The second week of December is when holiday shoppers begin looking around for more creative, meaningful gifts. Avoid crowded parking lots and long lines at registers by visiting a local nursery or garden center. A living plant or garden tool is a more thoughtful present than a gift card and you aren’t required to choose poinsettias – garden centers and nurseries offer a wide selection of indoor plants that will look great long past the holiday season. If you really want to get creative with your gift ideas
The latest must have garden book: Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs By Michael A. Dirr, Timber Press Price: $79.95, 3,500 photographs, 3,700 species, 380 genera.
Where to buy: Your favorite bookstore.
This thick, heavy hardcover is destined to become another classic for author Michael Dirr; it is the ultimate, illustrated reference for woody plants. You'll get the latest name changes for trees, vines and flowering shrubs plus all the essential details about how to grow and how to identify thousands of plants for sale at nurseries.
Included is the best- researched recommendations for hardiness in the industry so you can feel confident about trying something new and different in our climate. This beautiful book is full of photographs that will make any homeowner inspired to relandscape - or at least pick out the perfect replacement plant. This new edition encyclopedia is a must-have reference book for landscape, nursery and maintenance professionals.
Dirt cheap but not just dirt: Give a load of MooDoo for less hoe, hoe, hoe all year long
Where to buy: $20 for a pick-up load.
Contact: Hy-Grass Farms 253-833-7708.
What homeowner doesn't want less weeds and a better-looking landscape? This gift also helps to support the local, family-owned dairy farms in the area as they compost and recycle their mountains of manure.
Just be choosy when it comes to your mulch or manure. I use composted dairy manure from an organic dairy farm in my hometown of Enumclaw because I know it will be weed and pesticide free. I've had problems with weeds in mulch before. (Wonder how you got horsetail? Check that last load of beauty bark.) MooDoo is composted at a temperature that not only kills all weed seeds but creates a product that is odor free with a rich, dark color. Manure from organic dairy farms does not contain pesticides from lawn clippings or antibiotics from meat packing lots.
If you have small weeds, just lay down some MooDoo and they'll be gone. For larger weeds, smother the patch with cardboard or newspaper and at least three inches of MooDoo mulch. Nothing like the instant gratification of a newly-mulched landscape with a weed-free frosting of dark, black compost.
A garden to visit in winter: Tickets to the Northwest Flower and Garden Show
Where to buy: Visit www.gardenshow.com to order an early dose of spring. If computers are not your thing, call for tickets at 1-800-343-6973.
This is the Northwest's largest indoor garden show and runs Feb. 8-12 this year. Prices start at $10 for a half-day ticket and there are also group and early-bird discounts. Tickets are easy to sneak into stockings and this show is for more than just gardeners. The theme is musical this year so anyone that loves music, flowers or beauty will enjoy the show.
Give an extravagant, exotic experience: Join us for a cruise of the beautiful Balkans
Where to buy: Visit binettigarden.com or contact Enumclaw travel at 360-825-7939 for more information. Group size limited to first 22 guests.
This summer (July 14 - 26), you can join us as we cruise the Balkans and enjoy gardens in the land of the midnight sun. We'll visit gardens and cities in Sweden, Denmark, Estonia, Germany and St. Petersburg, Russia. Priced at about $3,580 per person.
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Marianne Binetti is the author of "Easy Answers for Great Gardens" and eight other gardening books. She has a degree in horticulture from WSU and will answer questions from her Web site at binettigarden.com.
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