Tips on how to choose some of the best mum-friendly gardening gifts - plus, find out what else needs doing in the garden this week.

By Hannah Stephenson

Stuck on the usual 'flowers or chocolates' dilemma? Why not find some inspiration in the garden this Mother's Day, and treat the woman who knows you best to everything from decorative twine to wind chimes, seed collections or serious tools.

Here's our round-up of some of the best mum-friendly gardening gifts.

Under a fiver

:: If you're on a strict budget, what about some pretty candle holders? These bird tealight holders from Crocus (£4.99, www.crocus.co.uk) are unfussy, would suit a contemporary or traditional setting, come in two finishes - zinc plated and white gloss powder coated - and you can use them outside or indoors.

:: If your mother doesn't want to be a slave to watering her pots, treat her to the new AquaDeco globe from Hozelock. A hand-made glass globe that acts as both a decorate and functional feature, you simply make a hole in the compost, fill the globe with water and place the neck of it into the soil. Through capillary action, the plant will absorb the quantity of water it needs. Available in six different colours and widely available from DIY stores, leading garden centres and specialist retailers, priced £4.99 or £12.99 for a pack of three.

:: Colour-themed seeds presented in eye-catching cubes are the latest idea from Mr Fothergill's, reflecting the continuing demand from gardeners for mixed flowers. The cubes are available in four colours - Vibrant Red, Vibrant Yellow, Cool Blue and Cool White - and contain quick-to-flower hardy annual mixtures which will cover up to 10 square metres per cube and allow gardeners either to 'pick and mix' or colour-theme their beds, borders and containers. £2.95 each or £5 for two, visit www.mr-fothergills.co.uk

Under £15

:: For a gift that keeps on giving, buy a premium quality David Austin English Rose. Available in six colour options, the rose comes wrapped in a pretty box and is available from your local David Austin stockist or garden centre, priced £14.99 (www.davidaustinroses.com/ 01902 376300).

:: If your mum likes a natural setting, check out Crocus's new cork fern pots, made from environmentally friendly cork bark. Once cork oak trees are about 25 years old, the old bark is stripped from their trunks, every nine years, and the trees continue to live and grow. The old bark is used to produce these flower pots (£14.99, www.crocus.co.uk), ideal for ferns and other native plants and for creating a woodland feel to the garden.

:: A pretty addition to any patio table, or even to an indoor one, is this parasol tealight holder from Homebase (£9.99, www.homebase.co.uk), which has a contemporary and space-saving design along with citronella candles to help keep insects away.

:: Attractive striped twine in a gift box makes a pleasant and pretty change from boring green gardening string. Each 200m spool, £5.95 or buy a boxed set of five 50m twines in a variety of colours for £38.95 (www.burgonandball.co.uk)

Under £20

:: Don't just give one present, give a whole box! This stylish Sussex trug gift set (£17.99, www.crocus.co.uk) is packed with gloves, garden twine, raffia and flower scissors, and should please any green-fingered enthusiast.

:: For all your mum's bits and bobs, including labels, pencils, scissors and string, these gardener's gubbins tins come in deck egg, soft grey or galvanised. From the new collection of Sophie Conran tools and accessories for Burgon 7 Ball, £19.95, www.burgonandball.com.

:: To create an ethereal atmosphere, buy a beautiful Cole & Bright changing windchime light featuring a crackle glass globe with four metal windchimes. Made from steel and glass, it comes with an AA battery and is available, priced £19.99, from garden centres across the country. For stockists visit www.gardman.co.uk.

Over £20

:: Wildflowers are so popular at the moment, and a Wild Flower Seed Starter Pack from the Seed Pantry can help Mum on her way. The kit contains five different types of wild flower seeds - field poppies, yarrow, musk mallow, chamomile and wallflowers - which can be planted from March to July. The kit includes easy-to-follow illustrated instructions and a handy notes pencil, bio-degradable rice husk pots, coir seed trays, organic compost and an oak dibblet. Offered at the introductory price of £24.50 (until March 31) from www.seedpantry.co.uk.

:: Good quality gardening tools will always be welcomed by the gardening enthusiast, and as spring is here and pruning needs to be done, what about a new set of loppers. The latest range from Fiskars are light, smooth and cut tough hedges like butter. For thicker cuts, go for Fiskars new SmartFit Telescopic lopper (£49.99, www.fiskars.co.uk/0115 9277 335), with excellent extension buttons on the handles to go to the length your require. With blades made from carbon steel, they're lightweight and sturdy and will make pruning a breeze.

Best of the bunch - Muscari (grape hyacinth)

The grape hyacinth brings a burst of blue to spring, either crammed into pots or in drifts between deciduous shrubs. Among the most common is Muscari armeniacum, which quickly forms clumps of sapphire blue flowers, while M. armeniacum 'Dark Eyes' bears stout spikes of deep blue flowers, delicately edged in white. You need to plant plenty of bulbs as grape hyacinths are small plants, so the more you plant the more of an effect you will have. I prefer them on their own in terracotta pots, not competing for glory with anything else, but there are those who prefer to plant them in large pots above tulips or narcissi. Bulbs should be planted in the autumn with the tips 5cm below the surface and can be planted almost touching if no other bulbs are below them in the pots. For a change, try M. macrocarpum 'Golden Fragrance', whose flowerbuds are soft yellow and look lovely in pots above blue-green grass-like foliage.

Good enough to eat - Broad beans

Now is a good time to start sowing broad beans, an underrated veg which are delicious boiled for about 10 minutes and then mixed with melted butter and fried bacon, or tuned into a summer soup or puree.

They are easy to grow but like rich, free-draining soil which is not waterlogged or too acid. Be aware of the vertical space you have available when you choose your variety as standard types grow to around 1.2m (4ft) while dwarf varieties reach around 45cm (1.5ft). Sow the seeds in shallow trenches 20cm apart, sowing a few extra at the end of each row to use to fill the gaps when seedlings appear.

Hoe regularly when the seedlings are young and support tall-growing varieties. When the first beans start to form, pinch off the top 10cm (4in) of stem to reap an earlier harvest. Begin picking them when the first pods are 5-8cm (2-3in). Never wait for the beans to become really large or they'll be tough and leathery. Harvest when the beans have started to show through the pod.

What to do this week

:: Plant dormant rhubarb crowns.

:: Plant pot-grown roses, hardy trees and shrubs, climbers and hedging plants.

:: Tidy up ivy, summer-flowering jasmine and honeysuckles.

:: Use a hand fork to weed the rock garden and then top it off with new pea gravel or chippings, tucked gently under the rosettes to stop the damp rotting them.

:: Perk up your pots by planting new spring bedding including pansies, polyanthus and forget-me-nots.

:: Plant onion sets, lowering them into the soil so that they just disappear from view and spacing them around 10cm (4in) apart.

:: Start tying in young shoots of blackberries when you see new growth appearing.

:: Pot up plug plants which may have outgrown their original modules.

:: Take cuttings from border perennials when the first shoots appear and reach 5-8cm (2-3in) long.

:: If the weather is warm and you see fish are active, begin feeding them with wheatgerm pond fish food.

:: Remove shoots with no live buds from summer-flowering clematis and cut back late-flowering clematis hard.

:: Remove winter protection from containers and top dress or replant overgrown or pot-bound plants, adding a slow-release fertiliser.