Gardener’s Fantasy Gift List



Floral sculpture: Inta Krombolz, ikrombolz@comcast.net 

Want some insight into what your favorite gardener might be dreaming about during the long, cold winter? It’s not likely to be another trowel or pair of mud gloves. For something your gardener won’t soon forget, choose something from my fantasy gift list:

Wind Sculptures – We bought one during our trip to Utah this year and just love it. In addition to its inherent qualities, it stands in the lavender garden as a symbol of our visit to Red Butte Gardens, our niece’s wedding, and a fun vacation. Designed and built by Lyman Whitaker, these contemporary abstract sculptures are designed to move with the slightest breeze, yet have controlled movement in high winds. More info at http://www.whitakerstudio.com/index.html , where you can link to art galleries that sell his work.

Garden Tours – No matter how big or flower-filled any garden is, its owner will run off to look at someone else’s at the drop of a hat. For those with a small purse, look for local or regional tours offered by garden clubs, arts councils, historical societies, etc. as fundraisers. These can draw some very fine gardens that belong to folks who want to help their favorite organization.

If you’re ready to fulfill a gardener’s ultimate fantasy, however, start saving for the Chelsea (England) flower show, or if that gardener is also a garden writer (hint, hint), The Garden Writers Association Annual Symposium http://www.gardenwriters.org/gwa.php?p=meetings/index.html , or the Blooms of Bressingham Tour http://www.gardeningtours.com/TourDetails/Blooms2010-long.pdf .

Landscaping, Design, or Plants – A chunk of change to spend on their wildest gardening dreams will win the heart and soul of any gardener. Purchase gift certificates, or make your own. Remember to include enough to cover delivery and freight charges if the purchase will be something heavy, such as concrete ornaments or fountains, pallets of stone, etc.

Garden Coaching – For gardeners who want to do it themselves, but need help figuring out what to do, a garden coach can help. They’ll work with you in person or via the internet to gain a better understanding of what to do about pests and diseases, pruning, improving your design, or how to grow specific plants. To find a coach near you, visit http://gardencoachdirectory.wetpaint.com .
 
Cultivating the Inner Gardener Coaching – After training for six months with meaning coach extraordinaire Eric Maisel, I’ve officially launched a gardener-focused coaching practice designed to bring more meaning to the experience of gardening. Cultivating the Inner Gardener is about putting gardeners in a mental space that allows them to develop an intimate, holistic relationship with their environment. Through a series of assignments and exercises gardeners learn how to rediscover and focus on the things that really matter to them, restore meaning to their gardening efforts, and revitalize a cherished pastime. For more details, visit http://cultivatingtheinnergardener.blogspot.com or e-mail me at loisj7@gmail.com .




Popular posts from this blog

Detention Basins: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Image
In our area, stormwater sewers that serve housing developments and some businesses empty into the dreaded detention (or retention, or infiltration) basin, a visually hideous engineered method of holding large volumes of water until it can safely disperse to groundwater, natural streams, ponds, etc. (top photo). These are generally grass monocultures or rip rap which, if not properly maintained become weedy, overgrown maintenance nightmares. Suffice it to say that anyone who can get away with not maintaining one will continue to not maintain it. Frequently, the town ends up owning and maintaining such basins, meaning that all the taxpayers pay. When grass is used as the only groundcover and pesticides and fertilizers are applied, they can contaminate the runoff. Regular mowing of the basins is difficult because of the steep sides and wet floor. This maintenance adds contaminants to the watercourse, as well. Grass basins also attract undesirable wildlife, such as Canada Geese, which ...
Keep reading

Please Garden Responsibly. Because What You Spray in Your Garden Doesn’t Stay in Your Garden

Image
American Lady caterpillar on licorice plant. Photo: Courtesy Missouri Botanical Garden Scores of their silky tents covered the licorice plant in the container on my porch. Inside the tents, something was gobbling up the leaves faster than I could pick them off. The plant must have been infested when I bought it. As I reached for my organic insecticide, I thought, “Wait, you don’t know what kind of caterpillars these are!” I recalled an article on pest management by a friend who cautioned: “Sometimes, the best treatment is no treatment at all.” It took the better part of the afternoon for me to identify the miniature mowing machines. In the meantime, half of them had started dropping from their perches and wriggling off into the underbrush. I hoped I had made the right decision. The licorice plant was devastated. But then I noticed that the caterpillars had not eaten the leaves all the way down to the stem. Possibly, secondary buds could sprout and still provide a silvery...
Keep reading

Musings on the Relativity of Time and The Arithmetic of Overpopulation

Image
I celebrated my birthday recently. Beyond a certain age, birthdays become a double-edged sword. You’re glad you made it to the next one, but realize that there are far fewer years ahead of you than behind you. The list of absent friends grows ever longer. Colleagues grow grey; everyone else looks like they just graduated from middle school. I used to console myself by calculating that I still had at least 2 5 more years to go, which made the end point seem very far off. But, now that would mean I’d live to an unrealistically old age, a concept supported by neither family history nor actuarial tables. I’m reminded of Einstein’s summary of his Theory of Relativity: "When you are courting a nice girl an hour seems like a second. When you sit on a red-hot cinder a second seems like an hour." I guess I’ve been having too much fun. But that can’t go on forever. My immortality would not be good for the planet. It’s not sustainable. At the same time that medical advances have...
Keep reading