Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“Perhaps I should have considered other options.” (head-desk)

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Every one of the “Roberts Six” lied to get on the court.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

Bark louder, little dog.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

Trumpflation is an intolerable hardship for every American, and it’s Trump’s fault.

The real work of an opposition party is to hold the people in power accountable.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Prediction: the gop will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

“When somebody takes the time to draw up a playbook, they’re gonna use it.”

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Celebrate the fucking wins.

This year has been the longest three days of putin’s life.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

You are so fucked. Still, I wish you the best of luck.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

This country desperately needs a functioning fourth estate.

You are here: Home / Books / Sunday Morning Garden-Gift Chat

Sunday Morning Garden-Gift Chat

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However one chooses to celebrate the winter solstice, ’tis the season… for buying gifts. For many of us Garden Chat regulars, it’s the season for resting / planning / stocking up for next year’s gardening.

Back in the summer (at the height of garden-photo season), Hillary sent me a Guardian link on the “Top 10 books about gardens“. The choices by Vivian Swift, the author of the article and of Gardens of Awe and Folly: A Traveler’s Journal on the Meaning of Life and Gardening, are a little bit precious for my taste, but then books about gardening do tend to be either overly technical (usually about a very limited subject) or slightly too lyrical. But books are always a ‘safe’ gift, and if you know your gardener presumably you can judge their tolerance for instruction and/or poesy…

What do you give as gifts, to the gardeners in your life?

Reader Interactions

64Comments

  1. 1.

    Arclite

    When people push back against Trump being illegitimate by saying “You’re just a sore loser!” ask if they’d support an Olympic athlete who doped, then won, as the legitimate winner. Trump’s Russian help gave him the extra 2% that helped him win, just like an Olympic athlete gains 2% when doping on top of their extensive training.

    If the doping athlete is cheating, how is Trump not cheating?

  2. 2.

    raven

    I usually try to find some interesting garden/nature/house the book for the girl and, since her birthday is the 19th, I get double duty. Here’s book that I saw down at the beach, part history, part cookbook and part photo essay. “The Saints of Old Florida.”

  3. 3.

    raven

    This is a local fellow who does wonderful nature paintings of Georgia and the books make great gifts.

    Philip Juras’s paintings are an expression of his desire to both experience and understand the natural world. His love for nature and art began during his childhood in Augusta, Georgia, eventually leading him to receive a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1990 and a Master of Landscape Architecture in 1997, both from the University of Georgia. His MLA thesis examined pre-settlement grasslands that once flourished in the southeast, a subject that continues to inspire his artwork. Now living in Athens, Georgia, with his wife Beth Gavrilles, Philip’s ongoing projects include fire adapted landscapes of the Southeast, Georgia’s barrier islands, tall grass prairie restoration in Illinois, and the páramo and cloud forests of the Colombian Andes. To depict these subjects Philip combines direct observation with study of the natural science and history of the place. The sensory impressions conveyed by his paintings invite the viewer to step through the picture plane and experience the natural phenomena in the landscape beyond.

  4. 4.

    raven

    And there’s a app for this!

    Finally…an App for Gardeners, Retailers, Landscapers and Designers about Useful Perennials, Annuals Veggies and Shrubs for the Garden.

    “Over 1000 different plants, 100’s of photos, videos, and a deer browsing guide make this product unique. Works on iOS (apple products) and Androids. Now you can have Dr A’s insights, hints for success and his choices for best varieties in your back pocket everywhere you go. All for $4.99. “

  5. 5.

    Elizabelle

    Love the holiday dog. Cheers me right up.

    I vote that service dog makes more appearances on BJ. Good morning, all.

  7. 7.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    I am awake after 6 1/2 hours straight sleep. This is the most I’ve had in a long time.

    Thinking of “The Egg and I”. Didn’t our protagonist describe reading the seed caralogs in midwinter as what we would now call gardening pr0n”?

    Some things never change.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    I can vouch for Pollan’s “Second Nature”. Very good book, informative, well written, and entertaining.

  12. 12.

    Immanentize

    Also, here in MA, gardening is going to be a booming hobby. As of Next Friday, cultivating six marijuana plants will be legal for all residents. So any book about growing weed would be a popular gift to many!

    ETA So would some excellent seeds

  18. 18.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Raven: You picked a good one.

    @Immanentize: That one is on my list. The other Pollan book I’ve read is “Cooked”. From the Amazon review:

    In Cooked, Michael Pollan explores the previously uncharted territory of his own kitchen. Here, he discovers the enduring power of the four classical elements—fire, water, air, and earth—to transform the stuff of nature into delicious things to eat and drink. Apprenticing himself to a succession of culinary masters, Pollan learns how to grill with fire, cook with liquid, bake bread, and ferment everything from cheese to beer.

    Each section of Cooked tracks Pollan’s effort to master a single classic recipe using one of the four elements. A North Carolina barbecue pit master tutors him in the primal magic of fire; a Chez Panisse–trained cook schools him in the art of braising; a celebrated baker teaches him how air transforms grain and water into a fragrant loaf of bread; and finally, several mad-genius “fermentos” (a tribe that includes brewers, cheese makers, and all kinds of picklers) reveal how fungi and bacteria can perform the most amazing alchemies of all. The reader learns alongside Pollan, but the lessons move beyond the practical to become an investigation of how cooking involves us in a web of social and ecological relationships. Cooking, above all, connects us

    I learned a lot reading that book.

  21. 21.

    Raven

    @NotMax: it’s ok, she got rid of the cast and has a splint. Nasty stitches and still swelling. She’s being good about the rehab exercises so we are optimistic!

  23. 23.

    bemused

    Talking about the winter solstice makes me think of ice candles. I have made them using ice cream pails or other round buckets that are firmer. Not hard to do but putsy, keeping your eye on the rate of water freezing. Now would be the perfect conditions to make ice candles here with the temps -7 the last couple of mornings but I don’t have the time.

    I’ve seen them used to line walking or skiing trails for nighttime. A couple of my friends who are cousins have a tradition of making and bringing ice candles to the graves of their parents and lighting them. I notice a gigantic ice candle outside of the entry to a local church that was about 2 feet high and at least 18 inches across a week ago. Gorgeous.

  24. 24.

    NotMax

    Dated yet interesting in its own right version of “A Christmas Carol” coming up on TCM at 8:45 eastern.

    Seymour Hicks had made a living portraying Scrooge on the stage for decades prior to this 1935 film.

  29. 29.

    HRA

    I have given a variety of books as gifts for years. The latest gift I have been giving is to invite the family for a brunch with a gift of taking any plants they want from my 8 large garden beds. Decades of buying and being gifted with plants from others has resulted in many varieties of perennials growing splendidly. An example is the variety of hostas being more than bushel size.

    Thank you for this post.

  31. 31.

    charluckles

    Slightly OT, but I could use some thoughts and advice from a community that knows about dogs and the intertubes.

    I have a good friend who has spent her life caring for sick, lame and discarded dogs. She makes a living sitting for many of the patients that travel to the local U for specialty cancer treatment and can’t have their owners stay with them for the duration, and she has a brood all of her own. She has got her hands on someone special, we were talking about it over lunch the other day and I immediately thought of you all. This dog is a paraplegic (hit by car I believe) that responds incredibly well to therapy, but the therapy has to be constant. She received this dog from the original owner who has basically torn apart his life trying to do right by her, but could not handle the cost and time involved anymore. What blows me away is the spirit of this dog, and I will try to get a video of here uploaded to youtube and then linked this morning, because I have never in my life seen anything like it. That damn dog could literally be called Never Give Up.

    So, does Go Fund Me and that kind of crap work, is it worthwhile? Thoughts please and I will pass them along.

  33. 33.

    debbie

    I’m still planning on skipping Christmas with my Trumpster family, but I’m thinking I may need a back-up plan just in case I cave. Books are great ideas. I’ll have to rummage through Amazon and figure out my deadline for ordering without Prime.

  34. 34.

    satby

    @charluckles: Go Fund Me can help raise funds, yes. It also takes a lot of friends making the campaign go viral, and a video will help that. You need to set a reasonable goal too, for a specific target that’s achievable. Huge poorly defined campaigns turn people off.

    But is this the right thing for the dog? I know it’s hard to decide to let it go, but paraplegic animals have trouble with eliminating, sores from dragging, and often suffer in spite of their spirit. Not to be a downer, but all those other problems need to be handled without causing the animal further misery.

  35. 35.

    tobie

    My real gardening adventure this year was creating a meadow field (about a half acre in size). I densely seeded with a pollination mix from Ernst Seed and a generic Northeast mix from American Meadows. Ernst Seed is a great company; the people who work there couldn’t be nicer or more helpful on the phone; and they’re recommended by the Xerces Society which is committed to saving the bees.

    Anyhoo…after several failed attempts this year was a smashing success. The meadow literally changed color at least three times from the blue, whites and pinks associated with nigella, bachelor’s buttons, and queen anne’s lace to the yellows of blacked-eyed susans and coreopsis to the pinks and purples of late season cosmos. I planted in March…can’t wait to see what the meadow looks like when all the perennials kick in next year.

    Mowed the field yesterday and am now seeing the first snowflakes of the season out my window.

  37. 37.

    satby

    @tobie: sounds beautiful tobie! Lots of native plants are biennial and might just have needed to get a year’s growth in before really showing their stuff.

  40. 40.

    charluckles

    @satby:

    Thank you. She has spent her entire life caring for sick and dying dogs. She knows the local vet community and associated resources and has dealt with all many of injuries including many post radiation and post amputation type recoveries. Plus she is one hell of an animal advocate. It’s her job and her life, if anyone can pull it off she can. And the pup has clearly responded to treatment in the past, so much so that her previous owner had her walking a bit, but the she needs to be going for therapy constantly.

    I have got to get this video from her. Blew me out of the water, and having spent significant time in a veterinary setting I have seen many paraplegic dogs before.

  41. 41.

    Phylllis

    Mrs. Whaley and Her Charleston Garden and Ecology of a Cracker Childhood are two favorites of mine.

  42. 42.

    greennotGreen

    The dog’s VW bus reminds me of one year when I was having chemo just before Xmas, and one of the patients with his wife pulling along his IV pump came around and played carols for us on his awesome red and white accordion.

  43. 43.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @MomSense: I’ll have to watch it.

    Speaking of food pron, I need to go remove some hocks and feet from my smoker’s inaugural journey. We’ll see how I did.

  44. 44.

    tobie

    @satby: I’ll look out for the biennials! Noticed a few in the seed mix. Has anyone here had success with oriental poppies? I live in Maryland and the humid summers don’t seem congenial for them.

  47. 47.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Heh. ‘Hippos snapped my last boat in half’: Planet Earth II’s hairiest moments

    We pushed the boat above our heads, while our legs underwater were getting slashed to ribbons by sword-grass. Then Brad surprised me. He told me to take my shoes off. “With shoes on you’ll step on a crocodile and press down without knowing. It’ll take your leg off!” The look on my face demanded more explanation. “With bare feet”, he went on, “you can feel a crocodile’s skin and yank your leg out of the way.” We gingerly pushed the boat on into the night, as long dark shapes lurched out of our way in the inky water. I’ve never paid more attention to every footstep.

    …..

    Very soon, a faint smudge appeared on the horizon, getting closer and closer. Suddenly we were surrounded. Being in a swarm of a billion locusts is a surreal experience – but not, as you might expect, a grotesque one. Rather than crashing into us, they flew around us, like water parting around a rock in a stream, and the sound of their wings beating was like a roar of moving air that was almost on the edge of hearing.

    …..

    Harar is an ancient city, considered by some to be the fourth holiest city of Islam. The old town has 99 mosques, and arriving there feels like going back in time. The warren of cobbled streets is too narrow for cars, so food is taken to the market by donkey. On my first night I found myself down a dark, narrow street at 3am. Eight hyenas turned the corner and headed straight for me. I held my breath as they walked past, two of them brushing my leg. Nothing would have stopped them if they had chosen me as an easy meal.

  50. 50.

    Immanentize

    So I had to get out of the house early to take my son, the Immp, to his First Tech Challenge (FTC) robotics competition in Andover, MA. It was cold this morning (17 outside) brrr. This is the first qualifier match so it will be fun to see what the kids come up with. Our robot is a damn borg cube.

  51. 51.

    Another Scott

    Neat pictures – thanks.

    A couple of years ago someone here mentioned this DeWit Dutch Right Hand Garden Hoe. It is a little spendy ($41) but it is an amazing tool for hand weeding. I’ve given one as a gift and may do so again.

    Thank you, unknown stranger, who mentioned it!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  56. 56.

    opiejeanne

    @rikyrah: good morning. ☀️ ?
    I’m usually not online this early but we are on the road, trying to escape Oregon.
    Spent the night in Roseburg, a place I used to like. Noisy motel, then awakened at 5:45am by a niece in Entebbe who feigned offense when I mentioned the time. I have shut off the app she was using because the Drama and moving the goalposts was too ridiculous. She does this shit with her mom all the time. Doesn’t work with me. Mean Auntie Jeanne.

  59. 59.

    Yarrow

    I’m late to the thread, but highly recommend Amy Stewart’s first book, From the Ground Up: The Story of a First Garden. It’s a lovely book about how she turns her small yard into a beautiful and productive garden. It’s got gardening tips in it as well. It’s sort of a how-to and how-not-to memoir. Any gardener who likes to read should enjoy this book.

  64. 64.

    ArchPundit

    The dog is adorable. My daughter has been in and out of a Eating Disorder unit since summer and the visiting dogs always made her day better so I can’t tell you how much they mean to kids who are patients. We couldn’t take our own dog because he would have had panic attacks with that many people around so those visiting dogs were very special.

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