Ideas for Gifting a Connection to Nature

For my annual nature inspired gift list, I try to think of not so obvious but always welcome ideas. I turn to items and experiences I am familiar with and don’t do branded content because I want the freedom to share what I think will delight a nature lover without feeling the weight of other considerations. Some of the ideas are Atlanta centered but can be a starting point to find similar resources in other cities.

This year's nature inspired gift list is focused on gifting a connection to nature in some way!

Two years ago, my list called Fresh Gift Ideas for the Backyard Nature Lover included a gardening work apron and overalls, bird paintings, nature book suggestions, possum and squirrel nesting boxes, a hori-hori knife, native plant seeds, native plant nursery gift certificates, a garden kneeler, and a yard sign.

Last year my suggested gift list called Nature Focused Gift Ideas profiled waterproof boots; a trail camera; a Behren’s metal watering can; a bat house; nature forward snarky t-shirts; native plant inspired art; insect themed tumblers, books, and coffee mugs; knee pads; inspirational nature books, restoration tools (hand saw and loppers); and an honorary donation or membership to an organization helping nature in some way.

The following list gift idea list has a range of items at different price points in a a handful of categories. I’ve also added DIY suggestions where possible.

The Gift of Enjoying Nature

Binoculars Expand the View: Years ago I bought my husband binoculars for his hiking adventures, but it turns out I’m the one who uses them just about every single day in my rewilded yard so they were a gift to me! Binoculars can range in price from $50 to $10,000! The binoculars I have are Zeiss Terra ED 8x25 which were about $350 and are perfect for a backyard naturalist or for leisurely nature walks. The Best Binoculars Reviews website is a great resource for doing a little research to get binoculars that that match your budget and the needs of the gift recipient. Jason Whitehead, the founder and managing editor of the site is passionate about binoculars and does not get compensated for his opinions and advice. On the site he gets into the weeds on the two most common binocular magnification powers and explains the best choice by may not always be higher magnification by comparing 8x42 (more stable, wider view, better image in low light or following fast moving objects like birds or critter) and 10x42 binoculars (higher resolution and more detail, best for good light in mid to long distance).

Binoculars are something I didn't know I wanted until my husband asked for a pair! The binoculars rarely leave our yard, but are used almost every day to zoom in on action in my rewilded yard!

The Gift of Knowledge and Inspiration: Books

Every year I suggest a few nature related books since they can be a meaningful way to strengthen mutual interests between friends or can even give the gift of advocacy and open up a new world for someone. 

Give a Set of Books: Assembling books from the same author such as Doug Tallamy, Nancy Lawson, or Margaret Renkl can have a big influence on someone's perspective.

I mentioned Nancy Lawson's books last year and am profiling them again this year in the context of gifting a set of books from the same author - her books are also small and stylistically coordinated to "match" which makes them nice for gift giving.

Doug Tallamy books are always a safe bet to rock someone's world if they like nature and have never read them!

Think Thematically: Depending on the budget, give multiple books on the same subject such as trees, hummingbirds, native plants, rewilding, birds, or another niche topic that can be tailored to the recipient.

In the nature section of my favorite local bookstore (Eagle Eye Books) I found an interesting collection of books about trees.

Make an Impact with One Book: Of course, just one book can change perspective, add insight, or just bring a smile.

One of the hot new nature books this season is The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer, the author of the wildly popular book Braiding Sweetgrass. In this new uplifting essay of a book, she helps us see how the generosity and interconnectedness of the serviceberry can teach us to be a gift to the land.

I took this photo in a bookstore in my neighborhood (Virginia Highland Bookstore) to send to my family as a book I wanted this year.

A charming new book filled with insightful essays on urban nature from Joanna Brochetti is called How a Robin Drinks: Essays on Urban Nature.

Joanna Brochetti's new book is a joy to read - and since it just came out it is perfect for someone who has a bookshelf full of nature books.

A practical resource for the habitat gardener is Sarah F. Jayne's new book called Nature’s Action Guide. It’s a workbook with a checklist of essential action items to help support biodiversity and the local ecosystem. Sarah F. Jayne is a neighbor of Doug Tallamy’s, and this book can serve as a companion resource for his books.

Our cats are indoor only and keenly aware and curious about anything different that goes on in the house. As soon as I started taking photos of the books for this post, Moo appeared and was very interested in the books.

Another essential resource for rewilding is The Gardener’s Guide to Prairie Plants by Neil Diboll & Hilary Cox. The Tables in the last chapter are exhaustively extensive and list plant habits, characteristics, what wildlife each plant attracts, what plants to plant for a variety of conditions by bloom time and color, root type, aggressiveness, deer resistance, and even plant life expectancy which is an often overlooked and helpful metric. Another great feature of this book is each plant profiled has a photo of what the seedlings looks like.

Soon after Moo appeared, Merlin joined him and they both insisted on being near the books so I rolled with it!

Small Gifts

Note Cards are Always in Style: In a digital world, a handwritten thank you note is a personal way to communicate gratitude. Nature oriented notecards with native birds, insects, or plants make a lovely nature related hostess gift or small thank you gift.

I found these notecards from Earth Sky + Water at a local bookstore (Eagle Eye Books). There were birds, critters, insects, and some native plants.

Cookie Stamps Make an Impression: Nature themed cookie stamps and/or a tin of cookies made with the stamps can bring a little holiday sweetness to anyone’s life and at the same time connect back to nature! I love to bake, and my daughter found three cookie stamps for me that I could reasonably call thematically centered around a healthy wildlife habitat: a bird, a native plant (sunflower/Helianthus – a keystone species), and an insect (dragonfly). Along with the cookie stamps, a nice touch is to print out a recipe for cookie stamp sugar cookies and attach it to the gift packaging.

These charming cookie stamp molds come in a host of different styles. They make great sugar or gingerbread cookies!

Our cats live a life of leisure but become dumpster cats when food is around - so trying to take a photo of cookie stamp cookies obviously had to include at least one of the cats!

The Gift of Darkness in a World Glowing with Light Pollution

A Sleep Mask Restores the Rhythm of Darkness: This is the perfect gift to give to a friend you’ve commiserated with over light pollution, whether your city is anachronistically embracing light pollution by installing bright LED lights in an questionable effort to deter crime, or you live where for some reason lighting up the outside like a parking lots seems be part of the aesthetic for the new big box houses that are replacing more modest older homes.

The glow is from the yard of the neighbors behind me - the dark line is where our fence is. Unfortunately the lights are on from sunset to sunrise 365 day of the year. The light comes in the five foot transom windows in our bedroom. I imagine our situation is not unique in urban and suburban areas.

In many cases, embracing darkness at night might be somewhat impossible without spending a chunk of change on blackout curtains. Out of desperation from the lights that now make our once dark bedroom eerily illuminated at night, one night I put on a flimsy giveaway eye mask lying around and had the best night’s sleep in years. I ordered a couple more high-quality sleep masks and it's helped put my circadian rhythm back in sync. Sleep masks are one of those items that can be super cheap or high end and pricy. The best mask I’ve tried so far is an inexpensive blackout mask from My Halos Sleep Mask - it doesn’t let in a speck of light although it leaves an imprint on my face. I’m accepting the reality that light pollution is not going anywhere soon and added the top rated and pricey Manta Pro Sleep Mask to my own holiday wish list in hopes of getting a mask that doesn’t give me creases.

This is the Alaska Bear Sleep Mask. I love it because it's inexpensive, silk, and doesn't leave a mark on my face, but it lets light in at the edges so I don't use it when I need to sleep in in the morning.

Yard Support for Rewilding is a Gift

Jumpstart Change with An Ecological Landscape Consultant: Get a loved who is interested in creating a wildlife friendly yard but not sure where to begin a consultation with a local native plant landscape designer. Sometimes a professional eye is all that’s needed to help move things forward.

This is a page from my resource list - I try to update it every year because things change. Most of the folks on this list will do consultations. Wherever you live, seek out the businesses doing native plant landscaping or invasive removal for advice. The expert advice from traditional landscapers is often based on ornamental horticulture and not ecologically informed landscaping practices.

A Yard Sign Signals Intention: Yard signs are becoming a standard ecological cue to care to show a yard is intentionally and lovingly tended to be naturally messy. The signs from Victory Garden of Tomorrow  at North Georgia Native Plant Nursery offer cheery descriptions that fit a rewilded yard. The ones with a Pesticide Free message can also raise awareness about the harm pesticides do. Other ecological landscaping yard signs can be found on Etsy.

This sign fits right in my rewilded yard. I just adore it and imagine anyone who receives it as a gift will also love it!

Plant Native Seeds of Hope with a DIY Winter Sowing Kit: Whenever I do my Winter Sowing Native Plants Presentation, I make a handful of winter sowing kits to raffle away. Winter Solstice on December 21 is the start of winter sowing season, so a winter sowing kit is a perfect seasonal gift. Putting this kind of kit together isn’t a one-off gift but you can make multiple kits for your native plant friends, nature book club, or gardening group friends. Making the kits could also be a fun group holiday activity so members can make kits for their own nature loving or ecologically aligned friends.

This is my little DIY native plant winter sowing kit (the top goes on it but I took it off to take the photo) I've made them a handful of times now to give away when I do winter sowing presentations. They are always well received and I think anyone who gets one as a gift will be equally excited to start native plants from seed.

The kit is in a plastic topped aluminum roasting pan that also serves as the winter sowing container. It includes organic potting mix, rice hulls to lighten the potting mix (optional), sand to keep the seeds in place (also optional), a small roll of duct tape, and native plant seeds. Label the contents and include a hand written note with a link to blogs about winter sowing on the Nurture Native Nature website or a link to a still helpful winter sowing presentation I gave for GNPS a few years ago. You could even print out one of the presentation slides with graphics to show how to winter sow using this method (BTW - the graphics for my presentations are done by Instinct Designs – a brilliantly creative, graphic design firm)

This image can be copied, printed and added to a native plant winter sowing kit.

Tools to Remove Invasives with Style: I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have unwanted plants in their yard. Last winter I had non-native fig ivy (Ficus pumila) removed from a long, low retaining wall in my backyard. Although it’s not listed as invasive in Georgia, functionally, fig ivy is an invasive in my yard - it's non-native, grows fast enough to outcompete and choke out native plants; has toxic qualities; isn't kept in check by native insects or animals; and its adventitious roots become thick and woody over time making them almost impossible to remove. I bought a handful of new tools for the young man who did this hard work for me and the three he liked were the Root Slayer shovel, Root Slayer trowel, and the Truper hand digger and cultivator combo.

Anyone who wrestles with invasive plants in their yard will welcome another tool to help them out!

The Gift of Stormwater Runoff Management

Rain Chains Offer Eco-Friendly Whimsy: A rain chain guides water away from the home to the ground or into a rain barrel in a functionally artistic way. This year I’ve added a rain chain to my own holiday wish list for an area where my gutters meet and still overflow. If you’re handy which I’m not, there are all sort of unique DIY rain chains you could make as a gift using spoons, copper tubing, terra-cotta pots, and even binder rings. The Pretty Handy Girl site lists out 21 DIY rain chains!

I don't have a rain chain yet so I pulled this one from a catalog. Rain chains come in a range of prices and styles.

Give a Barrel of Runoff: In Georgia, polluted urban stormwater runoff is the #1 cause of water pollution.  Rain barrels collect roof runoff and mitigate flooding and stormwater runoff. Just a half inch of rain falling on a 1,000-square-foot roof will yield 300 gallons of water!  At one time you could only find large white industrial plastic drums to make your own rain barrels but in the last few years rain barrels have moved from the crunchy world to the mainstream and there are a growing number of options at every price point that fit seamlessly into any landscape along with a growing number of articles to help to find the best rain barrels. (I took the video below when we installed a new rain barrel last summer. It looks like it's always been there!)

Gift Joy and Wonder with a Habitat Support Element

A Bluebird Box Brings Happiness: I’ve written about how make a bluebird friendly yard because everyone loves them and supporting bluebirds will support other birds and wildlife. Since these beloved birds start scoping out property in late winter – a high quality bluebird box given during the holiday might be used by a bluebird couple within months. Depending on the budget, include a pole and baffle for the box. If you’re inspired to create a hand crafted gift, the North American Bluebird Society has directions for making a bluebird house.

You can give someone you care about the gift of watching this scene play out in their backyard. Every year I experience the joy of watching bluebirds raise multiple broods because I have a bluebird box nesting box and a healthy ecosystem to offer them.

Encourage Hummingbird Wonderment: Like bluebirds, I've also written about hummingbirds because they are relatable ambassadors for nature. Any combination of a hummingbird feeder, cleaning brush, book on hummingbirds, recipe for homemade nectar, and/or native hummingbird nectar plants encourage someone to welcome hummingbirds into their life and might even be a gateway to a more wildlife friendly yard. I would recommend the saucer shaped hummingbird feeders – they don’t drip or attract bees and if you keep the water in the ant moat at the center of the outside fresh, small birds will sip from it. Add a tiny brush (like a mascara brush) to keep the holes in the feeder clean and make a recipe card for homemade nectar with care instructions for the feeder.

When new neighbors moved in last summer I put together a nature kit for them that included nature books, a hummingbird feeder, cleaning brush (not pictured), freshly made hummingbird nectar, and a recipe card for the the nectar. This gift package was for a family, but any variation on this idea would be a special gift for anyone.

Visit your local native plant nursery and give a hummingbird friendly native plant or two as a stand alone gift or part of a hummingbird gift basket.

Native plants are natural hummingbird food! Top row: blue sage (Salvia azurea), scarlet sage (Salvia coccinea), yellow evening primrose (Oenothera biennis), middle row: scarlet beebalm (Monarda didyma), coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), and bottom row: partridge pea (Chamaecrista fasciculatat), beardtongue (Penstemon), skullcap (Scutellaria)

Gifting an Experience is a Sustainable Trend to Lean Into

Experiences are Memorable! Gift a unique local nature experience - with or without you depending on the recipient! Think outside the box - for example, if you’re in Atlanta you could make gift certificates for an outing with local native plant and mushroom forager Josh Wayne or sign a plant pal up for the all-day Go Wild with Your Gardening Symposium at the Chattahoochee Nature Center (you may need to scope out whether they'll be around for this or make them a gift certificate). Non-profit nature organizations often host events such as outings, workshops, and lectures for free – making a plan to attend one with someone in your life is a priceless and memorable gift of time.

I took photo off Josh Wayne's website - I'm guessing he foraged this!

A Hiking Guide Might Inspire Adventure: Wherever you live, a hiking guide will bring someone closer to nature. I tend to come back to books for inspiration and this year for my nature trail seeking husband I got Ranger Jonah McDonald and Zana Pouncy’s new book Hiking Intown Atlanta’s Hidden Forests, Inside and On the Perimeter. It’s an extensive resource for nature experiences throughout the city. My gift to my husband will come with promises to join him...or not if he wants to commune with nature alone.

This amazing resource is hot off the presses!

Double Down on the Gift Giving! Giving a membership or an honorary donation to a worthy local organization working to connect people to nature is a double gift – for the organization and for the recipient. Every city has local and state nature-oriented organizations to seek out. For giving Tuesday inspiration, I wrote an Atlanta oriented blog called Giving Locally to Nature. My list includes Chattahoochee Nature Center, Birds Georgia (Formerly Georgia Audubon), Blue Heron Nature Preserve, Friends of Lost Corner, Georgia Native Plant Society, Friends of Georgia State Parks & Historic Sites, Park Pride, South Fork Conservancy, Trees Atlanta, Wild Nest Bird Rehabilitation, Woodlands Garden, and Wylde Center.

Every city has organizations doing the hard work of connecting people to the natural world...and a donation to all of them in someone's honor is a double gift. If you're in Atlanta, check out the post I wrote about local organizations.

Of course I also include Nurture Native Nature in the list which is also a non-profit 501c3 organization and gratefully accepts honorary donations to help with the cost of educational program and activity outreach to raise awareness about ways to support wildlife habitat where we live. Over the past year Nurture Native Nature has personally reached hundreds of people in Atlanta through workshops and presentations, given away hundreds of native plants, and spread the word to tens of thousands more people online. (The video is me at one of my Habitat Yard Workshops - they are one of the many ways I raise awareness about how to support wildlife where we live)

 Note: There are no affiliate links in this blog. The highlighted text throughout this post offer links to worthy organizations in Georgia that support nature in some way.