One excellent gift for Christmas this year is something that looks like it belongs in an old world garden. This brass, mechanical rain gauge has an antique look to it, and looks great in any lawn or garden. If you are searching for garden gifts this holiday season, then the Jeffersonian steampunk rain gauge is an excellent idea for your favorite gardener!

This rain gauge also comes with a rain collection vial complete with floating ball, and all the necessary screws, hooks, and mounting pole. This gauge is made from solid brass so it looks great and is durable – all the while letting the gardener know exactly how much or little rainfall his/her garden may be getting! It sells for $189.99, and will last for years and years to come, as it also comes with a lifetime manufacturer guarantee. You can’t beat that!

Hummingbirds are on their way! Check out this Hayes Avant Yarde Mini Window Hummingbird Feeder. It’s decorative and a lot cooler than your average hummingbird feeder. It looks great even if there are not birds on it. Welcome your hummingbirds with style! $7.49 is what it costs…

In Whitehorse, in the Yucatan, there exists the largest weather vane in the world.  It’s a decommissioned DC-3 cargo plane from WWII.  In 1981 a group of people who probably need additional job responsibilities restored the nine ton warbird and then hoisted it up on a pole so the pilots landing at the Whitehorse airport could tell the wind direction.  Seriously.   Supposedly it only takes a 5 knot wind to make it turn. 

If you are in need of a saner weather vane, the folks at Clean Air Gardening have something a tad more practical.  It’s the classic rooster style, made out of copper and doesn’t require a crane to put it in place and $20,000 dollars to get it into a presentable condition.    The Copper Rooster Weather Vane is available for $270.99 from Clean Air Gardening.

Steam Punk, it’s what all the cool kids are doing these days. The term came from a parody of cyber punk and originated in the fiction works of authors such as K. W. Jeter and Tim Powers. Those authors themselves derived a great deal from HG Wells.

But it’s moved beyond the realm of fiction literature. People are remaking modern equipment such as home computers and TVs with lots of ornate brass and wood work to give the overall effect of steam powered Victorian era contraptions put together by some mad scientist.

Along those same lines we have Jeffersonian Steampunk Rain Gauge. This 31” tall contraption made out of glass and brass not only gives you that quaint Stempunk look in your garden but it’s actually a functioning rain gauge; and it even has a lifetime guarantee. The rain gauge is available from Clean Air Gardening for $159.99

Pappy Boyington, the WWII Fighter Ace, wrote about making a sundial in the Japanese POW camp he was held in after being shot down in the pacific. The prisoners made the sundial out of boredom and when one of the not so bright guards asked how you would tell time with it after dark, they replied “use a match”. The guard took a while to think about it before realizing he had been had.

Right off the bat I can tell you that this sundial is pretty useless for telling time after dark. In fact, if you really need to be somewhere at a specific time you are probably better off using a cheap wrist watch than you are trying to figure out the time of day from a sundial. But that doesn’t make this time piece any less of a great addition to your garden. It’s made of cast aluminum with a baked on finish for years of daylight only time keeping and can either be mounted on it’s optional pedestal or placed directly on the ground. Tell your kids it’s the way you had to tell time when you were a kid…even use the match joke. But be warned; my kid won’t even believe me about black and white TV.

The Frog Sundial is available for $69.00 from Smith & Hawken.

These recycled metal branches are cast from real twigs and help create unique flower arrangement. Your flowers become true eco-friendly works of art with this sculpture/flower holder. Available from VivaTerra.com for about $80.00 for one, $150.00 for two.

I’m just really not a garden gnome kinda guy.  Any positive feelings I may have had towards those little guys has been thoroughly and completely driven out of me by travel commercials.  But this little guy I could see putting in my yard.  By little, I mean compared to the real thing…if there is a real thing of course. 

This bigfoot, yeti, or sasquatch statue stands over two feet tall and is made out of durable resin so he won’t be disappearing any time soon.  It’s also hand painted for realism.  Well, Realism may not be the right word; or so they say, but who am I to judge.  The Big Foot Garden Statue is available from Skymall for $98.95.  Much less than a trip to the Pacific Northwest (for most of us). 

It was in Gräfenroda, Germany back in the mid-1800′s that August Heissner and Phillip Griebel started the whole Gnome thing.  They were making a line of terra cotta animals for people to decorate their garden with and since according to local folklore Gnomes would come during the night and help you with your garden they thought it only natural to add the mythical creatures to their line.  The idea caught on and spread across the globe; each country adding its own style and design. 

Now the original Gnomes were made out of terra cotta, and while I think authenticity is a groovy thing and all (I only buy plastic lawn flamingos with the authentic artists signature under the tail) there is a problem;  terra cotta is rather fragile and I think we all have quite enough broken stuff laying about.  So modern technology prevails in the Gnome world…and I’m not talking about those cursed travel commercials.  These Gnomes are made out of unbreakable weather resistant Resin.  You can order the Garden Gnomes in a set of three for $79.00, or just buy the individual Gnomes for $29 from Smith and Hawken.

You can also find a great selection of various other garden gnomes here.

A citronella candle is a great choice for keeping flying insects away when you are on the porch or the back deck, but they just don’t have much personality.

But now you can get the usefulness of a citronella candle, along with the fun weirdness of a garden gnome, with this Citronella Candle Gnome.

$19 at Clean Air Gardening.

Buying a gift for someone who is proud of his or her garden?

Get them a custom manufactured Chickadee Garden Sign, with stakes.

Takes three to four weeks to arrive. Made of cast aluminum.

$69.99 from the House Number Shop.