useful stuff for holiday giving to gardeners, 2017

I’M UP TO MY NECK in “stuff,” which means my filter for any purchases these days—whether for myself or for holiday gifting, even—is all about their utility factor. Does the item in question really do something for me, and do it really well? The things on my 2017 holiday-shopping list meet that mandate.

(The wreath up top, meant for indoor use, was made for me by my friend Pam of RetroRenovation from vintage ornaments, like this, should you be feeling crafty.)useful gifts for giving (or for you)“Garden Insects of North America,” second edition: I have long relied on Colorado State’s Dr. Whitney Cranshaw’s 2004 version of this encyclopedic reference to the borers, mites, grubs, beetles, weevils, scale, slugs, sawflies, aphids, you name it that we may encounter in our outdoors rounds.

The new edition, in collaboration with Dr. David Shetlar of Ohio State, includes more and larger photos, organized the way we encounter the creatures: by where they occur, with chapters on insects that suck fluid from leaves, for instance, or others associated with roots or tubers.

There is also an expanded chapter on beneficial insects like pollinators and spiders that help create balance. This is an incredible ID guide, not a “what to do when” prescriptive one, but without proper ID there can, and should, be no action plan even contemplated (beyond simply marveling at the cast of ingenious characters in the insect world).

A must for every gardening household: “Garden Insects of North America.”“A Swift Guide to Butterflies of North America:” By Dr. Jeffrey Glassberg, president of the North American Butterfly Association, this new fully revised second edition from Princeton University Press is just what I was missing: a photo-driven butterfly