What are you doing this weekend?  My parents are coming to visit — cross your fingers that they are on one of the very flights to leave Denver today.  We will know in a couple hours.   Meanwhile….it remains unseasonably warm here….but I just can’t complain.   If you aren’t outside enjoying the weather, here a few interesting things…..

• The Plant Journal #2  – Exciting!! — See more here
• Quirky Garden shoes for the New England Prepster crowd?
• I can’t hardly believe that this is what it really is.
• Expecting guests? Thinking that this might be a nice way to make a first impression.
• Green and White …..L.O.V.E
• Wouldn’t it be great to install one of these right next to you garden spigot?
• Urban Growth Strategy 1, 2, and 4.  A totally cool set I think.

image from The Plant Journal.

I am off this weekend to the New York Gift show.  It is my first time attending, so I hope to find some exciting treasures to share with you.  If you are interested to follow along, Susan Cohan (my Leaf Magazine Co-Editor) will be sharing her finds all day on Saturday and I will be sharing mine all day on Sunday.  It will (hopefully) be a rapid-fire design inspiration event that will go down on the Leaflets tumblr blog and Leaf’s facebook page (take your pick for where you want to keep up with us)

Until then,  here are some other weekend things to ponder:

• I just discovered that someone I respect tremendously has written the book that I have long wished existed….not sure how I missed it, but here it is now.
• Is all this warm winter weather tricking you into thinking that summer is soon?  It is for me, and I am daydreaming about sleeping porches.
• Need Valentine Inspiration?  check out my column this week on Apartment Therapy.
• I have always been fascinated with these….can they really carry water?
• I LOVE the style of the these plant profiles for ‘Weeds’….er I mean ‘Spontaeous Urban Plants’….or as my mom would say – ‘Volunteers’.
• Who lives way up north? These are fantastic, but I want more!! Please Share!

image from pinterest

As I am planning my spring seed purchases and plotting where they will be planted, I am also considering an advancement in my kitchen library.  This new Phaidon Book (I always have a soft spot for the Design-y nature of Phaidon books) is really grabbing my eye.  Vegetables from an Italian Garden: Season-by-Season Recipes, has me quite curious; Do any of you have a copy and perhaps have an opinion to render?

here is the description of the book…..

“…400 delicious recipes showcasing over 40 different kinds of vegetles newly collected by the editors behind the classic Italian cooking bible, The Silver Spoon. Authentic and easy-to-use, the book will reveal how Italians use vegetles year-round to prepare simple yet crowd-pleasing dishes.

The book is organized by season in four color-coded sections (Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter) to help you conveniently browse for recipes by time of year….”

sounds so great, right?

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

What do the crickets sound like where you live?  Mine sound similar to the Pine Tree Cricket (Oecanthus pini).  That makes sense since my house is surrounded by a pine forest.

Of course, I only know that by playing with this promo site by Harvard University Press for a new book by John Himmelman called CRICKET RADIO, Tuning In the Nightsinging Insects

The book, which has an accompanying website where you can hear John’s recordings of various crickets, aims to answer the who, what, why, when, and where of these night singers.  Apparently there is a lot  we can learn about the songs of the katydids and the messages they carry….It’s a teaser for the book  (and it has hooked me), but John claims that these songs are something we can learn from and that they can enrich our lives.

What do the crickets sound like where you live?

When I came across this little clutch of great vertical gardens this morning, it forced me to acknowledge the relatively large stack of fabulous new garden books sitting in the corner waiting to be shared with you.  I was so inspired by these images, that I grabbed Garden Up! by (Fellow GRDT members) Rebecca Sweet and Susan Morrison and resolved to clear one from the list.  More book reviews to come over the next couple weeks.

I have been enjoying Garden Up! for about a week now.  Taking the theme of vertical gardening, it covers the entire spectrum.  The range spans traditional climbing plants, arbors and trellises and continues to modern day living walls, planted roofs and edibles planted in all things vertical, hanging and not taking up too much land-space.   If you are looking to join in the trend, or out of necessity need to find a way to garden without much space, this is a great resource.

None of these images of vertical gardens are in the book….but lots of other great inspirational work is included.

images found via furnishism.