Gift Ideas
Every month has a birth flower, and several of them are poor garden plants in most climates. Here is which ones are worth planting, what to engrave on the marker, and why a February birthday gets planted sooner than an August one.
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A gift set works when one piece is specific and the other gets used up over a season. Here is how I assemble starter, orchard, rose and farmers market sets from what I actually engrave, plus two sets for people who do not garden.
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Nursery tags go illegible within a season, and three years later nobody remembers what that tree actually is. Here is how I choose between acrylic, aluminum and QR plant tags based on how long the label has to last, and what is genuinely worth engraving on one.
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The real difference between a baseball cap and a trucker hat is the crown: what sits behind the front panels, and what the back is made of. I press engraved leatherette patches onto both, so here is how each one wears in heat and which one holds a patch flat for years.
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Gardens run on ten- and thirty-year timescales, and the nursery tag that came with the plant is illegible within a season. This is an essay about slow gardening and why keeping a permanent record of what you planted matters more than what you write it on.
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