I admit to being a terrible gift-giver. I hate the idea of a deadline for foisting a useless or unwanted item on a loved one. I’m more of a “come upon an interesting thing when the stars align that I know the person will love” giver.
Holiday expectations are not conducive to this style. For this annual column, I dug deep to do my best to guide anyone with a gardener in their life to a meaningful and useful present.
Let’s start with the basics. I learned about Rosy Soil (rosysoil.com) while comforting a friend whose father died last summer. I had listened to an interview with its founder, Chad Massura, on an episode of New York Botanical Gardens’ Plant People podcast. Its potting mixes and amendments are peat-free, a major improvement for climate-friendly gardening, because extracting peat releases carbon into the atmosphere. Instead, Rosy Soil uses biochar, which is created with a process that stores rather than releases carbon.
I sent my friend a bag, along with an offer to help use it for a memorial planting. As a gift, the mix would be wonderful for an indoor gardener or as a seed-starter for a vegetable gardener. It’s stocked locally at Adam’s.
My MVP tool this season was a small shovel — it may be called a “floral spade.” I found it at a garage sale. It’s perfect for planting quart- and gallon-sized plants. Mine is 6 inches wide, 8 inches deep and 3½ feet long from tip to handle. It’s lightweight, making it easy to carry around. It gives me more leverage than a hand tool, allowing me to dig a larger hole than I need for a plug with less strain on my wrists. I can use it in tight spaces where a spade isn’t necessary.
Staying close to the ground, I recommend a tried-and-true seed mix for shady areas that can be sown outdoors in the winter. Prairie Moon’s Understory Collection has seeds for six species with blooms, spread from April to October (prairiemoon.com/understory-seed-packet-collection). Winter sowing is delightfully low-maintenance, and direct seeding skips the need for pots and soil.
Gifts for gardeners: The soil on the shovel is not included. (Photo by P. Doan)
I got to know Mike Adamovic’s work through a Facebook group he started and manages, Native Plants of the Northeast. His new book was published this week, Through the Seasons: A Botanical Odyssey of the Native Plants of the Northeast. It’s part nature and plant guide, part landscaping tool. Come for the gorgeous photography, stay for the journey through nature.
Organized by habitat and then season, Adamovic’s curiosity and observational skills lead the reader through the trees, plants and grasses that live here. Whether you’re interested in understanding your environment better when you’re hiking, restoring habitat or adding impactful plants and trees into your northeast yard, his book covers it all.
Gardeners tend to appreciate beautiful and unique indoor things, too. I am coveting throw pillows from Hudson Valley Seed made with designs from their artistic seed packs (hudsonvalleyseed.com/collections/for-the-home). There are six varieties; my favorite is Chives, because of the way it captures the delicate flowers.
Another writer-tested gift is a candle or perfume from Adirondack Fragrance (adirondackfragrance.com). Made in Potsdam, the scents are inspired by local fields and forests with wildflowers, berries and leaves of native species. One of my favorite flower scents in June and July is common milkweed. It wafts across the lawn, sweet and deep. The milkweed scented candle isn’t a perfect replica, but it’s a reminder now of the season to come and all its glory.
I’m a strong believer that we can deepen our connection with nature by close observation of the areas around us, especially in landscapes as rich in diversity as the Hudson Valley. In Witness Tree: Seasons of Change with a Century-Old Oak, Lynda Mapes chronicles spending a year with a red oak in the Harvard Forest and coming to know it intimately. It’s both inspiring and wonderful knowledge about a species I can see from my writing window.
Good luck with your garden gifting!
Have you seen these stories?
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Type: Opinion
Opinion: Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
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