You’re busy shopping, and can’t figure out the perfect gift for your favorite gardener?

Here are my top 10 ideas for this holiday season:

1. Wild Birds Unlimited stores have seed cylinders that run from the extremely practical round ones to the silly, and adorable, penguin. Most are less than $20 and can be found at the Northcrest Shopping Center store.

2. Note cards or small houseplants from the Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory gift shop, 1100 S. Calhoun St. The plants are always healthy, and there is no admission fee if you’re just shopping. Although I must say that the Grinch display is fun.

3. A swag or other greenery from McNamara at Sand Point, 4322 DeForest Ave. While you’re there, check out the greenhouse. It smells great and the selection is vast.

4. This is in my list every year, but every gardener I know wears out a pair of gloves over the growing season – or loses at least one of a pair. Your local hardware store is likely to have a selection; if not, check out most big-box stores that carry gardening items.

5. A new wheelbarrow. It will look really good under the tree. Good luck wrapping it: I suggest a green tarp and a big bow.

6. Here’s your freebie of 2012: Order garden catalogs. Cyndi’s Catalog of Garden Catalogs at www.gardenlist.com is a good place to start. If your gardener loves day lilies, for example, it lists a bunch of places that specialize in all things Hemerocallis.

7. Here’s a quick craft you or the kids can do. Buy a little gold or silver spray paint and pick up some small sticks, pine cones, walnuts or acorns from the yard. Let dry inside. With some cardboard behind them, lightly frost them with the paint and let dry. Put them in a decorative bowl and wrap.

8. You and the kids could also put together luminary ingredients. You’ll need garden sand from a local nursery, tea lights (real or the kind with batteries) a book of matches and some paper bags. The kids can decorate the bags with paint or crayons, or you can get out a hole punch or scissors to make star or other patterns.

9. If your gardener does not already have a kneeling pad, by all means get one. They are inexpensive and make a long day in the garden more of a pleasure than a pain.

10. You can’t go wrong with these: Pots. All shapes and sizes. Garden books or magazines.

Oh, and please shop locally whenever possible. Even though one of my gift ideas is to give catalogs, remember that Fort Wayne lost Neuhouser’s in 2012.

Have a gift tip to share? Send an email to the address below. Tips may appear on The Journal Gazette’s gardening blog, “We’re Digging It.” The Dirt is signing off until the sap starts to flow again, but the blog will continue all winter.