Shopping for one who loves a garden? Or maybe you're plotting to
plant a list where it'll be found by someone who is shopping for
you. We were deep into doing both, when we looked at:
Ornaments
Storage efficiency experts say, "Anything on a floor is simply
clutter. Hang it, shelve it!" We don't know about calling all the
ground level in a garden "clutter" but space does tend to be at a
premium there. Yet every garden has dozens of tree limbs, eaves and
arbors begging for ornamentation.
Space enough for several complete collections of spheres,
butterflies (Plymouth Nursery in Plymouth,
MI)… 
…lumieres (don't you love these lights, like Protea acting as
wizard's wands? At Gardenviews in Northville,
MI)…
…or chimes. In these (at Gardenviews ), we love the
extremes: Tiny, lightly trilling chimes and
heavy,
less frequently heard bells and gongs.
Also the clack of wood.
Statuary
Most gardens can absorb quite a lot of it, tucked into niches
seen as you round a corner or stop at a bench. Although it's a
gamble to choose sculpture/statuary for another person, we can play
the odds by taking a camera to a shop that stocks many styles. (The
three below are all fom Gardenviews.) We take photos, buy
a gift certificate, and include in the envelope prints of the
tempting things we saw, where. It can save the friend shopping time
and/or be good for some laughs.
Some of our favorite sculptures are birdbaths. We like art that
also has function.
Below, we think the pebbled look or St. Francis (both at Gardenviews) is fine for the
birds, but in the households we know it seems the women do most of
the birdbath tending. So the angel (at Plymouth Nursery) gets our
vote.
Suddenly -- how does that happen?! -- we find ourselves in the backyard wildlife
department.