A Gift List for the Garden Lover in Your Life (Amy Barton Williams's list)
'Tis the season for gift giving - and, to make your life easier, we thought we'd share some gift ideas and wish lists from our station insiders here at the Community Idea Stations.
Garden lovers seem like an easy group to buy for - until you actually get to the store or the website. Then you might find yourself wondering - is this a good brand of pruning shears? Is this tool actually useful? What's an original gift idea for my gardening friend? Well, we have suggestions from TWO pros - Richard Nunnally and Amy Barton Williams, our hosts for our own television series on gardening and plants, Virginia Home Grown. The ideas that Richard and Amy share will delight your gardening friends. And if your dear ones need a hint about what YOU would like this year, feel free to print our list, circle your favorite items, and leave the page on a convenient table or shelf 'by accident.' We won't tell.
First, from Amy:
Here’s a Christmas list from me…it includes a tree pruner to do a little dormant season pruning, a couple of books to read by the fire, and two CDs to put me in the Christmas spirit and a mixer to help with holiday baking.
For your heavy duty pruning needs.
Book description: Get a glimpse of how the founding fathers' passion for horticulture shaped their views of governing, as related in anecdotes researched and shared by author Andrea Wulf. Wonderful stories about how, even as British ships gathered off Staten Island, George Washington wrote his estate manager about the garden at Mount Vernon; how a tour of English gardens renewed Thomas Jefferson’s and John Adams’s faith in their fledgling nation; how a trip to the great botanist John Bartram’s garden helped the delegates of the Constitutional Congress break their deadlock; and why James Madison is the forgotten father of American environmentalism.
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The Brother Gardeners: A Generation of Gentlemen Naturalists and the Birth of an Obsession (Vintage) *
- Also from author Andrea Wulf, a vivid description of the science and adventure of eighteenth-century plant collecting, The Brother Gardeners is the story of how six men created the modern garden and changed the horticultural world in the process. It is a story of a garden revolution that began in America.
Harry Connick, Jr. + Christmas music. What more can we say?
OK - Michael Buble + Christmas music. Done.
If you're serious about making cookies, bread, pie crusts and cakes, this is a sweet mixer to have.
Happy Holidays everyone!
*Note: You can click on any of the links above to purchase these items on Amazon.com. When you use one of our links to purchase these items (or begin your shopping for anything else on amazon), the station receives a small financial benefit. The cost to you is the same.
If you want more gift ideas - try:
- Out of the box gift ideas from our own Master Gardener Richard Nunnally
- Top Gifts for World Music Fans (click to read)
- Classic Gift Ideas from Our Music Director Bobbie Barajas
- Go Local for the Holidays! Charlottesville Shopping Ideas
- Puzzled for Presents? Here's George Maida's Gift Giving Smorgasbord
- Gift Ideas for Someone Who Has Everything
You can follow Virginia Home Grown on Facebook here. Get updates on the show, see and share photos of gorgeous flowers and veggies, get extra tips on gardening and plants and connect with other garden lovers.
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