When I gift wrap I use what I have on hand for the paper and the trimmings. I like pretty packages so I keep ribbons and ties from previous holidays and use them to jazz up this year's gifts. For the gift wrap I might use brown kraft paper or a cut up grocery bag. Here are several ideas using items you probably have around your home. Keep it simple yet pretty, and reuse what you have.

I first learned about North Georgia candy roaster squash at our farmers market last November. A local farm, Harlem Valley Homestead, grows them and had them for sale. They suggested I try making a 'pumpkin' pie with it. Since pumpkin is a type of squash too, in the same genus-- cucurbita -- it's a reasonable suggestion. I liked the novelty…

We may never know the full story behind the fountain that sits in my garden now, but we have an account that my father wrote when he purchased it from Mrs. Rionda -- for $20. Mrs. Rionda lived in a house overlooking the Hudson River along The Palisades in Alpine, NJ.  The…

The vegetable garden at Bunny Williams’ property in Falls Village, Connecticut, where professional gardener Tricia van Oers is employed, is all about relationships. Bunny calls Tricia 'the soul of the garden' and says she has never eaten so well. Tricia is equally complimentary of her employer. “Bunny lets me feel a sense of ownership of the garden. She allows for playfulness and freedom within the established design of the garden,” says Tricia. Their paths first crossed in the summer of…

Kate Blairstone is no shrinking violet. As an illustrator she approaches her subjects with the exuberance of a person who is curious about everything. Before she draws a plant or an animal, she wants to know more about the community they are a part of and the relationships that inform their world. As a gardener she has a floriferous sense, so everything is densely packed in her Portland, OR garden. She buys plants small but they grow up fast in…

One of Yolanda Burrell’s happiest childhood memories is of climbing the peach tree in her maternal grandmother’s garden in Los Angeles to pick peaches that were the size of tennis balls, as she remembers them. Early memories like these have informed the way she views the landscape today. “Everything we grow in this climate has to do double duty,” she says. “Water is scarce so I feel that it should be used to grow food rather than ornamentals exclusively.” [caption…

It almost seems as if everything in Heidi’s life has led her to this enchanting place – a home on Narragansett Bay in Rhode Island where she and her husband David Sommers enjoy sailing and gardening. Heidi grew up in Rye, NY, the daughter of a talented gardening mother, Helen Hild, who enrolled her at age 8 in a children’s gardening program at…

  You can't beat an annual plant for its desire to please the gardener. It has one season to live and it puts all of its energy into producing flowers. If you plant a seed, either indoors or directly in the garden, some annuals will germinate and grow to maturity, producing a flower in as little as 8 weeks. Cut that flower and it takes it as a mandate to produce more flowers. Give it average soil and it’s ok…

  Clematis is a versatile vining plant that comes in many sizes and colors. Monty Don, the British gardening personality, said in an interview with The Guardian, “Everyone loves clematis. To dislike clematis as a matter of principle would take a degree of perversity of the same order as disliking grass, trees or coffee ice cream. If you have a wall or fence, a decent-sized…

  One of the most widely known willows is pussy willow.  The botanical name is Salix discolor and it’s native to North American wetlands. Its catkins are as soft as a kitten’s paws and it’s one of the first plants to signal spring is nigh. The botanical genus for willow plants is Salix and there are about 400 water loving species in the genus. Where I live in Pawling, NY we are situated in the 6,000 acre Great Swamp Watershed,…