I was moved to tears when long time friend and fellow gardener/artist, Janet George-Ward, surprised me with her hand crafted star garden ornament whose colors reflect the colors used in my garden and home. The card that accompanied the carefully packed box reads “When I was doing this new simple design, I thought of you—oh, dear! Not the simple aspect but my visualization of where this design would hang. I see it in a garden, hanging from a tree so that it swings with the breeze. As it swings and turns, the iridescent side shows shimmers of color and the mirror side reflects the garden. This is not a Christmas gift but rather a gift of friendship that happens to be sent during this holy season”. Her visualization comes to life, as shared here, with the star hanging outside my kitchen window in a large Japanese maple. May your spirit be touched by the simple gifts of friendship this season. (Janet George Ward is an outstanding artist who works in a variety of media for both garden and home—this image is of a stained glass window she made for our kitchen. She can be reached at jeanward@bex.net)

In response to my blogs on gardener’s gifts I was asked about suggestions for gifts for inside the home that gardeners would love. Some of my favorite garden/ “natural world” inspired things are works by artists Robert Held www.robertheld.com Check out his California poppy series—one of these vases adds amazing energy to a lit cabinet in our kitchen. On my wish list this Christmas is a BOBtanical by Bob and Laurie Kliss—these “drop-dead” gorgeous and quirky glass pieces are a must for every garden-lover www.klissglass.com . I’ve been admiring them for several years. Also something I eventually want for our home is one of the autumn or winter nature paintings by Laura R. Joseph www.ljosephart.com . Her work is full of emotion and passion for nature—something shared by gardeners.

There are so many fun and creative holiday gifts you can give to the gardener in your life. Of course we gardeners love plants but then there are also all the tools we use, the beautiful containers we adore, the books we read, the lotions we need for our working hands and ailing nails, and what about art supplies—that’s right—art supplies to keep our creative juices flowing over the long winter months. Here are some gift ideas from the “Queen of Deadheading” that are sure to please your favorite gardener. (Note fellow gardeners: Feel free to forward this information to your family and friends to avoid those unwanted non-gardening gifts!)

Plants: Buy gift certificates to local garden centers or go on-line to mail order from specialty nurseries. Wonderful and often unusual plants can be found at Klehm’s Song Sparrow Nursery  www.songsparrow.com , Heronswood Nursery  www.heronswood.com , and  Wayside Gardens www.waysidegardens.com

Tools: Stainless Steel Red Handled Trowels are fantastic and relatively obscure so probably a safe gift for the gardener who has everything. www.brentandbeckysbulbs.com B & B also carry another favorite of mine: Garden Knife with Sheath.(see photo in my blog on Pruning for Winter)

Supplies: Looking for all things ORGANIC? Peaceful Valley Farm & Garden Supply is where I turn for safe pest control but they carry a bit of everything including organic seed. They are offering beautiful gift cards with hand written messages-cool! www.GrowOrganic.com

Garden Accessories: Birdbaths, birdfeeders and bobbles…Oh my! Bobbles add color and charm to any scene (photo) check out great bobbles, gardening tree ornaments, and accessories at www.gardenartisans.com and www.SmithandHawken.com .  Or how about a beautiful accent light fixture made out of copper that looks like a wildflower? See photo on page 131 from my book The Well-Designed Mixed Garden. Visit www.escortlighting.com

Books: I hope you will consider a gift certificate for my upcoming new book: 50 High-Impact, Low-Care Garden Plants, Tough But Beautiful Plants That Anyone Can Grow. (January release) If they don’t already have Well-Tended Perennial Garden & Well-Designed Mixed Garden perhaps they deserve all three! Other titles I love are Plant Driven Design: Ogden/Springer-Ogden, Restoring American Gardens: Denise Adams, and Grasses for Livable Landscapes: Rick Darke.   Thanks to popular blog “Lilacs and Roses” for recommending one of my books as a favorite gift. Read it here.

Clothing: Look for fun and colorful garden/rain boots at most shoe stores.

Beauty Aids: My favorite for years now is Gardeners Hand Therapy Cream, by Crabtree & Evelyn.

Professional Memberships: Consider giving the gift of membership into groups such as The Perennial Plant Association www.perennialplant.org ,The American Horticultural Society www.ahs.org , or The Royal Horticultural Society in the UK www.rhs.org.uk Informative magazines accompany membership!

Art Supplies: Gardeners are artists. Help inspire their creativity and use of color by giving them a set of watercolors, colored pencils, fine-tip ink markers, or pastels. Include a book such as The Tao of Watercolor: Jeanne Carbonetti or Creating Textures in Pen & Ink with Watercolor: Claudia Nice (both have nature/plant inspired examples)

Games: Garden-opoly

For Kids: Consider giving the gift of gardening to a child rather than a video game. Tool sets, Window Sill Seed Starters or Mushroom Gardens foster family interaction and an appreciation for nature and the environment. www.parkseed.com

Thanks, Smith & Hawken! Thanks to all the wonderful staff at Smith & Hawken, Easton Town Center, Columbus Ohio who loaned me the beautiful and functional gifts for my “Gifts for the Gardener You Dig” segment on NBC 41’s Daytime Columbus with Gail Hogan. I hope lots of gardeners are lucky enough to find one or two of these great gifts under the tree Christmas morning.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Click “Continue Reading” below for Italian garden ideas….but first, here’s a slide show with some photos I took while in Italy. Enjoy!

Italian Garden Ideas
*Most Italians live in condos or apartments but still love plants and have containers and window boxes enhancing their small spaces–right now the florist crop Cyclamen were popular and could be found sitting on window sills. Italians will line pots of plants out on the pavement to create a hedge effect around their space mimicking the hedging in large formal Italian gardens which create “rooms”. This is a wonderful technique for city gardeners to adopt in the US.
*Italians who live in villas in the country side or who have small country homes normally garden with vegetables and herbs but also some ornamentals–grapes, garlic, lettuce, olives, cherries, figs, artichokes,apples and peaches are abundant and sometime espaliered to create enclosure. They are often planted among ornamentals–as ornamentals. This is a great technique for American gardeners to incorporate into their beds & borders which will bring fresh fruit, vegetables, and herbs to the table.
*Large Tuscan gardens like Villa La Pietra and Villa Gamberaia (one of the premier Italian Villas in Tuscany) are in the Renaissance Garden Style. Design elements which we can adopt include:
A. Gardens are a peaceful retreat from a hectic life style
B. Vegetables, fruits, and herbs are woven into the design and appear ornamental–some fruit trees are trained as arches or over pergolas
C. Hedging with boxwood et al create living walls and are used to outline beds and create enclosure or rooms
D. Space is symmetrically divided (symmetrical layout is the hallmark of any Italian garden) with the main axis of the home being the main garden axis– and often divided in a quadrilateral fashion (4 beds) with a center circle bed or water feature–my back garden is designed in this fashion with 4 square beds and a circular focal center bed. Think in shapes using squares, rectangles, triangles and circles.
E. Vertical forms from Italian cypress are prevalent in the gardens and countryside–we can mimic with upright junipers or arborvitae.
F. Terracing is used to divide spaces into rooms–this can even be used in the smallest garden to make it appear larger by changing levels. Hardscaping is key in Italy due to the harsh climate—pick out some fun stone for your own garden. Trellises may also divide space and again can be used in small gardens.

G. Potted plants are often lined out to create rhythm (movement) in the garden by their repetition–using citrus trees (Italians love their lemon trees and scented geraniums). They are often places in balanced symmetry. Americans can easily do the same and bring plants inside for the winter in cold climates.
H. Water is always a part of classical Italian gardens—it doesn’t have to be a grand fountain–even the smallest container of water can bring a cooling effect and bring the sky to ground level in a small American garden.
I. Personal touches are often a part of the garden and can be seen in statues, coat-of-arms on garden walls etc.–incorporate your personal passions in your American garden as I’ve done with a sculpture of our son Zachary. ENJOY A TOUCH OF ITALY IN YOUR GARDEN…CIAO!