The First Annual Salem Garden Holiday Wish List

It’s the holiday season and that means it’s time to find a gift for your favorite gardener.  There are so many choices and ideas everywhere you look, from your local garden center to millions of places on the internet. Here’s a few of my favorites this year:

First up, how about a pair of great gardening clogs? I’m really love the adorable chicken design. These are $36.95  here at Gardener’s Supply company.

 

Snap & Grow Greenhouse - 6' x 8' (2 boxes) - Hobby Greenhouse Kits

If I were in the market for a greenhouse, I’d choose this one.

The sides are polycarbonate, it appears to vent well and it’s a nice size. I found it here at Greenhousemegastore.com for $749.00.

 

Herb Garden Markers / Plant Stakes - A Set of 3 ceramic garden markers

Look at these great garden markers! I found them on etsy for 3/$22 at this cute shop called FromArtisanHands. I think they would add a nice punch of color and they look nice and sturdy and fade proof.

At the very top of my “gardening books to read” list is Margaret Roach’s  “the backyard parables, lessons on gardening, and life.”  I loved Margaret’s last book “And I Shall Find Some Peace Here” in which she talked about her journey from corporate life as a garden editor for Martha Stewart to a full time gardener and writer. This new book looks to be a continuation of her story. It’s available on Amazon.com for $17.57, hardcover and $11.04 on your kindle.
If your a very practical gifter or receiver this bucket caddy is perfect. For just $9.19 your favorite gardener will be able to store all of his or her tools and weeds in one place and move around the garden.  This is also an Amazon find. Take a look here if you’d like to check it out!
Here’s another practical gift—a tumbling compost bin!  People ask me about compost bins all the time and this one is absolutely my favorite. We purchased it for our adaptive gardens at work last spring and I love it! It makes compost in two to three months, has two chambers so one  “cooks” while the other is in use, and it’s quite compact. I’ve never noticed any odor, which is often a concern of new compost makers and its quite animal proof since it’s up off of the ground. You’ll find it at Home Depot for $99 or it can be ordered online here.
This bench/kneeler is a great find for the gardener who needs a little extra help to be comfortable physically. It can be used as a bench as pictured above or flipped over as a  kneeler with handles to assist when pushing up to stand.  It’s $28.95 here at Amazon.
And finally, I had to include this lovely rocker for two. I can just imagine sitting in this chair with Michael enjoying our view (when we’re 99 and 102, maybe). It’s  so pretty and I think it would be a beautiful accent piece without distracting from the rest of the garden. I found it on Overstock.com for $217.00 along with 117 other beautiful bench designs. If your looking for a bench, you will find something at Overstock!
So there’s my wish list. What’s on yours?
Feel free to share this post far and wide… just put hint, hint in the subject line if you send it by e-mail ;).
Enjoy everything!
Michele
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Militia, Daffodils, Ants and Sunsets

Here’s a little bit of my weekend, the part spent with camera in hand.

Our first stop was at the muster down on the common. We got there at the very end but still saw soldiers marching in formation. As the daughter of a career army master sergeant I get a thrill whenever I see this, which isn’t too often these days.
IMG_0562There were horses…IMG_0565The colonial militia men..IMG_0571And tanks that fired. What is it about boys and tanks? He loves this stuff, it’s just in him. Maybe it’s a piece of his grandfather.IMG_0579Of course we had to visit the playground for a minute. It was very cold and windy. My older kids played here every day when we lived a few doors down.IMG_0587We checked into the Derby garden and found that I was correct last week, this is indeed a daffodil! I thought so!IMG_0600Here’s the next mystery plant… I think this might be a tulip, believe it or not. I’ll check back soon.IMG_0608I spent a good twenty minutes on Saturday night photographing this ant. Perhaps I need to get a life, lol.IMG_0632They are fascinating creatures if you stop and look at them. I started this project in my quest to figure out where their coming into my kitchen from. I continuously look down to see an ant looking up at me. They are really driving us all a little bit crazy.IMG_0634Of course, by the end of the twenty minutes the ant was named Wilbur and had a framed portrait in sepia finish. I think I need help here 🙂IMG_0626Out on the deck last night my little guy took this photo of one of thousands of planes heading into Logan over our house. Their so close that we can see the landing gear come down.IMG_0646But to our left we were really enjoying this.IMG_0647I’m hoping that this helps anyone who’s still recovering from the ant photos.
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Today it’s going to be in the sixties with less wind. I’m hoping/planning to get out and plant these!

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Seed packets are buy one, get one free at Home Depot! It’s a great time to stock up on anything that you need.

Happy Monday!

Enjoy everything!

Michele

Which White? and a Cute Christmas Theme Change

WordPress just released this cute Christmas/Holiday theme and I couldn’t resist.  I had also struggled with the formatting of this post for hours and a few clicks to change the theme solved the whole problem. Talk about a win, win for me…and for you too I hope! In other good news, our sunroom/office project has come along nicely lately…

Here it was a few weeks ago

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and here it is now

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Again, a few weeks ago (actually this photo is dated September 26th, so quite a few weeks ago)…
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and now  🙂
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  I’m planning to paint it white to pull it together and tone down the effects of the crazy angles and window sizes.
So, which white should I choose?

Navaho white, seems to have some yellow in it..

Antique White, definitely a green undertone…

Off-white, a pink undertone

Linen White, a pink undertone, I like this one a lot, it reminds me of our first apartment on Derby Street, I had the whole place painted this color, except for the bathroom, which was supposed to be green with white trim, but the NPS decided to paint the trim olive. Eventually I talked them into fixing that, but it took a few years…

Cottage White, this may work, I see some pink here too.