Gardening gifts at $50 go wrong in two directions: the novelty garden stake with a pun, or the generic tool set with chrome-plated handles that rust by July. The gardener wants the tool that lasts — a Japanese hori-hori that they will use in every bed for the next decade, a soil test that tells them what they are actually working with, the one reference they have been postponing.
“The one reliable rule of gift-giving: anything that makes them look more serious at what they love will be received with disproportionate gratitude.”
Friends claim items. No duplicates. No awkward conversations.



