I kind of short-changed you all last week with only two suggestions of Christmas gifts for the gardener (although they were fabulous ideas in my humble opinion). Here are a few more to sink your soon-to-be acquired Hori-Hori into…

The art of wreath making is an annual event celebrating the incredible diversity of plants that live in our northwest gardens.

Making winter arrangements from the bounty of our yards is a perfect way to extend the bond between plants and people that is so primal and essential to our wellbeing.

I always like to take a minute this time of year to reflect back on the season and recall some of the things that I am thankful for. The weather is always at the top of the list. This was a good growing year.

There is rarely a time in the garden when something doesn’t need pruning, and the month of November is certainly no different. What is different though is that under no circumstances should we be pruning our shrubs or trees severely this time of year.

Reality check! The days are getting shorter, our yards are getting wetter and while our desire to continue to work with plants may not be diminishing, the joy of working out in the garden is fading.

The obvious solution is to move inside the house or if you are really lucky, into your personal greenhouse or atrium.

Keeping our landscapes changing is so critical to keeping our interest in gardening. With change, there’s the anticipation of something new and exciting. With change, our garden compositions take on whole new personalities.

One of the treats of a fall garden is enjoying the sight of clusters of different colored berries on our shrubbery. In my own backyard is a delightful Beautyberry, called “Profusion,” that has the most incredible purple berries later in fall.

September is a glorious month in the northwest - the days are warm, the nights cool, the shadows long, and the lawns are coming alive again after their dry summer slumber. The garden wakes back up for about six to eight weeks before it shuts down for the winter and it is an excellent time to get some serious gardening done.