that 'Little Spire' can't be enjoyed.

Ornamental Grass is often overlooked as a residential landscape plant candidate, but it shouldn't be so! More gardens could use the stately vertical lines and graceful seed heads of large ornamental grasses, and the neat clumping nature of smaller varieties. There are many types of ornamental grass, which are healthy and very well behaved. Consider these lovely cultivars:

- Karl Foerster is a tall, clumping grass that reaches about 5 feet high and holds vertical seed heads from summer through winter. Karl Forester can be planted in modernistic landscapes as well as naturalistic ones.

- Pink Muhly Grass is a medium height grass that has the most lovely pink and wispy seed heads of all the grasses, making them stunning and interesting indeed. Undemanding, easy to love, they offer great color and form in the fall when everything else is just beginning to fade away for the winter.

- Adagio is a very full, medium height (3-4 feet) miscanthus grass with white feathery fall seed heads and a neat strappy and slightly graceful arching habit. Adagio is a wonderful grass for all landscapes, doing well in the heat of summer and retains winter interest with its seeds.

Rudbeckia is another North American native flowering perennial that's tough and lovely. As with Echinacea and coreopsis, Rudbeckia is native to prairies, but also has some varieties in other parts of the country- from the east to the west, to the south. Rudbeckias are adaptable and there's definitely a variety or two perfect for your landscape. Here are some favorites:

- Autumn Colors is a mix of lovely bloom colors in yellow, orange, and red in varying combinations. They are a shorter plant, topping out at around 2 feet in height and enjoy full sun. They are topped from summer to fall with loads of these brightly colored blooms that are large- sometimes 4 inches across!

- Denver Daisy is a yellow with a red brick center rudbeckia with a short height- developed for the 150th anniversary of the city of Denver!

And finally... the Leucanthemum, or Shasta Daisy. Children love the classic white Shasta daisies, as they have long tall stems that are easy to pick, and make wonderful daisy crowns and necklaces. The classics are quite popular and commonly seen in landscapes, but there are some cultivars that are not only just as hardy, but have blooms that are show-stoppers.

- A true show stopper, Victorian Secret is a white to cream colored Shasta with full, marigold-like blooms that are beyond triplicate and quite lovely. A medium sized perennial, they are a perfect size for many applications in the garden such as in the front of middle of borders, perfect for "hell strips" along streets and sidewalks, and wonderful foundation planting additions.

- Crazy Daisy is another Shasta daisy cultivar that's also beyond triplicate in petal form, but the petals are curly! What a different textural sensation these are! Same height and form as Shasta daisies, they look fantastic in drifts and in masses. Their shaggy blooms are a lot of fun, and will have neighbors begging you to know what they are.

While it's been hard to stop at 10, these no fail perennials that are ideal for everyone regardless of gardening experience. They are certainly some of the best suited perennials that are available today. Try a few out in your landscape and enjoy the ease of care and beauty that these wonderful plants have to offer!

Cheryl D. Jones, shares gardening tips and landscape ideas through her blog, newsletters and her nursery's website. Visit http://www.GreenwoodNursery.com/ for a full line of plants including trees, flowering shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses and ground covers. Join the Greenwood Gardeners Club free to receive Greenwood Nursery's weekly newsletter, seasonal promotions and 10% off your first order.

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Plant a Butterfly Garden in Containers With Smaller Flowering Shrubs and Perennials

Plant a Butterfly Garden in Containers With Smaller Flowering Shrubs and Perennials
By Cheryl D. Jones

Not all gardeners have an expanse of garden space that they can use to turn into a butterfly oasis- but butterfly gardens are just as doable without it. There are lots of wonderful plants and cultivars that are perfectly happy living in containers. You can easily make a beautiful butterfly garden in containers.

Here are some ideas for plants that would work well in containers, so you, too, can attract butterflies to your garden - no matter where it is or how big it happens to be!

There are some small cultivars of perennial plants that are nothing but beautiful, hardy versions of their larger siblings that grow beautifully in containers. The Chip Buddleia line is a wonderful example. Breeders have developed a compact version of Butterfly Bush that is perfect for small gardens and containers. It's super hardy, and completely non-invasive (they are all seedless!).

Blue Chip Butterfly Bush Lo and Behold: Much like it's larger version, Blue Chip sports beautiful deep purple blooms in abundance over a very long season- the only difference is it tops out at 3 feet in height and not quite as wide. Purple buddleias are a favorite of many butterflies, and when in bloom you're guaranteed to see butterflies on it.

Pink Chip Micro Butterfly Bush: Slightly smaller than Blue Chip, this small buddleia is a wonderful candidate for pot culture. Pink Chip showcases beautiful dark pink cone spikes of blooms in the summer through fall, and is a beautiful non-stop show of color! If you have a small garden, this little cutie also works well in the front of a border or middle of a small border too.

Lilac Chip Dwarf Butterfly Bush: And the last of the Chip Trio (but not the least!), the lilac version is another little beauty. Totally carefree, this beautiful light purple dwarf butterfly bush is at home on a patio in a pot or in the front border of a perennial bed. Drought tolerant and resistant to deer, you can plant this little tiny wonder in a garden and not worry about it too. Never deadhead buddleias again too!

Pineapple Sage: Pineapple sage is an amazing herb that isn't as well-known as it should be. It doesn't smell like the sage that is normally used for cooking. It literally smells like pineapple! So sweet and tropical, and its spikes of beautiful tubular red blooms smell just as good. They are very attractive to butterflies AND hummingbirds! Pineapple Sage is hardy in most areas, but where it's not it can be grown easily in a container and overwintered indoors (in zones colder than USDA zone 7).

Chives: A very hardy perennial herb and much loved culinary staple, green chives belong in every garden- from the large vegetable space to a small container arrangement. Chives grow wonderfully in pots, and offer a great contrast to other leafy container plants. In the spring chives bloom in pink or purple (or sometimes white), and are very fragrant. For the first butterflies of the year, the beautiful balls of blooms that chives grow are essential food sources. The green spikes are of course wonderful in cooking. The blooms can also be eaten, used as a beautiful garnish!

Walker's Low Catmint: People hear the word "mint" and they picture mint that takes over their garden like a weed. Growing mint in a container stops that problem almost instantly. Walker's Low Catmint is also a small catmint that is not only very attractive to butterflies, but it also behaves well in a container (and in the ground interestingly!). It's a better version of mint for all purposes. In larger areas it makes a great ground cover too. And of course, if you've got a kitty, you can spoil them with some dried Walker's Low Catmint leaves too.

There are some common perennials that are typically used in landscaping that also are fine for growing in pots that butterflies absolutely rely on - not just for feeding from but also for laying eggs on. Plant one of these in your container garden or small space and you'll find that butterflies appreciate your garden that much more.

Asclepias tuberosa 'Hello Yellow' butterfly weed: This North American native perennial is a butterfly staple Not only do butterflies of all species love feeding on the blooms, but the Monarch butterfly specifically relies on this plant to raise it's young. Planting butterfly weed is important because the areas in North America where butterfly weed naturally occurs is drastically less than native populations, which has directly affected monarch populations. If there's nowhere for monarchs to lay their eggs, they can't make new butterflies. You can help by planting a butterfly weed in your garden. This plant is also available its native orange color, too.

There are other considerations as well. Consider adding some annuals to the spaces in pots, or mixing larger pots with the above selections with smaller pots of annuals in your container butterfly garden for variety. Some annuals are absolutely loved by butterflies and make great container plants. A couple of favorites include:

Zinnias and darker marigolds: There are large zinnias meant for growing in the garden, and there are now smaller types that make nice and neat mounds, excellent for containers. Look for the 'Bedder' series of zinnia to fill containers with. You can usually find both zinnias and marigolds available from seed at the hardware store. They are disease resistant and ideal for potting up.

Coreopsis: Coreopsis is a wonderful low growing plant that is perfect for hot, sunny spots and containers. Butterflies love to feed from coreopsis - it's one of their favorites. Try growing Coreposis Moonbeam in your containers and watch the butterflies flock.

Adding a small fountain to your patio or small garden will also attract butterflies, as they need water to feed from as much as they need nectar to sustain them. Also consider adding a butterfly feeder consisting of a flat surface where you can place slightly over ripe slices of fruit for butterflies. Banana, orange, mango, and papaya are all favorites.

You'd be surprised at how many butterflies live near you, no matter where you live or how much space you have. Attract them by offering plants they love to feed from, and even help sustain populations of butterflies with plants that they lay eggs on. You can do this in a small space and in containers just as easily as any other gardener. Enjoy creating your container or small space butterfly garden. The butterflies certainly will!

Cheryl D. Jones, shares gardening tips and landscape ideas through her blog, newsletters and her nursery's website. Visit http://www.GreenwoodNursery.com/ for a full line of plants including trees, flowering shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses and ground covers. Join the Greenwood Gardeners Club free to receive Greenwood Nursery's weekly newsletter, seasonal promotions and 10% off your first order.

Check out dwarf butterfly bush plants at Greenwood Nursery today!

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Gardening Gifts for Men

Gardening Gifts for Men
By Greg O' Sullivan

The more macho male pretends he has no interest in gardening or using gardening equipment. It is, however, a fact that most men do take pride in their gardens and enjoy working with both innovative tools and basic equipment. Gardening gifts for men cover the whole spectrum from the man with green fingers, to the man who just potters in the shed, to those who simply cook on the barbecue. The range of gardening presents for men available in hardware stores, garden centres and on-line can be mind boggling so it is best to choose a gardening gift for a man which is practical, affordable, appropriate to the size of your garden and which will be used by him and not simply left in the shed.

The alternative of course is to choose a gift for him which is decorative or indeed a garden accessory which will complement your garden design. If the man in your life definitely is not green fingered and shows little enthusiasm to help in the garden then perhaps the ideal present for him is a hammock to relax in or a barbecue which he can be in charge of when dining al fresco. If on the other hand he is green fingered, loves the garden and appreciates gifts why not be innovative and give him a one year subscription to a well known and respected garden magazine. These are normally filled with handy tips, informative articles and stories about well known gardens and gardeners. They also display and comment on gardening gifts so perhaps he can tell you which gardening gift he would like for Christmas or his birthday.

The normal range of gardening gifts are easily viewed on-line or visible in your local garden centre.

Let's look however at some more innovative gardening presents for men.

• Solar powered weather station is a great gift for the gardener who likes to track local weather patterns and keep records. Many of these are quite cheap but will give min and max temperatures, humidity, wind speed and direction plus rainfall.

• Birdcam as a gardening gift will give him much pleasure as he watches the birds that live in his garden and those birds who visit the garden. Birds nesting and the chicks being born is always exciting to watch.

• Bin stacking worm composting system into which you firstly add the worms and then the kitchen scrapings on a daily basis.

• Small chipper shredder which will handle garden debris and branches up to 3" in diameter.

• Every man would like a gardening gift of a leaf mulcher as he suddenly thinks he is Mr Action man.

There are of course a whole range of accessories which make wonderful gardening gifts for the man in your life as well as making a statement in your yard. These can be items such as furniture, ornaments, garden lanterns and water features.

One gift for men which is timeless is the bird table. If gardening is his absolute passion why not push the boat out and fund a trip to the Chelsea Flower Show. One thing is clear there are gardening gifts for men to suit all budgets.

If you would like to know more on gardening gift ideas or gardening gifts for men visit my gardening guide for some further insights and information.

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