December is such a fun time with a myriad of online giveaways to celebrate the season.  Garden sites are in on the action and with a little clicking around there are some really great prizes that might score you a few free holiday gifts, or will at least get you through the long winter and prepare you for the next gardening season.

In order of who is ending first, here is the list of what you might be able to win.

• Ending tonight (Wed Nov 30th) at midnight Margaret Roach is giving away a copy of Cook This Now by Melissa Clark on Away To Garden.

• Also if you are in Virginia, you might be interested to win passes to the Lewis Ginter Garden Festival of Lights from Washington Gardener Magazine. (ends tonight so hurry)

There are a bunch of things ending on Friday:

• Dirt du Jour has a giveaway going for pretty (and super easy to grow) hanging Tillandsia mounted on a rock. It is a pretty window hanging, holiday ornament, or office plant. (perfect for a stocking stuffer — just be careful when shoving it into the sock!)

• Garden Rant is giving away a copy of Graham Rice’s Dry Shade Garden book (so handy for so many people!)

• Timber Press is giving away a highly coveted copy of the latest edition of Dirr’s Encyclopedia of Trees & Shrubs. If you are unfamiliar with Dirr’s, let me enlighten you — this is hands down the best book on trees and shrubs…you want it — you need it — it’s a reliable resource that you will return to again and again. It’s not cheap (retailing for about $75) but its worth it — and if you don’t believe me, see what Jenny Peterson, Kylee Hartwig Baumle and Rebecca Sweet (all highly respected designers and garden writers) have to say about it.

• Also make sure to check back with Rebecca as she is running a series of as yet un-announced (but she promises that they will be good) giveaways all month and Kylee has some cool moss rocks to giveaway as well.

• Leaf Magazine is holding a Huge 10-day long giveaway that starts on Dec 1st and ends on Dec 10th  (that’s the big image above) that has variety of exciting prizes that include beautiful books, garden-y baked goods and candy, gorgeous planters and handy planters, wooly pockets, a cedar beehive, Garden Conservancy passes, and the grand prize of a reclining Deck Chair. It’s all going down on Leaf’s facebook page so head there for daily details.

• On day 4 of the Leaf Giveaway (that’s this coming Sunday) you will have another chance to win that Dirr Tree book (in case you luck out on Friday with Timber Press).

• Aha Modern Living is giving away a cool Terrarium and some very nice muddles that will make great stocking fillers. (That ends next week).

• Birds and Blooms magazine also has a daily giveaway going for the month of December.

• Daniel at Small Kitchen Garden is giving away his book (Yes you Can! And Freeze Dry It Too) about canning next week and you can find more details of that at his website.

• Stevie at Garden Therapy is doing something with prints from the pretty garden pillow line — so make sure to check things out over there too.

• Gen at North Coast Gardening is giving away a copy of The Visitors Guide to America’s Gardens.

And finally…

• Ending Dec 17th, Ben Vogt is giving away a copy of his garden memoir, Sleep Creep, Leap the First three Years of a Nebraska Garden.

Good Luck!

Check out the gallery for some of the prizes!

Images: Away to Garden, Dirt du Jour, Timber Press, Leaf Magazine, Aha Modern Living, and Ben Vogt

This garden has bit of celebrity to go along with it….(see here for gossip) — but I would rather focus on that staircase,  and the dogwood that is as pretty in the fall as it is in the spring…but if you interested, it’s for sale.  (see the gossip link)

As usual, I focus on the garden….but you can see some of the inside of the house that goes with this at Nero Chronicles.

images via Nero Chronicles

Choosing a design hero is not something that comes easy to me , primarily because I can find something I love in most gardens and if someone has even a little bit of skill I can usually learn something from them (making them at least a little bit of a hero in my eyes). Nonetheless, there are a few that I turn to more often for inspiration – even though I am fickle about professing my undying love. Key for me is that they are all still alive. I appreciate following a career as it unfolds and seeing how designs evolve in the context of modern day. That’s not to say I don’t love some historical figures, but I have to keep my heroes in the realm of ‘might actually have a conversation with this person’ someday. Here’s my top 5 (living) design heroes — for today — because as I say, tomorrow I might change it.

Diarmuid Gavin is arguably one of the main reasons I changed careers to become a design professional. When he and Lawrence Llewellyn Bowen did Homefront (a UK Show), I never missed an episode. The confections of over the top design that always teetered on the edge of disaster never failed to excite. The above is not a good example — it is just a really nice garden. Diarmuid is one of the most imaginative, exciting designers around and I wish I saw the world through his eyes.

Jinny Blom – Jinny’s gardens make me happy because they are types of places I want to spend time in, take a nap in, and take care of. Mostly on the take care of — because they always have this sense of being not too stressful (though they actually might be) and their natural beauty always shines through.  I admire her ability to craft a meadow and make it seem natural.

Tom Stuart-Smith has a way with plants that really excites me.  The mix, that is so unlike the typical built and layered English borders, really appeals to me.  The first Tom Stuart Smith garden that I saw was at Chelsea and I marvelled at how interesting the planting was even though it all was at relatively the same height.   Mix that with solid hard-scape design that is warm and interesting but has a clean modern edge and you have a winning combination.

Fernando Caruncho on the other hand rarely inspires me with planting but rather space and mood creation.   I long to live in his landscapes because there is an ephemeral quality that few designers can consistently create.

And finally (but not last) - Cleve West.  The garden in the picture above literally stopped me in my tracks when I saw it at chelsea.  The three containers and the gravel garden with the simple spigot fountains — set amongst the unique planting was just perfect.  And so many other Cleve gardens are also perfect (chelsea 2011- for example).  I want to get my hands on all his planting lists because they are always unique and exciting but practical and down to earth.

Would you like to see more gardens by these creators? And also one more of my design heroes? I have created a pin board on pinterest that you can check out for more images and see my final favorite.

Also make sure you check out my cohorts in the Round table who are also posting about their design heroes today.

Thomas Rainer : Grounded Design : Arlington, Virginia

Susan Cohan : Miss Rumphius’ Rules : Chatham, NJ

Scott Hokunson : Blue Heron Landscapes : Granby, CT

Jenny Petersen : J Petersen Garden Design : Austin, TX

Debbie Roberts : A Garden of Possibilities : Stamford, CT

Andrew Keys : Garden Smackdown : Boston, MA

Remember when pool side Tiki bars were THE thing?  This beirgarten at the Standard Hotel in LA has me wondering if possibly a rage for a more German inspired version of the garden tiki lounge could be possible.

One that relies on beer and brats?

images from the Guardian and whereLA

Have you read the bios of my team on Leaf Magazine’s website?   We had some fun with writing them and since they went online, I have had all sorts of fun responses from people about my own write-up.  It confirms the ambivalent feeling that I have had for some time towards the bio on the this site and I am encouraged to finally get around to changing up the ‘about’ section.  It has been annoying me because it is just so dull and not entirely reflective of me -plus (happily) I am bringing in a few contributors that I want to give some love to – so that has been added to the ‘To Do” list. I’ll let you know when the new version is up and the contributors can be introduced officially.

Anyway, in the bio I mentioned my truck songs….and I have subsequently had numerous questions about them.  While, at the moment, I simply don’t have to the time to share the list in its entirely, I will tell you a new song that is going to be added into the rotation.  I discovered Valley Low by Blisses b through Anne Sage this morning.  It is seriously good — and I couldn’t agree more with Anne’s description: “If Vampire Weekend and a mini tiger had a baby; then the Talking Heads and a ten gallon drum of glitter had a baby; then those babies had a baby; Blisses B would be that baby.”  Yes – exactly.

My truck tends to get parked for the winter, which isn’t really a good thing because a few things happen -

1) The plow guy feels no remorse for piling large amounts of snow in front of it, securing its winter lock down.

2) Mice and other creatures move into the inner cavities of the truck causing amazing things to happen — like the time that the cab suddenly filled up with billowing white smoke causing me to drive up on the sidewalk in the middle of the day in the middle of downtown Worcester, MA and then bail out as quickly as possible because I thought it was about to blow in good hollywood-esque fashion.  Quite a scene.  Turns out the mouse house that had been built in the heater core had caught fire and truly, you know have no idea how much smoke little bits of grass and fluff make when they catch fire in front of a fan. (I am taking a tip from a friend to put dryer sheets in the glove box and any other place I can think of apparently they don’t like the freshsmell of human like laundry).

Which brings me to #3) A really funky smell takes hold when it is closed up for that long.  It is a combo of mouse nastiness, the remnants of the previous owners chain smoking and sourness that results from the forgetfulness of the current owner to roll up the windows before it rains.   I have got to replace the seat covers because they are just gross and probably the bulk of this stench is harboured there.   I am planning to make my own from Mexican Blankets.  I shopped for seat covers and they were at least 90 bucks, but I can get a great Mexican blanket for $20 which is more durable, and after a few lines of stitching, I will have something far more suitable to my own sensibilities.

But the (#4) biggest reason is that when I drive any other car but the truck I am just driving a car, but the truck is an adventure, a journey, an event to do something fun and even though the thing is a nightmare in the snow and ice, I think taking a whole season off from adventures it just too much.

images from the mad preist, Mexican wholesale blankets

This garden and pool scene is so darn cheesy, girly, pinky, I can’t believe how much I kinda love it.   Seriously, this couldn’t be further from my normal personal style, so I am baffled by my lust for this.  hmmmm…..

Maybe it is a side effect of the PTSD I have suffered from all the early winter/ autumn power outages we have had in the last few years – that I just want old school Florida frippery?

Has that ever happened to you?

image from Maryland Pink and Green.