More holiday gifts for gardeners: Part 2
Just one of the book counters at Marders, the large (and expensive, yes, it’s true) nursery in Bridgehampton, which is well worth a visit any time of year.
I want to continue with suggestions for gifts for gardeners, but need to go off on a brief rant in order to do so. My topic was going to be garden books — and actually it still is. I was going to begin with the need for a really top-notch encyclopedia, and you certainly should have one. But then I thought about the last time I reached for mine.
The idea I was noodling with last week was one I’ve had, maybe every spring, for years. I’ve always envied those families who graced the road front of their homes with “a host of golden daffodils” every spring. I always think what a lovely gift it is to neighbors, as well as themselves. Once again, I started to obsess about doing it for our house next spring. In order to see if it was feasible, I needed several sets of figures. The first, of course, since the unturned soil on the sides of the road bears more of a resemblance to concrete than anything else, was to get a price for roto-tilling. I did that, and so far so good. I then paced off the square footage. What I needed next was to know the number of daffodils to plant per square foot.
I knew that one of my catalogs, which sells daffodils wholesale, i.e. by the thousand, had this information, but I suddenly realized that all I had to do was go online and ask. I typed in “daffodils per square foot?” and got a page of responses in seconds. The answers ranged from four to six; no one recommended one or two and no one recommended nine or ten. It is true I could have delineated a 12-inch by 12-inch space and figured it out for myself, but Google was indeed a good deal faster. It would have taken me that amount of time to go and get a ruler.
By the time I added up all the numbers, including labor, it was indeed prohibitively expensive, at least for the present, and so once again it’s back on the planning board for “whenever.” But it started me thinking about those of you gardeners who are still not computer literate. I really, really, really want to urge you to take the class at our library, Introduction to Windows. It’s given once a month on Tuesdays; the next time will be November 17 at 5:30 p.m. If you like books, if you ever use the library, try to imagine a library the size of the world, that’s free, that’s never closed and has the friendliest librarian you’ll ever want to meet. You don’t need to buy or own a computer either — you can use one at the library. No one is ever too old to learn new tricks!
However, when you’re wanting something to wrap, the best recent choice would be the “American Horticultural Society A-Z Encyclopedia of Garden Plants” with Christopher Brickell listed as the author. It retails for $45.99 and was recently available, used, at amazon.com for $16.76. Second choice would be the one I use which is actually a series, the Time-Life Gardener’s Guide Series, by the Times-Life Books editorial staff. It’s no longer in stock, but used copies, and I wouldn’t hesitate to gift them, are available at Amazon for $1.99 each.
Tip of the week: Every year I urge myself to clean all my garden tools carefully before putting them away, reminding myself how nice it will be in the spring to find them that way, and I never do it. Maybe if I urge all of you to do this, I will too. Hope springs [email protected]
