After over two very long months, I’m happy to report the server here at Trinity is now back up and working just fine. I think you can understand there’s no IT person in a nursing home. In fact, the responsibility falls begrudgingly in the hands of the head of the maintenance man (maintenance is a PC term for handyman), The guest server is maintained by the owners of the nursing home in Miami. Apparently to my no lack of surprise, there must be few users in their multiple nursing homes and none who cared enough to complain. But after getting the director to ride the maintenance guys butt, it was restored after the nine week delay. So, although belatedly, I’d like to consider this my best Christmas gift in years. In that vein, I’d like to present my Christmas wish list.
The gardening season of 2011 was one of the worst in recent memory. Unless you broke the cardinal of digging in wet soil, a very wet, cold spring kept many of us from planting everything we wanted. And early heat waves beginning in June were brutal on our plants. So we’re all looking forward to 2012. But before we get there, let’s ask for some beautiful garden gifts from our friends and family. Or even give ourselves some gifts n to make 2011 seem less traumatizing than it was.
With the demise of the honey bee population, attracting mason bees to your garden would be a great objective for your garden in 2012. masonbeehomes.com offers the highest-quality, handmade houses I’ve ever seen, But it’s also the content of the website that’s the gift that keeps on giving with detailed instructions for site installation, attracting mason bees and cleaning your house each year. The Contemporary version is made of redwood framing and two polypropylene boxes of 60 holes giving room for 360 bees per box. The price is $35.95.
If you kept your garden alive this season and didn’t give in to writing everything off, then you deserve a medal. Charleston Gardens is offering just that with its World’s Best Gardener Medal for $30.00. The medal with a charming sunflower top measures 2.5” BY 3” and is attached with tie tack construction.
Determining light levels between full sun and full shade can be so difficult. And predicting the difference between part sun and part shade can truly impact the performance of a plant. So a product to help predict light levels in different areas of your garden is full of promise. So why not try the SunCalc in your garden at a price of $30.00.
For a little whimsy and dry wit, it’s hard to beat the “Nothing is Written in Stone” garden stone, also from Charleston Gardens. This message is etched into a natural river stone with approximate sizes of 9” X 7” by 3” high priced at $65.
Gardener’s Supply Company can always be relied upon for some of the best garden gifts in the market place. Their Everlasting Alliums have 10” steel orbs tipped in gold with installed heights of 29“ and 35”. Coming in Periwinkle, Petal Pink and Purple, they are priced at $36.95 for a set of two.
The New York Botanical Garden Shop has some very exciting gifts. First off, I’d like you to consider purchasing Scrabble Gardening and inviting some of your hard core gardening friends over for a lively game of one of my favorite games all about our favorite past time, Cost is $32.
Garden tools can always look pretty mundane. But the Celia Birtwell Tools including watering can, trowel set and pruners break that mold. Celia Birtwell is one of Britain’s leading textiles designers and these products that are imported from England make for some truly unique gifts. Prices range from $32 to $65.
From a family farm in New Hampshire, Cube Mountain Farm crafts beautiful wreaths from flowers cultivated on their property. Riki’s Wreath is an elegant blend of ‘The Pearl’ Achillea, blue larkspur, the herb lemon leaf, blue hydrangea and gypsophila. As you can see from the image, this is true craftsmanship in wreath making coming in at $84.95.
So even though its late in the buying season, go trolling for these beauties on their sites where there are plenty of other great gift selections. And when all the gifts are unwrapped, wish for the best gardening gift: a better growing season in 2012. Merry Christmas to all.
{ 36 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Patrick. I am glad you are back blogging again. It is snowing again here today, so not much to report from here on things growing, so back to the greenhouse for me for awhile to see anything but gray, white and browns. Greenhouse flowers seem such a cop out for me, so I rarely show them, but like you mentioned in your post, the weather has been unpredictable this year throwing off bloom times in the outdoor gardens.
I feel for you with the server problems. My mom’s facility had the same problems and none of the residents thought to tell them they wanted their internet back. I used my iPhone way more than I wanted to as a result.
You have been using your web time really well! I so like the mason bee house and will be putting in an order. BTW, the only image to load was the mason bee house. No links either, but there is no trouble since you listed all the company names. I am looking up the Everlasting Alliums too. Thanks for the tips, a couple of items I will gift myself after Christmas.
Hey Donna,
Thanks for the quick reply. I so envy a person with their own greenhouse. I lover to see some pictures of it in an upcoming post. I’m hoping the server problems will not persist.
Glad you’re ordering the mason bee house. You’ll have to let me know how well does it work for you. I’m working on the images. Thanks for the heads up.
Good articles!
Thanks, Mum. You’ve always been my biggest fan.
Really happy to see you are back – and with a great gift list! I got a great “Secret Santa” gift from a co-worker….a wire holder for string – works like a toilet tissue holder. I am always misplacing the string and this will come in quite handy! Merry Christmas!
Glad you enjoyed the list. Sometimes the most simple gifts .like your string holder bring much joy that is not forgotten in the long run unlike 95% of gifts in our modern, joyless consumptive society. Wow, that was very profound for me. Me thinks so and that’s all that counts. Isn’t it, Jayne?
Hello Patrick and welcome back! Just in time for me to wish you Happy Holidays! I find there are many gifts on this list of yours that I’d sure love to have under the tree. Now to subtly point my husband in your direction….:)
Hey Tina,
Glad you enjoyed the post. Good luck with the hubby. Thanks for stopping by.
Patrick
Hi Patrick! Glad you are back online — horror of all horrors to be offline for so long, right?!
Great gift list — I’ll be checking them out. Thank you so much for visiting my blog and leaving your very nice comment! I so appreciate your visit 
Hey Toni,
Glad you thought the gift list was great. That’s what I keep hearing back.. I try to make my comments thought. Here’s hoping for a great gardening season in 2012.
Hey Toni,
Glad you thought the gift posting was great. I
Great list Patrick! I found a link to your website through “A Corner Garden”. I guess I found you at the right time, seeing as how you are back online. Thanks for taking the time for this list. It will keep me wishing for quite awhile.
Hi Patrick: Thanks for stopping by my blog. And thanks for sharing the gardener gift ideas. Merry Christmas!
Maybe Santa will be kind enough to buy you one of them or if not use a gift card. I think the mason bee home would be the most interesting. Merry Christmas.
Welcome back Patrick! May you have a season of joy and peace and a year free of technical disaster next year…Go well. Alison
Hey Alison,
It’s good to be back. Thanks for being a blogging friend and Merry Christmas right back at you.
What a great gift rundown!! We just got home from Christmas with my family. .and I was blessed to receive a great purple martin house and pole!! Yeah!! I assume that most other gardeners are also intrigued by the creatures that coexist in the lovely gardens we strive to create!! Another thing you could add to your list
Wishing you and yours a very merry Christmas. .and SOOO glad that you are finally back online!
Hey Melanie,
Glad you enjoyed the list so much. Your purple martin house sounds like a fantastic gift so I’m glad you’re so excited about it. My ex-father in law had one out on the farm that he love. I love seeing the converted gourd ones. I once saw a huge set of conjoined poles that must have had two dozen painted white gourds. I wonder how you clean them out or if you just make fresh ones each year.
So glad you are back, missed reading your posts ! Love the alliums and the Scrabble Gardening, trouble is, no-one would play it with me ‘ cos I would win !!! Happy Christmas.
Pauline,
Sounds to me like you need to get more involved in a garden club with the sole objective of finding some buddies to play Scrabble with. Sound like a plan? Merry Christmas to you, Pauliine.
Good to see you back, Patrick! Nine weeks without internet must have been so frustrating. This is a great list of unique gift ideas. I’ve finished my Christmas shopping already, but I’m not sure Santa has, so I might have to show him these suggestions. Love the rock and the house for the mason bees. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas!
Hey Rose,
So good to hear back from you again. So happy you enjoyed the list. Yes of all these gifts, my favorite is the mason bee home. Look forward to chatting in the New Year.
Great garden gift ideas! Wouldn’t it be great if someone could put a great gardening season in a stocking — and good to see you posting again!!
Hey sweet bay,
I’m pleased you enjoyed the list. I think we all deserve a great gardening season after this past season we all lamented. It’s good to be back enjoying conversing with my blogging pals. Merry Christmas to.
Patrick, I’m delighted that you made a stop by my corner of Katy. Hope your holiday is a happy one and that 2012 brings you renewed health and strength. Your climate & mine are similar enough that we can grow many of the same things. I think I’m going to do a seed giveaway soon and I hope I can share some with you!
Hey Cindy,
Thanks for your blessings especially about my health. I’m so touched several bloggers are concerned about it too. I’ve been a really good boy, well I’m still a boy, but I would love a little seed action.
Hi Patrick, I noticed your absence from the blogosphere and wondered about it. I was hoping that you were not unwell and am glad to hear that your absence was due to technical difficulties and not illness. It must have been so frustrating to wait for 9 weeks to have your server restored! I bet it felt like an eternity.
You have lots of great gift suggestions here. A sun/shade calculator could spare a gardener lots of costly mistakes. I have admired those metal alliums for a while and would love to have a grouping.
I hope that you have a great Christmas and I wish you all the best in 2012.
Hey Jennifer,
Thanks for noticing my absence from the blogosphere. It did seem like an eternity. I’m so happy you lik4e the list. I wonder if the SunCalc really works? The same to you for the holidays.
Hey Jennifer,
Thanks for noticing my absence from the blogosphere. It did seem like an eternity. I’m so happy you liked the list. I wonder if the SunCalc really works? The same to you for the holidays.
This morning (as is my morning ritual) whilst having a cup of strong black coffee, I made my “usual rounds” perusing blogs I have bookmarked, where I often check in, to leave a comment in support of the blogger’s endeavors, and I came to The Nittty Gritty Dirt Man’s blog, where I noticed that you had posted a comment. I was so thankful, Patrick, to see that you were back “on the air”!
I am Patricia Youngquist, AKA The Last Leaf Gardener, and am the one who contacted The Nitty Gritty Dirt Man after I had trouble posting the following comment to your blog on December 7th 2011:
“I had trouble posting the following in your contact field on your blog, Patrick, so I’m pasting what I tried to post in this email to you: I found your blog whilst researching some information on “our mutual friends”, Hens ‘n Chicks, Patrick, and I discovered your blog entry, The Philosophy of Hens and Chicks. I truly enjoyed your heartfelt post, so I began to read your other entries, and got so engrossed I nearly missed my appointment! I am emailing you now because:
1. I notice there is no entry after October 16, 2011 and I am wondering if you have stopped blogging and
2. After reading the previous comment, I wonder if you would like me to post a link to your blog on my blog, The Last Leaf Gardener.
I understand you have been in the hospital and hope you are on the mend.
Sincerely,
Patricia Youngquist, The Last Leaf Gardener”
As you know since the time of my failed attempt to post the aforementioned text, Patrick, I contacted The Nitty Gritty Dirt Man (whom I had never heard of before), when I realized his comment was the last one you had responded to, and the rest, as “they” say is history . . .
In the interim, I did quote you (and gave you a credit) on my blog, The Last Leaf Gardener, re your poignant insight on Hens and Chicks, if you’d like to read the post, the link is this: http://bit.ly/u5fbH4
Meanwhile, your posting about gifts as you return to blogging was a fun read. As it happens I produce gifts that those who appreciate gardening and gardens find interesting. If you’d like, you can see part of them via a guest post that someone made on my blog @ http://bit.ly/u52YRt
But your descriptions of garden gifts is great. Did you ever think of posting on nybg’s (New York Botanical Gardens) tumblr? I am sure they would appreciate your insights.
Welcome Back, Patrick. Looking forward to reading your future posts!
Hey Patricia,
Wow, thank you for my longest comment EVER. I’m blown away by your efforts to track me down culminating with the phone call from Nitty Gritty Dirt Man. It was good to learn more about you. I’d be honored to be included on your blog roll. Of all the things on my blog, I’m most proud of the Philosophy of Hens and Chicks. I would love to see it go viral in the garden blogosphere. So thanks for the support and look forward to “growing” with you over the years.
How wonderful that you are back on line. Let me first of all thank you for your terrific Jimmy Buffet quote which couldn’t be more apt for me at this time. I think you are very clever at reading between the lines! I am delighted to read also about the nothing is written in stone gift idea……one for the garden alright…..Anyway welcome back, my good friend. X
Hey Foxy One,
So good to get your message this morning from across the pond. Brings a glitter to my eye when I have a new comment from Foxglove Lane. It’s good to be back my dear friend.
Patrick, I was sorry to hear about the lack of IT support in the nursing home. That is such a shame. It is so good to hear from you again. I loved seeing that Scrabble game, it looks really interesting. I’m going to do some searching for that one. ‘Nothing is written in stone’ would have been a great gift idea for my husband, too, and if we ever get Castle Aaargh done, I should mortar the rock over the door.
I am so far behind reading blogs due to my little ‘trip’ and it’s great to get back to visiting those I admire most. Thank you for reading my novelette (is that a word?) as I waxed on and on about the past. I was sorry to hear your childhood had a dark chapter, Patrick.
I hope you have a wonderful 2012! I look forward to reading your excellent blog. You always bring inspiration and wonderfully informative posts to life!
Hey Karen,
It’s really good to be back in the land of the living. I wish I had a place for the Nothing is In Writing art rock. I like to think that’s my kind of wit. I wish only the best for you in 2012.
hi Patrick,
well hope you got all you wished for at Xmas ! Going through your list, I must say I’m only missing the scrabble game. Here at Botanic Bay, we have two bug hives/nests, whatever you call them. One for bees of course, as we recently got rid of our sickly conifer hedge to replace it by plants that will flower in winter (hamammelis, winter lonicera, winter jasmine, clematis cirrhosa…), and naturally the rest of the year with buddleia, forsythia, lilac, vibernums…. And another one for creepy crawlies.
Do you have the feeling that bees are endangered in Texas ? In Europe, there is a big concern due to an Asian invader !