Delightful, Practical Gifts to Nurture Nature

I’m a bit of a minimalist when it comes to giving or getting gifts so I try to think of gifts that are practical, delightful, or both when assembling my yearly gift ideas. I aim for gifts that speak to a love of nature in some way with an eye towards sustainability and supporting local businesses or organizations.

I tried to find practical gifts that would delight a nature lover for this year's nature gift guide.

Combined, all my gift guides make one large list of unique, practical, and delightful ideas 😊 You can see the list from 2024 called Ideas for Gifting a Connection to Nature HERE, the list from 2023 called Nature Focused Gift Ideas HERE, and the list from 2021 called Fresh Ideas for the Backyard Nature Lover HERE (I apparently didn’t make one in 2022!)

The combination of gift guides from the last few years adds up!  

If you live in Atlanta – THIS is a list I made for giving Tuesday last year profiling local non-profit organizations helping nature in some way. Depending on the organization you can also gift a direct donation, perk or membership to someone you care about. Every city has similar local or state organizations if you do a little research.

A winning gift is a membership or perk to a local non-profit helping nature in some way. These logos represent some of organizations located in metro Atlanta - including Nurture Native Nature!

The following ideas in a range of price points are connected to nature in some way whether it’s a nod to a favorite wildlife animal, practical gifts for the native plant habitat gardener, support for creating a healthy yard ecosystem, or nature themed activities. 

*My top pick for this year is a cheeky and advocacy aligned take on pesticide warning signs. I would love to see these signs everywhere marking a yard as Safe for Wildlife as a direct contrast to all those poisoned yard signs! (More below in the Healthy Yard section)

The small Welcome - No Pesticide Application signs are so clever I seriously would love to see them in every pesticide free yard to - maybe it would help the folks poisoning their yards rethink their choice.

BIRD LOVE

Audubon  

For over a century the National Audubon Society's mission has been to protect birds and the places they need for today and tomorrow by preserving bird habitats, conducting scientific research, influencing policymakers to enact commonsense conservation laws, and engaged communities across the hemisphere to protect the natural resources upon which birds depend by working to halt, and ultimately reverse, the alarming bird decline. The National Audubon Society has over 450 local chapters and Birds Georgia, like dozens of other chapters, changed its name yet is still an independent Audubon partner. Gifting a local chapter membership will support the vital work being done to protect birds and at the same time bring someone else into the bird appreciation flock. A sweet way to gift a membership is with an Audubon stuffed bird with sound. I spied these ones at the Fernbank Museum gift shop.

Gifting a membership to Birds Georgia or just about any other local nature organization doesn't necessarily mean there's a tangible gift to give - adding something small like these stuffed woodpeckers with realistic sounds of each bird is a charming way to solve this challenge. .

Bird memory game For the bird lover or bird curious a bird memory game can be fun and instructive for all ages. I found these at a local gift shop, but Bird Collective out of Brooklyn creates a variation along with original bird themed gifts - made with original artwork and in collaboration with conservation organizations such as the American Bird Conservancy

Nature themed memory games are a learning gift the whole family can play!

Woodpecker Love (Or any other niche nature interest)

My years of years volunteering to lead charity auctions for schools and organizations when my kids were growing up taught me the value of making gift baskets for a bigger effect. This year it appears my own “gift bundle” will be about woodpeckers. Any theme dear to a someone's heart would also work. Where there’s woodpecker items being sold, there are other birds or wildlife items that can be substituted.

• A woodpecker suet feeder is on my wish list to offer a supplemental food source for winter woodpeckers visiting my yard. This fall a pair of yellow-bellied sapsuckers seems to have joined the more common downy woodpeckers and red-bellied who even bring their babies by during nesting season. My favorite place to buy bird related items like this is my local Wild Birds Unlimited shop.

  

  Woodpecker suet feeders come in multiple sizes. If someone has a small urban yard like mine, the smallest suet feeder works just fine.

• At my local Wild Birds I found a woodpecker patch along with many other bird patches, which my daughter has generously offered to sew on my gardening overalls to make them a bit more personalized. The patches are made by Bird Collective.

  

  Patches are popping up everywhere and are a way for someone to personalize their clothing or even a backpack.

An fun vintage woodpecker door knocker I found in a booth at an awesome local furniture, antique, and gift store called Kudzu went directly to my delight list. Woodpecker doorknobs are apparently a thing and plenty can be found on on Etsy

I fell in love with this woodpecker at an antiques mall, and it went to the top of my wish list!

SQUIRRELS

Squirrels are often the most common wildlife we see in urban and even suburban neighborhoods and their antics have many fans. It breaks my heart when one of the squirrels doesn’t make it across my quiet street so I’ve added a squirrel crossing sign to draw a bit of attention to possible squirrel action in a quirky and fun way. This unusual gift will undoubtedly amuse any squirrel lovers on your list! 

I need a stake to so I can put this instructive and charming sign near the street to remind folks to slow down!

• There’s a trend of buying funny “white elephant” gifts that are a one note joke and never meant to be used. These gifts may give a momentary smile, but they are typically cheaply made plastic with non-renewable electronic parts that end up in a landfill after the fun is over.  For a silly gift that isn’t made in China and won’t end up in a landfill combine a squirrel related item with “squirrel poop” – aka funny candy!

Sometimes being silly is needed and there's nothing more ridiculous than candy named "squirrel poop". The pictured candy come from Etsy, a Wild Birds Unlimited store, and Amuse Mints.

BOOKS

If you want to cut to the chase this year and buy a more general gift that sneaks a little advocacy into the equation for all your nature forward friends and family who don’t necessarily know about the importance of habitat friendly yard practices, just get a pile of  Doug Tallamy’s book Nature’s Best Hope and gift away! This book is not his first book but the first book I suggest reading if someone doesn't know who Doug Tallamy is. His books can be found on the Homegrown National Park site.

You can't go wrong gifting Nature's Best Hope!

NATIVE HABITAT GARDENER

Cedar Planters Native Container Garden is a way to support biodiversity for anyone with a porches or patio whether they have a yard or not. My latest find is a collection of raised cedar planters made by a local small business called Garden Head Planters and delivered in Atlanta or shipped anywhere.

I love finding local businesses serving a niche purpose. Because of their size, cedar planters are a bit of a game changer when it comes to having a container planter that can support wildlife habitat.

Container Garden Bundle A generous container garden bundle might include a large pot, a native plant or certificate to a local native plant nursery, and soil amendments such as vermicompost (earthworm castings), rice hulls, bio-fiber, or coir. I found bags of vermicompost at Wylde Center, a local educational nature organization.

The list of options are endless when it comes to putting together a gift basket inspired by native container gardening.

Gardening Hats 

A hat for a native plant enthusiast is a more caring gift than it might appear to be at first glance. My number one gardening advice to a young me would be to always wear a hat.  Anyone working outside is at risk of eventually getting basal cell carcinoma, the most common skin cancer that comes from prolonged unprotected exposure to the sun on the face, neck, and even head. It’s slow growing and treatable, but not pleasant to remove (as in the procedure that can take hours). This article from Wirecutter gives a little more information about the importance of sun hats with a couple recommendations. 

• Bucket hats are having a moment which I understand because a funky embroidered bird bucket hat I was gifted last year is the one I seem to reach for more than any of my other hats. It’s no longer for sale, but I’ve added a new bucket hat to my list from ones I found on Etsy

I've only had this hat a year and it already feels like it's a classic!

• Baseball hats are fine for a short outing if sunscreen is also used. Just about all local nature related organizations sell some kind of baseball cap with their logo on it. I love the clean design and muted color of a baseball cap I found at a local botanical garden.

Everyone loves a good baseball hat that also supports a local non-profit.

• Message hats like this Bee Kind one is needed now more than ever. My hat came from a warehouse store years ago, but Etsy has a bunch of hats along the same idea. My only wish is that the bee was a native one!

We can't have enough people wearing the message to Bee Kind!

• Sun Hats are the ones I wear when I know I’ll be in the direct sun. They’re not my favorite because they’re typically meant for hiking so they seem a bit big and bulky when gardening, but they get the job done. There is a wide range of prices for sun hats to fit every gift budget and plenty of articles ranking them.

  

  Sun hats are a whole world of decision making - find a sun hat ranking and pick the style and price tha says you care.  

Gardening gloves 

• Landfill biodegradable gloves that won't take a centuries to degrade are a sustainable native gardening gift. An easy to find brand at my local ACE hardware store is Watson. The fabric in them has been tested and certified to be free from harmful levels of more than 100 substances.

  

  Gardening gloves are always in demand by native plant enthusiasts so why not make them nature friendly!

• Waterproof winter gloves might be the best gift a native plant friend doesn't know they need! The best time to plant native trees and shrubs in much of the South is during the winter where the temperatures might still be too chilly for thin gardening gloves, Farmers Defense makes winter gloves in a variety of styles.

  

  Many gardeners wear multiple glove layers in winter - having styling winter gardening gloves makes winter gardening in much of the South a brisk but pleasant activity when we get cold snaps.

Botanical Science Tees Science apparel is hot! I found some spot-on nature tees designed around the flora found in the old growth forest on the grounds of a local science museum

I'm profiling these botanical t-shirts to encourage looking for other similarly inspired shirts.

HEALTHY YARD PRACTICES Supporting a healthy habitat yard is a gift that also helps heal our earth.

Mosquito Buckets Mosquito "buckets of doom" are no longer a niche crunchy way to control mosquitoes – they’re going mainstream. Even thought the mosquitoes may be gone until spring but B Buckets is a local business that continues to raise awareness about how to make a mosquito bucket and at the same time making it easy to install mosquito buckets by dropping bucket kits off locally and shipping nationally. Homegrown National Park Homegrown National Park also has information and mosquito bucket stickers to add to a DIY mosquito bucket.

Installing a mosquito bucket of doom is a simple and effective way to mitigate mosquitoes starting in spring when the weather warms up.

Safe for Wildlife Small Signs are a small but brilliant item B Buckets sells! This four-by-four inch all weather sign is designed to counteract those little warning signs pesticide companies and landscapers are required to leave when they apply poison to an area. Lawns use 10x more pesticides per acre than is used in agriculture – and this is evident by all the sign littering the lawns in my neighborhood. B Bucket’s signs look like the warning signs but are meant to remain and send a clear message that the yard is pesticide free and safe for all living things. Let’s gift THIS sign to everyone we know this year!

Buy these signs for all your friends with ecologically aligned yards.           

Moving Water Water is an important habitat support element and wildlife instinctively looks for water that moves.

• Solar Water Fountain with Battery Backup A solar water fountain only works when the sun is out, but if it has a battery backup it will give another 4-6 hours when charged.

A solar water fountain will bring all the birds to the yard!

• Water Wiggler A water wiggler has a battery and works for about a month and a half before the battery needs to be replaced.

  Water bubblers are more subtle than the solar water fountains, but the movement is enough to attract birds to the water.

NATURE APPRECIATION

Folding waterproof guides by Earth Sky + Water are beautifully designed, compact, waterproof, lightweight and best of all there are over 160 guides to choose from!

The options for folding guides are extensive!

Add the book 35 Natural Wonders of Georgia to See Before You Die by Ann Litrel and Charles Seabrook to a guide for the gift of nature outings. Each of the thirty-five sites in the book is introduced by paintings, field sketches, artist notes, and elegant science writing that highlight its unique attributes. The book captures the beauty and rich natural history of Georgia's biological and geological treasures--inspiring leisure travelers, nature enthusiasts, and art lovers to explore these places on their own. If you’re in Atlanta and your order is over $50 A Cappella Books will deliver to most intown neighborhoods.

This is the book I’m gifting to my adventurous, always on the move husband this year.

Pair Nature puzzles with fancy hot cocoa bombs for a sweet gift of a cozy winter night in.

I found the Native Birds of Georgia, Mushrooms of Georgia, Native Trees of Georgia and Wildflowers of Georgia puzzles at a local gift shop. Highland Creek puzzles makes similar puzzles for different states.

Painting kits are a small and unique gift for all ages and stages Jessica Lily, an Award Winning Atlanta Watercolor Artist has adorable water color painting kits of animals.

I just love the whimsy of these little painting craft kits centered around beloved wildlife like hummingbirds, anoles, and luna moths.

Note: There are no affiliate links in this blog – I enjoy the freedom that comes from speaking my mind and elevating those helping nature in some way. The highlighted text throughout the post might be references, details, explanations, worthy organizations and businesses, or examples that I think might be helpful. 😊 For this post, I took some of the item descriptions directly from the source.