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Thinking of Others If your favorite gardener’s horticultural toy box is already full, consider donating in their honor to these worthy causes:
Heifer Project, heifer.org is an international organization that emphasizes sustainable agriculture and farming self-help. Donors choose agricultural gifts (and training) such as chickens, goats or bees to help families become self-sufficient. Recipients are expected to share the bounty when the cow calves and the bees swarm.
10 Kinney Street, Troy ~
Plant a Row for the Hungry, sponsored by the Garden Writers of America gardenwriters.org). It exists to encourage gardeners to plant an extra row of produce (or more!) each year and bestow the surplus on food banks, soup kitchens and local social service organizations. Gardeners of all skill levels and interests cherish something as a reminder that the snows will eventually cease and April will roll around again. Hope springs eternal through the endless cycle of Mother Nature.
Majestic Queen Anne Victorian on 5 private acres is a historic dream home of the highest order! Meticulously updated and maintained, gracious wrap-around porch, elegant formal rooms, 2 family rooms and 5 fireplaces. Gourmet kitchen and breakfast room, 6 bedrooms including a private master suite, wonderful patio and gorgeous grounds are perfect for entertaining on a grand scale. 2-story carriage house offers space to finish for a studio, office, guests or apartment. Rare opportunity to own a very special home! www.10kinney.com Agent: Jennifer Vucetic (518) 879-6318 471 Albany Shaker Road Loudonville, New York 12211 (518) 435-9944 1581 Route 9 Clifton Park, NY 12065 (518) 371-1940
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The best garden shoes I’ve ever worn are Muck boots (muckboots.com). They’re durable, attractive, waterproof and comfortable. They last for years and will happily traipse through mud, manure and yes, muck. Why ruin another pair of sneakers?
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Hand soaps and lotions: Good old fashioned Lava soap —that square-packaged, red-papered pumiced soap — can’t be surpassed for getting out ingrained garden grime. Look for it at the grocery store. Bag Balm, which was invented to relieve, um, bovine udder discomfort, is matchless for repairing dried-out digits. However, if you want to get upscale and per-
snickety, try Crabtree & Evelyn Gardeners Hand Therapy cream, pricey but fabulous.
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And don’t forget a Garden Journal. After the hubbub of the holidays, when the winter air is frigid and our armchairs deep and comfy, it’s time to lose ourselves in jottings of the garden to come in 2014. Which will be The Best Ever, of course. I like my journal with lots of doublelined pages, and a minimum of frippery. I also use it to keep track of my weight, remember favorite words, sorrow over how much money I’ve lost in the stock market, and so forth. Mostly my annual journals serve as a reminder of chores to be done, plants to try, and gardens to visit, as well as sowing times, weather vagaries, and my planting successes and failures.
Visit garden communicator Colleen Plimpton’s website colleenplimpton.com
Serving Tech Valley and the Greater Capital Region since 2001
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