We encourage you to buy as little as possible. We’re all about make, reuse, recycle, from composting to seed saving, but you will need some basics for your garden and we’ll put them on this page.
You’ll find some great gifts for gardeners here too. Everyone enjoys a few decorative items and we’ll add those to our gardening shop.
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A Soil pH Meter – With Moisture Meter
We actually bought our soil pH meter for the kids when they were learning about acids, bases and pH so we had one at home already. You can’t really guess at your soil’s pH unless you have a lot of knowledge and experience. I find ours very, very useful.
It gave me answers when I was scratching my head as to why something wasn’t growing where it should. If you know the pH you can set about addressing it and making your soil more neutral, or you can plant accordingly.
In the tropics, all that rain messes with your pH and you should really keep an eye on it. pH meters are cheap and seem to work fine, they agree with our litmus paper tests on domestic acids and bases. This one has some extra pluses, light, and moisture meters. If you’re the sort of person who thinks they kill everything ( you’re not) one of these could teach you how not to kill everything.
In-Ground Mini Composter/Worm Bin
These mini compost bins/worm farms are absolute gold! Have you ever filled a raised bed with bought soil to find that the soil isn’t so great? That’s usually the reason your plants won’t grow. I have, it’s common. A lot of the soil and compost you buy is rubbish and lacking nutrients. One of these will turn that around for you, and give you somewhere to dispose of your scraps.
Just add your kitchen leftovers, plants, and crushed eggshells, and let it break down directly into your soil. The lid keeps flies and rodents out and your plants grow lush and nourished.
These devices are cheap and easy, suitable for even a balcony garden, and I love mine. I have two now, different brands, and every large raised bed will get its own in time. You could put one next to your fruit trees or even in your herb gardens.
I haven’t been able to find these on US Amazon, but they are on Australian Amazon here.
You can also buy much larger devices, only suitable for much bigger raised beds here (this one should work everywhere in the world).
An Indoor Aquaponics Set Up
So this looks fun! If you’re short of space or not ready to commit, this indoor aquaponics setup could be a great way to figure out if aquaponics is for you or not.
I currently have my guppies outside in a pot, it’s hot enough to do that here, but if you have a colder winter, this could be the answer.
Buy Decorative Pots and Planters Online
If you’re after decorative pots and planters to enhance your garden, patio, or balcony, you can buy these items online. We use this website in Australia and can easily arrange delivery to our home, even though we’re now on a remote homestead or farm.
If you use our link, either above, or the button below, this company can offer our readers a special free credit when using their home or gardening shop.
An Indoor-Outdoor Thermometer and Hygrometer
We own one of these, they are very affordable, make a great gift, and really help you know, for sure, what your local microclimate is really like. We live in the tropics, about 17 degrees south of the equator, but our climate and growing conditions recently changed when we moved to our new farm/homestead at a slight elevation. Our night-time temperatures got as low as 5C! That was a shock. This device also helps us know when condensation will be an issue and when to leave a heater on at night. If you have a shade house or greenhouse, the “outside” sensor would be very useful for monitoring conditions in there, and tuning your ventilation.
