The Lazy Gardener's Guide To Gift Giving

Thanksgiving dinner is over and all over the country people who work in retail are girding their loins, trying to get themselves prepared for tomorrow - the biggest shopping day of the year. Prices have been slashed, and the reality that we'd better start our Christmas shopping (and why not while things are on sale?) or we'll end up in a real pickle at Christmas time.

So the malls and downtown shopping areas are jammed with cars and shoppers ready to do battle with each other to grab the biggest bargains in the shortest possible time.

It's a scene I wouldn't be caught dead in.

For the past few years most of my holiday shopping has been done from the comfort of my office chair. I have a larger selection of products to choose from than even the largest mall can offer. I can comparison shop with ease. With a few clicks of my mouse the buying is done - and then people hasten to my door bringing my goods already boxed and ready to wrap!

Wrapping is a chore that I normally detest. If I could get creative with bows and package decorations I'd consider it an artistic challenge. But most of my packages have to be very flat so that I can bundle them into a few larger boxes to ship to family members in different states.

This year, though, I ran across paper that is perfect for gifts coming from an avid gardener. It's handmade paper in large sheets embedded with flowers and leaves - absolutely gorgeous. I was actually looking for "wallpaper" when I found it. Instead of wrestling with huge rolls of mass produced paper I had conceived this brilliant scheme of buying sheets of handmade metallic paper that were easy to handle and definitely not run-of-the-mill. I found my wallpaper - and these beautiful flowered papers as well. The wrapping paper itself is a gift -like clothing a box in the essence of spring and summer.

SO I've got the packaging taken care of. Now all I need to do is fill those boxes.

BOOKS
My first stop is usually the online bookstores. There are some great new gardening books out this year - plus a few oldies but goodies that some of my gardening friends will enjoy.

One that will go to most of my gardening friends is called Shovel It - Nature's Health Plan by Eva Shaw. Ph.D. Shaw (Writeriffic Publishing Group, 2001) has combined the latest medical research with her love of gardening to create a book that will allow us to get the most from our gardens. Read this book and you'll realize that you have a health spa in your own back yard - if you only know how to take advantage of it. We gardeners have always known that gardening is good for us - but I'll bet you never realized how good!

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