With the holidays around the corner, this is the time of year when we start giving the gardeners we love the gardening memorabilia they’ll adore. I am always delighted to receive new gardening books, calendars based on gardening themes, and pens adorned with silk flowers.

If you would like to give the gardener in your life–and that may be yourself–a practical gift, then I would recommend exploring gardening journals. Getting into the habit of keeping records during the gardening season is a wonderful way of compiling a history of your endeavors and organizing your seasonal tasks. Your favorite varieties can be recorded for future use and the successes and failures of the season are always instructive.
read more »

Ken Greene, co-founder of the Hudson Valley Seed Library, is one of the most honest plant people we’ve ever met.  Ken cares about plants in a way that is inspiring, moving, and intoxicating. At the Hudson Valley Seed Library he and his band of seedy friends are leading a full-blown local seed revolution. The Seed Library is a throwback to a time when seed sellers put fascinating pictures on their packages and pithy descriptions in their catalogs, to a time when every kitchen gardener saved his or her favorite seeds and passed them down from generation to generation. To that end, the Seed Library sells memberships (ed. note: we think a Seed Library membership makes a great holiday gift!) that offer discounts to those growers who return some of their seeds to the Library in an effort to expand the pool of Hudson Valley-grown varieties. Ken also commissions a group of local artists each year to illustrate beautiful Art Packs for a handful of varieties.

As you can tell, we really like Ken and the Seed Library (And we’re not alone. Check out this great profile from the New York Times). They’re helping preserve local plant diversity and educating a new generation, teaching them that gardening isn’t just a way to eat good food, it’s also a thoughtful act that resonates through generations.  We were delighted when Ken agreed to share his list of “Favorite Things” for holiday giving. As you’ll see, Ken always has seeds on his mind. Who knew seeds could act as inspiration for such beautiful gifts?

See Ken’s picks below

In addition to being the creator of BronxMama, Nicole Perrino is also a full-time graduate student. Having been in college for the past five years and only working part time, Nicole prides herself on her ”frugalista” skills–throwing birthday parties, holiday gatherings, and decorating her house–all on a small budget. Friends love turning to her for help when it’s their turn to plan an event.

Nicole’s picks are based on the premise that if you really put thought into a gift for someone, you don’t have to spend time worrying if you spent enough on each person. It’s a sentiment evident in Nicole’s thoughtful list of “Favorite Things” for holiday gift giving.

See Nicole’s picks below!

Denise Shoukas has crafted a life that revolves around food. Denise is a writer for FoodSpring, including the Food Forager blog, and a monthly food trends columnist for Specialty Food Magazine.

When not writing about the latest trends and best specialty foods, she can be found cultivating her organic garden at home, cooking in her newly renovated kitchen, or making handmade pottery to use while serving up her culinary creations. Denise’s varied interests make for a fun and varied list of her “Favorite Things” for holiday gift giving.

See Denise’s picks below.

Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan, is more than the founding editor of the home cooking website The Kitchn. She is a cooking inspiration. The Kitchn was born out of Apartment Therapy, a website started by Sara Kate’s husband Maxwell whose stated mission is to “Save the world, one room at a time.”

In The Kitchn, (mission: Inspiring cooks, nourishing homes), experienced cooks and newbies alike swap recipes, tips, tricks, and tales in a chatty, well edited and lovingly curated forum shaped by Sara Kate and her devoted team. But Sara Kate’s world doesn’t revolve entirely around the kitchen. She’s also a passionate home gardener, a fact that comes out in Sara Kate’s list of her “Favorite Things” for holiday gift giving.

See Sara Kate’s picks below.

Hannah Elliott, lifestyle writer and blogger for Forbes, has one of the more enviable beats we can imagine; she is tasked with writing about cars, fashion, luxury, and books in a way that doesn’t make “the muscle-heads hate the fashionistas in the process.”

If anyone can do it, Hannah can (Sample tweet: Do not buy the R8 Spyder if you’re shy or unfriendly. People love this car & want to know all about it, all the time. Huge attention getter). She’s stylish without being style conscious, intelligent without being nerdy, and can hang at the test track with even the most die hard gearheads.

And as might be expected, this breadth of interests and versatility of understanding surfaces in Hannah’s list of her “Favorite Things” for holiday gifts from the Shop in the Garden.

See Hannah’s picks below.

Laura Fenton is one crafty lady! We first ran across her work when she wrote about the giant pumpkins for AOL’s home and garden blog ShelterPop. We immediately loved her sense of humor (we thought about charging rent inside the pumpkins, too), and the more we looked, we realized we also loved her sensibility. Laura loves cooking and crafting with in-season, locally sourced veggies, fruits, and flowers (just like we do).

So, when we had the chance to ask her about her “Favorite Things” for holiday gift giving, we knew it would be a lovely, inspiring list full of hidden gems from the Shop in the Garden.  See for yourself!

See Laura’s picks below!

Much as you would expect from the editor of a website called Fashionista, Lauren Sherman is a stylish young woman. But, unlike some of her fashion news peers, Lauren steers clear of dressing in all black (most days) and gratuitous trends, opting instead for an eclectic, self-confident mix of girly and masculine that comes off as classically feminine.

It’s a sensibility–inspired by much-loved trips to Europe with her technology-blogger fiancé and time spent living in London–that carries through to her “Favorite Things,” a list of gracious, classic gift picks from the Shop in the Garden.

See Lauren’s picks below.

Olga Massov, creator of the popular cooking blog Sassy Radish, is a true triple threat: She’s a talented writer, photographer, and cook.  Olga, a finance geek by day, writes about recipes and cooking in a way that makes you want to sit down with her and have a cup of coffee while working out what to cook for dinner. Her stories are sweet and lovely; her recipes simple, seasonal, and delicious.

When we began our “Favorite Things” campaign for the Shop in the Garden, we knew we wanted to see what Olga would pick. And just like her blog, Olga’s list of holiday gifts for friends and family is warm, genuine, and delicious.

See Olga’s picks below.

It seems hard to believe, but the holidays really are just around the corner. We love the holidays here at The New York Botanical Garden. The holidays mean the return of one of New York City’s most cherished family traditions, The Holiday Train Show in the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory. It also means the arrival of beautiful new goodies at the Shop in the Garden, and on the Shop’s website. The selection of gifts in the Shop this holiday season is all about favorites, but they’re not just ours. We’re inviting some of the Garden’s most stylish, culinarily-minded, crafty, and green-thumbed friends to share a few of their favorite things with you!

So, take a spin around the Shop, whether in person while you’re visiting the giant pumpkins this weekend, or virtually. And if you happen to spot something that you’d like to call your favorite, you can use the “Tell A Friend” feature to give Santa a gentle hint.

So watch this space to see what some of your favorite bloggers will be giving as gifts this holiday season!

In the meantime, here are a few of my favorite things.

Get a jump-start on your holiday shopping list with a few recommendations below.