Grow-your-own gifts

If you grow your own food, you're not only a gardener: you're a farmer, and a cook, too. There's a wide range of presents for all three in our garden centre: here are a few ideas.

Trugs: the smooth curves of hand-made wooden trugs are the ultimate in good-looking baskets to gather fruit and veg.

Apple storing racks: no more fiddling about with cardboard boxes and newspaper: practical wooden racking holds fruit in perfect condition through winter.

Fruit pickers: those maddening apples and plums growing at the top of the tree are no longer just for the wasps: long nets on telescopic handles make picking them a cinch.

Preserving pans: most veg growers are dab hands at making chutneys and jams: a proper preserving pan gives them perfect results every time.

Lantern cloches: Glass-windowed mini greenhouses for bringing on early crops which are as ornamental as they are practical.

Hand care: After days toiling at the plot a gardener's hands are in serious need of TLC. A nailbrush, some good soap and a heavy-duty handcream specially formulated for gardeners should put things right.

Please ask the staff in our garden centre in Athlone for more information and advice about choosing gifts for gardeners who grow their own.