Garden-themed presents help to give the gift of good health to older adults. Encouraging engagement with gardens nudges older adults to maintain social connections, while strengthening their physical and emotional health.

Four practical, and thoughtful, gardening gift ideas to consider this holiday season:

1. Replace older gardening tools with ergonomic tools. Seniors may feel reluctant to spend the money on something they don’t deem a necessity, but proper tools will allow seniors to reduce strain and injury while continuing their beloved hobby. Then, have the still-perfectly-good previous tools donated to a nonprofit in your community.
2. Raised garden planters. These wooden raised planters, which you can buy in retail stores or online, may be considered by some older adults to be too pricy of a splurge to buy for oneself. They make a great gift, allowing older adults to continue gardening without needing to hunch over or bend knees.
3. Wind chimes. Those with limited access to the outdoors can still enjoy the calming movement of the breeze when you give the gift of wind chimes. Consider gifting bamboo wind chimes to men and metal ones to women. The lower octaves of bamboo are more easily heard by men, while the higher octaves of metal are more easily heard by women.
4. Gardening gift certificate. Purchase a Burpee seed gift certificate and request a free Burpee seed catalog (available in late December through April, or until supplies last.) Those living on a fixed income still enjoy dabbling with new plants, but may not feel comfortable committing their budget to plants that are not tried-and-true.

Gardening keeps both the body and the mind active, and is the #1 hobby for senior citizens. Choosing useful gifts that promote physical and emotional health will benefit the older adults in your life well after this holiday season is a wrap.