Holiday Gifts for Gardeners – Beatrix Potter Style

Beatrix Potter themed Holiday gifts! Traditional Beech Wood Garden Riddle (Sieve) made by Hill & Sons in the UK, a product they have been manufacturing by hand since 1946. These classic riddles are classics, and if you can get one into your collection you would be in good company ( with Prince Charles, Alan Titchmarsh and Kew Gardens). They are difficult to find outside of the UK, but one can find them on the UK Amazon site.  My advice? Find a friend in the UK, have two shipped to them – they keep one, and then ship the other one to you.

Garden sieves are more likely to be found in only the most serious gardener’s potting sheds, as few others know what to do with them. I find them useful for sifting compost, and when repotting bulbs in the greenhouse, but aside from those more practical uses, a nice wooden one would make a terrific harvesting basket in which to dry garlic or onions, or to trug around produce back from the vegetable garden. Of course, if you have a rabbit or sparrow problem….

More ideas below, plus, even more here on HGTV Gardens, who so kindly featured my blog on their Garden Blogger Gift Guide post! How cool is that!

Guy Wolff pots come the closest to those seen in most every Beatrix Potter garden illustration. One can never have too many of these treasures. GUY WOLFF POTTERY

 Let’s face it – we can never have enough pots made by the talented potter GUY WOLFF!. Of course, there is his son, BEN WOLFF, equally talented, and a handful of other potters making similar pots. I can’t help myself each year, and try to buy the biggest GUY WOLFF pot that I can, for they are not only important American made artwork, they are highly collectable and cherished by any and all gardeners. One can buy original hand made pots by Guy via his website, or one can purchase less expensive ones made by casts, or by other potters in his guild worldwide.

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Variegated Zonal Geraniums (Pelargonium) were popular in the late 19th Century.

Pelargoniums with variegated foliage were all-the-rage during Beatrix Potters lifetime. The appear in many of her illustrations – notice the small pots. Pelargoniums were often grown in clay and sand, in pots no larger than 4 inches, and it is how I now grow my variegated forms. Lean and loamy, with sharp sand. No peat, and very little fertilizer.

I grew up with a burnt cedar barrel ( our geese used to keep swimming in one as we did not have a pond). The barrel lasted nearly 90 years, as it was my grandfathers, and it held water year round. Another investment piece, these are not those whisky barrels one buys at the local garden center for $20. These are hand made by craftsman, and certainly become better with age.
Robin’s and Rabbit’s sold separately.

Fuchsia’s trained as standards were often a subject of Ms. Potter, although they rarely show up in her published works. Imagine pots of these in your garden next summer – order them in a few months from EGG and I GARDENS, for they have dozens and dozens of new and ancient varieties.