- A collection of career items I found interesting this week.
- How To Trash Your Tree – December 26, 2010 – Please share this info so we don’t end up with the usual Christmas Tree “litter” over the next week or so. I now have a chipper/shredder so I might gather up a few to make mulch for my garden paths.
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A Christmas Gift from A Gardener’s Notebook!
Sunday marked our 5th Annual LIVE Reading of Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol. We had some new voices this year and had a great time as usual. You can listen to the entire show using the link below.
Consider having your own reading of A Christmas Carol, or other favorite story, as a way to gather friends together and share a unique experience. You don’t have to broadcast it like we do, but why not share it with the world!
This year’s show was sponsored by WelchWrite.com, Eclipse-1 Media and New Media Interchange.
Listen to 5th Annual Live Reading of A Christmas Carol
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!
Enjoy more Christmas Carol in your own home!
Free download of “A Christmas Carol” – Text/ePub/HTML/Kindle versions available
Free download of our reading script of “A Christmas Carol” – PDF format
The audio CD of Patrick Stewart’s one man version of A Christmas Carol is absolutely amazing. We saw the show several times here in LA and met Patrick one evening. His version of “A Christmas Carol” was the driving factor in starting our own yearly reading of the story.
- A collection of career items I found interesting this week.
- Building a Native Bee Box – December 19, 2010
My friend, Keri, has created an excellent “Bee Box” for her garden. Read the entire article at her site.
“I’ve been wanting to do this for over a year, build a nesting box for native bees and other insects. My friend Doug Welch from A Gardener’s Notebook had sent me various plans and ideas. I had a wooden wine box with a sliding lid and it seemed perfect.”
Read Building a Native Bee Box via AnimalBytes
From the gardenersnotebk Twitter account: A reminder to me by way of a reminder to you. 🙂 – Pop the top on your composter when it rains to give it a good soaking and keep it perking.
If you use an enclosed composter like I do, the next time rain is forecast, pop the top on the composter and let it get a good soaking. Here in Los Angeles it is usually so dry that the compost doesn’t work as quickly as you might like. Rather than wasting water from the standpipe, I let nature do its thing at this time of year. Rain is predicted for the next 4-5 days here so there should be plenty of opportunity.
Here are the composters I have in my back garden…
Garden Gourmet Composter on Amazon.com
#15 Peterson Field Guide to Birds of Western North America
One of my favorite parts of the garden are the birds it attracts — everything form the typical sparrows and morning doves to phoebes and even Cooper’s Hawks. The Peterson Guides are a great way to help you identify the birds in your garden and learn a little more about them. You can also take it on hikes and other outdoors adventures. You never know what you might see.
More Peterson Guides for birds, wildlife, reptiles, trees and more
All Gift Guide Recommendations:
- #14 Fiskars 3-Piece Softouch Garden Tool Set
- #13 Joshua Roth 1516 Japanese Hori Hori Garden Landscaping Digging Tool
- #12 The $64 Tomato
- #11 Sunset Western Garden Book
- #10 Wellington Boots
- # 9 Wells Lamont Wet and Muddy Latex Coated Gardening Glove
- # 8 Garden Crafts
- # 7 Coppertop Caged Bird Feeder
- # 6 Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening: Month by Month
- # 5 English Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
- # 4 Troy-Bilt TB154E 6.5 Amp Electric Front Tine Forward Rotating Garden Tiller/Cultivator
- # 3 The 3,000 Mile Garden: An Exchange of Letters Between Two Eccentric Gourmet Gardeners
- # 2 Fiskars 9625 18-Inch PowerGear Bypass Lopper
- # 1 Bosmere K767 Garden Compost Bin
I went out the back door this morning to do some work and was stopped in my track by this first paperwhite of the season. I had noticed the bulb foliage starting to pop up once we got our first rain, but the flowers always seem to arrive unannounced.
Here is another paperwhite next to the first including several more buds just waiting to open.
Finally, here are the leaves of a bunch of snowbells which are quick to follow on the paperwhites. Next up will be the big, yellow, daffodils which have started to put on quite a show each year.
#14 Fiskars 3-Piece Softouch Garden Tool Set
As is sometimes the case, the gardening blogger has no tools. For years I have been making do with cheap hand tools — or none at all. This set from Fiskers could be just the thing. I have been very happy with my other Fiskars tools, so I would expect these to last many seasons and not quickly break like most of the cheap tools I have had in the past.
All Gift Guide Recommendations:
- #13 Joshua Roth 1516 Japanese Hori Hori Garden Landscaping Digging Tool
- #12 The $64 Tomato
- #11 Sunset Western Garden Book
- #10 Wellington Boots
- # 9 Wells Lamont Wet and Muddy Latex Coated Gardening Glove
- # 8 Garden Crafts
- # 7 Coppertop Caged Bird Feeder
- # 6 Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening: Month by Month
- # 5 English Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
- # 4 Troy-Bilt TB154E 6.5 Amp Electric Front Tine Forward Rotating Garden Tiller/Cultivator
- # 3 The 3,000 Mile Garden: An Exchange of Letters Between Two Eccentric Gourmet Gardeners
- # 2 Fiskars 9625 18-Inch PowerGear Bypass Lopper
- # 1 Bosmere K767 Garden Compost Bin
#13 Joshua Roth 1516 Japanese Hori Hori Garden Landscaping Digging Tool
I came across this on The Cheap Vegetable Gardener blog and immediately added it to my own Amazon wish list.
I make due with whatever I have out in the garden and having such a purpose-built tool would be very, very nice. I really need to spoil myself a bit more in that regard. (LAUGH)
All Gift Guide Recommendations:
- #12 The $64 Tomato
- #11 Sunset Western Garden Book
- #10 Wellington Boots
- # 9 Wells Lamont Wet and Muddy Latex Coated Gardening Glove
- # 8 Garden Crafts
- # 7 Coppertop Caged Bird Feeder
- # 6 Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening: Month by Month
- # 5 English Garden Mysteries by Anthony Eglin
- # 4 Troy-Bilt TB154E 6.5 Amp Electric Front Tine Forward Rotating Garden Tiller/Cultivator
- # 3 The 3,000 Mile Garden: An Exchange of Letters Between Two Eccentric Gourmet Gardeners
- # 2 Fiskars 9625 18-Inch PowerGear Bypass Lopper
- # 1 Bosmere K767 Garden Compost Bin
- A collection of career items I found interesting this week.
- gift ideas for gardeners on your Christmas list – December 5, 2010 – Some great gardening gift ideas.
