This year I am growing onions from seed for the first time, after many years of using onion sets. Part of my motivation is cost, but I also read in Le Jardin Vivrier that onions from seed tend to store better. Here is the approach I am taking based on the principles of no-dig, intense planting.

I started my onion seeds in a tray. I planted them very densely in rows. I didn't thin them.  I trimmed them a couple of times to keep them around 6-10cm long. The trimmed ends are very fragrant and I used them in my cooking.

Once it was transplanting time, I trimmed them once more to around 6cm, and loosened the soil in the tray. It was easy to pull out the tiny onion seedlings and untangle them. 

I grabbed 3-4 onion seedlings at a time

My garden surface was already loose soil (if it had not been loose I would have used the broadfork to loosen it). I had recently replenished the mulch covering it, with a layer of leaves and a layer of grass clippings. I used my hori hori knife to spread the mulch apart and make a small hole. I placed the 4 seedlings in the hole, making sure not to cover them above the split in their leaves. I packed the soil around them a bit. 

The reason I put 4 onions per hole is that they will naturally push each other apart as they grow. In many cases I will harvest one per hole as a "green onion" early in the season, and maybe even another one to cook as a young onion, but they'd be fine left together to maturity, too. 

I used a distance of 8 inches between each 4-pack of onions. Even this densely packed, since onions have such skinny leaves, they won't shade the soil and weeds, so it will be important to keep a thick layer of mulch in between the onions, all summer long. I planted my onion sets the same way. In total, I have about 300 onions planted. They are one of those things that we never seem to have enough of! One of my favorite uses is French onion soup, which I pressure can. 

Woodworking skills and tools come in handy in the day to day. My latest project was making a gardening bench, which is mostly used while kneeling but also for sitting. It makes it more comfortable to kneel, saves my pants from the worse of the dirt and scuffs, and makes the repetitive up and down motions easier when it comes to long days of working along rows. The design I decided on has a few bonus features as well - it makes it easier to move all my tools as I go down a row, and if I flip it upside down it's a nice stool from which I can complete the "admiration phase" of my work or take a little break. My design was inspired by commercial products such as this one. 

Materials needed:

• Foam (I purchased a kneeling pad from Rona)
• Wood: 2 by 12, about 6-8 feet long (1 board) OR 2 by 6, about 6-8 feet long (two boards). I used pine for budget reasons. I'm sure it will get marks on it as I use it, but I really don't mind that for this project.
• White carpenter's glue
• Contact cement to glue the foam to the wood
• Polyurethane finish

To create my design, I experimented a bit with stacks of books to see what was a comfortable height for kneeling, how high I wanted the handles to be (to assist with getting up repeatedly), and how wide I wanted the kneeler (I wanted a bit of extra space on each side to put down a tool if needed). I also experimented a bit to see what dimensions would work to fold my gardening bag over the top edge. I decided to use mortice and tenon joinery for strength.

I could get 2 by 12 boards so I started by jointing and laminating pairs of 2 x 6 boards cut to size. I planed and jointed them. Then I used my router to carve out a mortice and handle in each vertical piece. I made the handle and mortice symmetrical, which made for an appealing design and simple router set up. 

Next, I used my router table to carve out a notch at either end of the vertical board. This creates short little legs that make the bench more stable on uneven ground. As a bonus, once I started using the bench, I realized that they are great for hanging my hat or any tool with a loop. 

I While I was at the router table, I started to work on the tenons, at either end of the horizontal piece. I routed out material on both faces of the board, adjusting until it was the correct thickness to slip just right into the mortice. I used a handsaw on the two edges to complete the tenon, and chisels to round off the tenon and adjust the fit. I made the tenon a bit longer than needed, so it would stick out a bit, just as an aesthetic choice.

Then, I used a palm router and rasp to round the edges. I glued the mortice and tenon, and applied polyurethane finish. In the picture below, the bench is drying upside down, on some painters' pyramids that I 3D printed a while back. All that was left was gluing the foam on with contact cement.

I had a chance to try out my kneeling bench yesterday while planting onions, and I love it. It is comfortable, less tiring, less muddy, and makes it easy to move all my tools along a row as I progress. The upside-down side definitely came in handy too. I love hooking my gardening bag on one end, and my hat on the other when I take it off to cool down a bit. Overall I am very happy with my design! It took about two half days to make, plus drying time. It was a lovely project to spend some time in one of my happy places, my workshop, listening to the rain falling on the tin roof.

Fiddleheads are a great food to forage. They are very easy to identify around here, and come pretty early (early/mid-May this year where we live, in Eastern Ontario), right as nature wakes up and before I can get fresh greens from the garden. It might be easier to spot a nearby ostrich fern patch in the summer, and go back to harvest in the spring. We have lots in our forest.​

Fiddleheads are the early form of the Ostrich fern - one of two abundant ferns in our area, which also has a lot of Cinnamon fern. It's key to be able to distinguish between these two ferns, and luckily it's pretty easy.  The first key characteristic of the ostrich fern is that is it covered with light brown / tan paper - as opposed to the white fuzz that covers the cinnamon fern. The second key characteristic is that its stem has a groove in it (a cross section would be U shaped like a tiny celery), as opposed to the cinnamon fern which doesn't. In the picture below, the ostrich fern is at the top and the cinnamon fern at the bottom. 

I cut a couple of fiddleheads from each fern and leave the rest, to ensure a sustainable harvest. I cut them near the ground as the stem is quite good. Once at home, I sort through the fiddleheads to confirm identification, remove as much of the papery husk as I can (but it's fine if some stays), trim off the ends and wash them. I boil or steam them, then pan fry them in olive oil with garlic, salt, pepper. I add a little bit of lime juice. Delicious!

When we first moved here, I planted a few apples trees. They have become quite productive and on a good year yield the apple harvest is plentiful.

Unfortunately, the pruning process has always been intimidating to me, so for the first 12 years or so, I didn't prune any of my trees. I could tell they were getting a little bit out of control, but I just didn't know where to start with it. I looked for information in books and online, but never felt confident. I mentioned this to many people in hopes someone could point me in the right direction... and finally it paid off as my friend Peggy from Good Food Garden, who similarly wanted to learn to prune her apple trees, got a small group together to learn this art from a local expert, Jeff Turner. After participating in this workshop, I can safely say that the best way to learn pruning is to learn in-person, from someone who knows what they are doing! After covering a little bit of theory, we headed outside and pruned Peggy's three apple trees, that were in a comparable state to mine. As the pruning process progressed, the pieces started to fall in place for me and I started to be able to make educated guesses about which branches needed to go. The next day, I pruned my apple and pear trees - I thought I better do it before I lost my nerve! 

Reflecting on the specific advice that Jeff gave, I realized some guiding principles:

1. Any branch that is doomed to break off, or that isn't productive (watersprouts), corresponds to wasted energy. 
2. Aim for a tree with an even distribution of branches in three dimensional space, emanating from the center but not crossing each other. Branches that cross are in competition and also run the risk of rubbing against each other, opening up a wound.
3. Think about the practicality of the harvest - are low branches going to be in the way? Do you need some kind of open space to lean your ladder against?
4. When deciding between two branches, always imagine what things will look in the future if you leave branch A, vs branch B, and how these scenarios will support or contradict the first three principles.

Here are a few of the specific guidelines I used to prune my trees in support of the principles, thanks to Jeff's advice.

• Prune off any "watersprouts" - thin vertical shoots that won't produce (principle 1, waste of energy)
• Avoid having any Y-split of 15-20 degrees or less, in  vertical Ys - these are likely to get bark trapped in the center of "Y" as the two branches develop and thicken, weakening the joint and leading to the "leaning" branch breaking off. (principle 1, potential waste of energy when a whole section breaks off)
• Prune off any branches that cross other branches when seen from above. When deciding which branch goes, imagine future development and which branch will fill out the tree without crowding an area. (principles 2 and 3, even branch density with no crossings)
• Never prune back more than one third of the tree

In terms of the process of pruning, we learned:

• Always prune just after the collar. Cutting into the collar is not great for healing, and leaving too much of the branch sticking out might be an opportunity for rot to set in.
• Any cut that is more than an inch in diameter should be covered with pruning sealer. I used a woodworking glue spreader to apply it. 
• The best tools to use are a pullsaw (I used my woodworking Dozuki saw...) and sharp pruning shears
• An alternative to pruning is using spreaders or ropes and weights to redirect the branches for a season, to set them in a new direction. I haven't tried this technique yet.

​Le jardinier-maraîcher: Manuel d’agriculture biologique sur petite surface, Jean-Martin Fortier

The market gardener : A  successful grower’s handbook for small-scale organic farming, Jean-Marc Fortier
 
This very practical handbook is based on the experience of Jean-Martin Fortier and Maude-Hélène Desroches in establishing a successful small scale organic farm serving customers mostly through a CSA basket program, in the Eastern Townships of Québec. Their approach is centered on organic methods, intense planting,  and efficiency of work, enabling them to minimize how much they invest in equipment and people power. Given these goals, a lot (but not all) of their conclusions are very applicable to a homesteading garden, where minimizing work and investment are typically very important. Where the applicability breaks down is where they make decisions based on building their customer base, and also, because minimal attention is paid to planning a garden with the goal of preserving food over winter, as their business revolves around selling fresh produce.

I really enjoyed the way the book is organized – it is a true handbook, with chapters on every phase of setting up and operating a large garden. The first few chapters would be useful for someone who is still dreaming about homesteading. They cover how to chose the ideal property and how to set up your site. If you already have a property, you will probably only skim them. The rest of the chapters are dedicated to one topic each, including fertilizing, indoor seedlings, direct sowing, weeding, pests, prolonging the growing season, harvesting and planning your production.

Personally, I also enjoyed how throughout the book, the author shares the philosophy behind their approach. The themes of sustainability, anti-consumerism and seeking a balanced life resonated strongly with me. These themes don’t take over the book, but they do incite reflection and give an intention to the work.

There are many reference charts and appendices covering things such as rotation charts, crop spacing, planting calendars, solutions to common problems, etc.

There is also considerable attention given to the business side of things, which I found interesting but not very applicable to my situation, where my goal is feeding myself and my family, as opposed to growing a business.
​
After my first reading of the book, I have a few take-aways that I am immediately putting into practice:

1. Crop rotation: in the past, I have had a general sense and goal of avoiding planting the same thing in the same place two years in a row, but this book gave a much clearer and systematic understanding of crop rotation. I now have a stronger understanding of the need to rotate between vegetable families, instead of between specific vegetables. For example, I should wait 3-4 years before planting a nightshade where another nightshade has been grown (the nightshade family includes tomatoes, peppers, potatoes, eggplants, tobacco, and ground cherries). There is a very useful summary of a few other key rules to respect when planning crop rotation. Over the weekend, I reworked my garden overhead plan to fully incorporate crop rotation by family. For me, this means dividing up garden into 4 sections of 3 rows each and rotating rows within these sections. It was a bit of a logic puzzle to plan out, as there are many other constraints in my garden (row size, some rows being irrigated and others not, spacing available around the row etc).
2. Pairing up spring or fall crops with summer crops: for example, to double the use of a row, you can plant an early crop of spinach and once it is harvested and the warmer weather arrives, plant turnip in its place. Some other pairs I intend to use are: fall garlic and greens, green beans and fall garlic, sugar peas and lettuce, spinach and carrots.
3. Dense planting (less space between plants): I had already stumbled on my own into the principle of dense planting. From the start, I have always wanted to plant as many things as possible within the space that I have available, so I often disregarded the row spacing suggested on seed packets. Most of the time I didn’t notice any ill effects. For example, I often planted two onion bulbs one next to the other and harvested one early as a green onion and left the other to grow. The other advantage of dense planting is that it leaves less space for weeds. In this book, dense planting is strongly encouraged. The rule of thumb that is given is that plants should touch each other when they are three-quarters of their full size. This will give good coverage of the soil, minimizing weeds, mulching and keeping the ground cool and moist. Specific spacing for specific crops is outlined. This makes me more confident in continuing down the path of dense planting. This year, my onions will be going down in groups of four!
4. Better early planting calendar: I have never made good use of the time before the last frost. Typically I didn’t plant anything before end of May or beginning of June. Some of that is a habit that I formed before I transitioned to no-till gardening – at the time, I always had to wait for the garden to be dry before I tilled it. However, as I’ve landed on the proper configuration for my garden, with permanent beds and walking paths, and, as I’ve transitioned to a no-till approach, the spring brings a lot of possibility. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a good idea of what to plant when. Luckily a planting calendar in the book answered all my questions.
5. Transitioning more crops from direct sowing to seedlings: My past rule of thumb has been that if something can be direct sown, I direct sow it. This helped me minimize the number of shelves, lighting, and other seed starting equipment I needed and transplanting time. However, with time, I have been able to acquire more seed starting space (which I use for Kratky in the winter). The book drove home that an early start means that you’ll not only get your crop earlier, but you’ll also and then have space for a crop of something else afterwards; this idea is appealing and gives me motivation for starting more seedlings this year.

 
Those are my immediately actionable items. The book also gave me some longer-term ideas. I would like to look into simple-ish ways to extend the growing season, such as floating covers, row tunnels, and maybe a small greenhouse. I am also curious to do some more scientific soil tests and to look into a more test-based approach to fertilizing my soil.
 
There were also some aspects to the book which were not really applicable to my situation, and I feel that they may not appeal to most homesteaders. The approach explained in the book is not a no-till approach – some light hand-operated machinery is used. It makes sense from a business perspective but on the kitchen garden scale, I prefer the simplicity, and lower investment, of a no till method. Some of the equipment, although much more affordable than typical farming machinery, is still a bit pricy if you aren’t planning to recoup your investment through sales. Similarly, the farm relies on manmade mulches, and some options are interesting, such as a cornstarch based biodegradable membrane that is incorporated in the soil in the fall. However, in my case I will stick to natural mulches such as leaves and grass cuttings, which I can get for free and which contribute to improving the quality of my clay-based soil.
 
In conclusion, I would highly recommend this book to anyone with a large garden, especially if they are based in zones 3-5. I would rank it as my second favorite book, after “Le Jardin Vivrier” by Marie Thévard – the reason I prefer the latter is because the scenario described in the latter is more similar to my own – a self-sufficiency goal, rather than a small business goal. Together, these two books make a powerful duo for people in a homesteading situation.

There is something to be said for finding free snacks wherever you go. In addition to growing my own food, I also enjoy foraging. The following quote from "Landmade - Eating the wild things" also speaks to me: "In a society that encourages - even insists on - constant consumption and consumerism, foraging your own food for free can be an act of rebellion". 

I think that most of us have had experiences with foraging, be it as simple as eating a few wild raspberries or strawberries in the summertime. I remember my grandmother showing me where to pick raspberries behind my grandparents' cottage when I was a child. I brought a tiny bucket back and had them over vanilla ice cream with a bit of maple syrup. So sweet! I also remember visiting our current property with the previous owner, just before moving in. He gave us a tour or the forest, the marsh, the fields and pointed out the raspberry bushes and the sugar maple in the forest, and I felt so lucky to become the custodian of this land. 

I have found it challenging to learn foraging from books or website, however, spending a couple hours with a local forager keen to share their knowledge was an incredible learning experience. In our case, we leveled up our knowledge with a foraging walk with the kind people of Landmade, at a location about half an hour from our property. I would not hesitate to recommend their walks and workshops. After our walk with Jess, our guide, we started to notice wild foods everywhere we went - on the side of the highway, in parks, and on our property. Our eyes were opened!

Here is a little gallery of some of the foods we forage on our property. These image are just meant to encourage you to get to know the land around you, and to pique your interest - please make sure you are certain of your identification before eating anything you forage.

I'll always remember the first time my nephew pulled on a carrot stem, and saw a carrot come up from the earth. Amazement! He couldn't believe that he had just pulled a carrot from the ground. Ever since he could toddle around, I have loved showing him all the places where food grows, whether it's berries, edible flowers or something in the garden. He's always loved "helping" in the garden. He spent most of last summer asking me to show him "a plant he's never seen before". Luckily there are lots of options on a hobby farm with a forest, a marsh, and lots of wildflowers.

​To build on this interest, last summer I gave him a seed catalog to look through. Before I knew it, he was taking it to bed every night and looking at the images. He even took it camping. Once it got tattered, I asked members of the local horticultural society for old seed catalogs, and they came through in a big way. Pretty soon my nephew had new catalogs to look through, and we had lots of spares to do activities with. On a cold snowy day, we cut out pictures from catalogs and made collages. We talked about how much we were looking forward to the garden, and how he would have his own little section in the garden this year. He asked what all the different plants were and which ones we could have in our garden.

I gave him scissors and a glue stick, and he did a collage of the plants he wants to have in the garden. For him that mostly meant "plants he's never seen before". Luckily I had ordered seeds for several of these based on past conversations. It was good practice for using scissors and observation skills, too.

​Once he was happy with his “garden” (and a little tired of cutting), we switched gears. I had drawn a rainbow and he looked for plants of all the different colors of the rainbow. I cut out his favorite ones and we pasted them on the rainbow. 

Of course, I had to make my own garden collage, too. I'm sure we'll find lots of other ways to use the seed catalogs.

Canning food safely is a science. A closed jar can be an ideal environment for pathogens to reproduce, which can not only cause illness or death, but can also lead to spoiled food (and losing all my hard work). So, I always want to make sure that the recipes I follow have been tested using a scientifically sound approach. Unfortunately, a lot of the traditional approaches to canning aren't scientifically sound. Although a lot of people prefer to follow these hand-me-down approaches on the basis of "my grandmother never killed anyone with her canning", that isn't quite good enough for me. I remember my grandma scraping mold off of the top of her strawberry jelly jars... I am grateful that she inspired me to try canning, but that doesn't mean I need to exactly follow her recipes.

When I started canning, it was very difficult for me to decide which canning recipes to follow, and to sort out legitimate advice from misinformation. However, after several years of experience I have compiled a list of sites and sources that I trust. 

Sources I trust:

1. For basic recipes (canning a single vegetable for example), my first stop is usually the National Center for Home Food Preservation. They have an extensive list of recipes but they are pretty basic.
2. Pick your own was my favorite website when I first learned to can, and I still use it a lot. A lot of its recipes are the same as the NCHFP, however, the instructions are more detailed and clearer for beginners. All the options are explained, the steps are outlined carefully, and lots of pictures are provided. I would highly recommend it if you don't know where to start. Don't let the outdated graphics and layout deter you!
3. Healthy canning is another scientifically-minded resource that I trust completely. They draw from the NCHFP and other sources. The also provide good guidelines and explanations around more advanced topics such as steam canning, Ph, and substitutions. 
4. Recent Ball (aka Bernardin) books and online compilations are also very respected. The recipes are a bit more varied than the three preceding sources, but, still pretty conservative. Many canners see them as "the bible of canning". Detractors point to the fact that some recipes have changed over the years or been removed due to new information, but to me that is a sign of a scientific mindset. Along those lines, though, be careful about using older versions. 
5. In Francophone canning circles, Vincent le Canneux is the master canner. I like his website because it presents more creative and modern recipes, and he is quite specific about how he tested his recipes using microbiology (for example inoculating recipes with heat resistant bacteria prior to canning and testing for its presence after canning). English canning circles don't really accept this source, but after having consulted it extensively, and read through his responses to questions about his process, personally I am comfortable with most of his approaches. I do look them over with a critical eye as occasionally some things are a little too much outside the norm for me to accept them without more confirmation (especially when it comes to using oil and occasionally as it relates to density). But overall I think it is a very worthwhile source to consider.
6. I usually also trust recipes that are posted by University extension offices.
7. The canning group "Canning and preserving with love" on Facebook is a great resource to ask questions on and to get recipes from. They have very strong contributors.
8. Ricardo is a website that I sometimes consider as well. However, I don't accept it uncritically. I do compare their recipes to other sources before using them. Canning isn't their specialty, but, they do have interesting more modern recipes that are interesting to evaluate critically.

Sources I don't personally trust:

1. The "Canning Diva" is a popular series of canning books and has a good online following. Personally it is not a source I trust. A lot of the recipes go against other sources I trust more. The author has had some lab tests done (for example for dry canned potatoes), and although I appreciate the effort to use a scientific approach, the logic behind what to test and what conclusions can be drawn from the tests doesn't make sense to me. For example, a test showing no botulism in dry canned potatoes doesn't prove that the canning process killed botulism - maybe there just wasn't botulism to start with in the=is particular sample (inoculating the sample before processing would be a stronger test). 
2. Miss Conserves is a popular series of books in French. I bought and returned these books, because I saw too many recipes in them that did not line up with current science (for example things canned in a lot of oil, or that are very dense, such as hummus). The author seems reticent to engage in dialogue about her testing approach, which makes me a little nervous. So, personally, I don't trust the recipes in those books.
3. Older books in general, general books with a small section on canning, grandma's recipes - I usually avoid these as many are based on traditional approaches that may not have been able to be tested scientifically at the time. They were useful approaches when they were the best we had, but there is no need anymore to risk our health or risk wasting our hard work. 
4. Le Parfait is a popular site based in France, that I don't personally trust. A lot of the recipes don't hold up to best practices from a scientific standpoint. I also suspect that in general, European sources tend to be a bit biased due to the lower prevalence of pressure canners in Europe (they are more liberal with what is considered safe to can without a pressure canner).
5. "Canning rebel" groups on Facebook. I follow them because they do have interesting ideas and information, and I appreciate the exploratory mindset, however, I don't personally take any advice or recipes shared there at face value. Their motto is "your kitchen your rules", and in my kitchen, I have a high threshold for safety testing. These groups have a lot of "spoiled food" posts which are anecdotal evidence against trusting fully the techniques shared within them. 

Overall, I wish that there were more modern and creative safe canning websites, especially when it comes to vegetarian "meals in a jar", but since I prioritize safety and effective food preservation, I tend to abide by the lists above. I would love to hear about other sources I could consider in the future.

Let me walk you through what a one year cycle of tracking and planning looks like.

Early August - annual inventory and estimate of annual usage
At this time of year we are eating mostly fresh from the garden so my inventory won't fluctuate too much going into the fall. Just before canning season starts, I do a full inventory of the cellar, shelves and freezer, and I record of what I still have in stock from the previous year. It is a chance to correct for any instances where we forgot to update the inventory as we used products. I make a permanent record of this number in an excel sheet (see below). I compare this with the number I noted a year ago on this date, , and I calculate our yearly consumption:

Annual consumption = (how many I had in early August last year) + (last year's production) - (how many are left)

I sometimes adjust that number up or down based on whether I felt like we would have enjoyed more if we had more, or had to make an effort to incorporate that much in our meal planning. I then calculate how many of that product I want to preserve.

Production goal = (Annual consumption) - (how many are left) + a bit of buffer

Lately I have been thinking more about crop failures or how some summers, one crop will do very poorly. For example, last year all my cucumber plants were eaten by groundhogs before I fenced in the garden; this year, abundant rain led to poor tomato production; a few years ago an ill-timed frost killed all our apple blossoms. For this reason, for the most important products, I try to have two years' worth of stock, instead of one year's. ​

Early August - preserving plan
At this point I'm just about to enter preserving season. I have a pretty good idea of how each crop is doing, and I know what my production goals for each product I want to preserve. Realistically, I won't be able to reach all those goals, so it's time to make priorities.

At this point, I make a list organized by fruit/vegetable, listed from earliest to mature to latest to mature. For each item, I decide on my priorities and goals. For example, for tomatoes my first priority is to make sure we have a year's supply of canned whole tomatoes; my second priority is marinara sauce; any extra tomatoes after that can become tomato juice, bruschetta, bbq sauce etc. Each item has my production goal next to it. That list gets posted on my fridge and it becomes my to-do list. ​

 April-May  starting seedlings
Each year, in my garden notebook, I record how many seedlings of each type I start each year, and how many I transplant successfully in the garden. This way I know what percentage of extra seedlings I should start. This all needs to be balanced against the total amount of seedlings I can nurture given shelf space and lighting. ​For any tracking that happens in my seedling work area or in the garden, it works best for me to record things in my notebook, as opposed to on the computer.

May-June planting outdoors
In the process of transplanting to the garden, some changes will happen for sure. Some seedlings might have been less or more numerous than my plan, and I might get tempted by something extra at the nursery or pick up some unexpected seeds at a seed swap. I keep records of everything to help me plan next year.  

If any seedlings failed, at this point I decide whether it is worth getting replacement plants at the nursery.

Conclusion
This brings us to a full one year cycle. It took me a long time to refine my tracking system and I hope this information and the samples I provided will be useful for some of you. "How many tomato plants should I plant?" is such a common question online, but I've learned that the only person who can truly answer it is you, after careful tracking over the course of a year!

If you are like me at this time of year you might be googling things like "Christmas gifts for bakers" and "Best gifts for woodworkers", in search of inspiration. Well, let me save you some further googling in terms of the gardeners and homesteaders on your list! Here are some gift ideas they might appreciate.

1. Hori hori knife - it doesn't seem to be super well known but it is so useful - for weeding, harvesting, planting, measuring and more. 
2. Trowel - it has been supplanted by the hori hori knife in my tool kit, but, no gardener would ever say no to an extra trowel. They do tend to get misplaced from time to time
3. A hand crank apple peeler and slicer with suction base (also useful for potato peeling)
4. A palm held peeler - the best all purpose peeler I ever had. It's great for longer jobs and I think would be wonderful for anyone with arthritis or just plain tired hands.
5. Knee pads
6. A fermentation starter kit
7. Canning jars - they have so many uses and we are always running out
8. A nice notebook to keep notes from year to year
9. A produce knife to help with harvesting
10. A harvest bag, it stays pleasantly open when you are picking produce, and doesn't absorb dirt
11. A thermacell to keep the mosquitoes away (the only mosquito deterrent I'd vouch for)
12. A book for example: Le jardin vivrier, Building soil, or the most recent ball book of canning. 
13. A cheese making kit
14. Some gift card options - the local nursery, lee valley, a hardware store, or a Canadian seed distributor
15. A mandolin/dicer/chopper/etc tool (these really work). 
16. A bead organizer to save seeds in
17. A steam canner, for examples the victorio brand
18. A maple syrup starter kit (buckets, lids and spiles...)
19. A big watering can
20. Gardening gloves (they don't last forever!)
21. Kitchen towels with a nice gardening theme
22. Measuring spoons and cups (I feel like you can always use extras!)
23. A mushroom growing kit
24. Seeds for growing sprouts
25. A japanese weeding tool
26. The gift of time! volunteering to come and do a day of planting, weeding, harvesting or canning. Honestly the best gift ever :)

If you are looking for a big ticket item, some ideas to consider would be a pressure canner, dehydrator,  a worm farm, or a steam juicer (but make sure they have the space for these), or shelves and grow lights.

I'm happy to help you find these things or answer questions if you are trying to surprise your favorite gardener