By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Here's one of the most interesting forms of recycling I've seen in awhile.  Artist Mike Libby combines intact dead insects with antique watch parts, electrical components, old typewriter pieces, and more to create intriguing works of art.  

His pieces are admired by insect lovers, watch collectors, science fiction fans, especially steampunkers, mechanical engineers, and I guess me.  I'd love to have any of these sitting on my desk to admire--with the possible exception of the spider below, which might give me nightmares.

You can read more about Mike Libby and see further examples of his work on this Environmental Graffiti post.  Also at Libby's website, Insect Lab Studio.

Living more creatively, says Sorin, simply means "approaching each moment as a new opportunity."  She's broken down the process into seven steps and is offering an abbreviated version of the process outlined in her book on her blog.

Step 1.  Figure out what you're already doing creatively.  It's more than you think.   Read more here.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

I hope friends who have bought me plants as presents in the past will either not read this or forgive me.  But, please, don't buy your gardening friends any more plants.  (Orchids or temporary indoor ornamentals excepted.) 

Shopping for and finally selecting what to buy from the candy store of plant options available to us is the very best thing about being a gardener today.  So, please, don't deprive us.

But, yes, yes, yes, every greedy gardener I know--and we're all greedy-- would be absolutely thrilled to get a gift certificate to our favorite seed catalog or nursery.  Or yours.  We're always happy to explore new sources. There's always room to tuck in one more plant--we just want to be the one to pick it.

But, if you think that's too easy, tuck the gift certificate into a gift box instead of a holiday card.  And top it with a tillandsia instead of a bow.  Though tillandsias qualify as plants, they're really more like little pieces of sculpture.  Fun to sit on bathroom counters after they stop being bows.  Just as is or mixed in with a bowl of sea shells perhaps.

By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

Lead photo by Marcail McWilliams

I love these so much I'm really not quite sure where to start. They're essentially raised bed corners, called  M Braces, that you slip boards into to make instant raised beds (an empty bed is shown below.) Once you've got your boards, they literally take five minutes to set up—no tools needed.

Made from recycled metal, the braces will probably last long enough for you to pass on to your kids, and you can use them to make just about any size raised bed that you want, up to 12 feet on each size—so these work whether you have a big backyard or a tiny patio. They come in a range of designs, and one of the things I like best is that if you change your mind about the size of a bed,  simply slide the boards out and rearrange as you like. And if you move, you can take them with you to make new raised beds wherever you go.

They're available at a few Northern California retailers, and you can also order online for $165 a set plus shipping.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

  The one book you should buy this year for anybody who loves gardening is Planthropology by Ken Druse (Clarkson Potter, New York, 2008). What a book: as the subtitle says, it's about the garden's myths, mysteries, and miracles; and because Druse is among the best living garden photographers, it’s a visual treat as well.

The life stories of plants—their “planthropology”—is what motivates Druse. And his riveting way of telling each tale draws you inexorably through the lore of gardens, plant explorers, and the histories of the plants themselves. Read his Madam Butterfly essay on Philipp von Siebold, and hort history may make you weep; read about high frequency of early death for plant explorers and you’ll wonder at the courage of those who risked everything for a new species or two. But many lived through it too, as did ginkgos that survived the bomb at Nagasaki, and a number of species brought back from near or supposed extinction. 

Along the way, you’ll encounter the intricacies of plant design, and how it all relates to everything else in the universe. As Druse puts it, “The biomathematical formula at work in the garden is the same geometry found in the architecture of the ancient Greeks . . . the swirls at the tips of your fingers, and the arrangement of the stars in the Milky Way.”

The text is peppered with fascinating essays about medicinal plants, pollination, toxins, herbs, art, color, insects, hybridization, and more. As you read you’ll learn how to make ink from oak galls and lamp shades from pressed flowers, and you'll develop a new appreciation for the art of the subhead ("Not tonight, deer," and his "Tough love" pruning pieces are favorites).

Just don't flip through the book before you give it—if you do, you'll probably end up keeping it for yourself.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

If I had a yard large enough for chickens, this is what would be at the top of the "wish list" I handed my husband.  Cute, isn't it?   

This appropriately named Modern Coop is made from reclaimed cedar, has a fiberglass roof, so your ladies get nice light, and it is totally mobile.  I saw this on Cindy McNatt's blog, Dirt du Jour.   Lucky Cindy already has chickens, and I wouldn't be surprised if this is on her shopping list.

By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

Canning and Preserving Your Own Harvest by Carla Emery and Lorene Edwards Forkner is one of my favorite garden-related books to come out this year. Those of who grow our own food tend to get more than a little excited when shopping for new crops each year, and we usually plant more than we have space for because we've been seduced by new, cool varieties. So by the end of the season, we're overloaded with produce (not a bad problem to have, I know)—and this book tells us what to do with it. It's got instructions on canning, freezing, drying, and storing roots, and also includes a collection of recipes.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Just as bird-watchers have known David Allen Sibley for his field guides to North American birds, now gardeners are getting to know him for The Sibley Guide to Trees (Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 2009; $39.95). Just published in September, it covers more than 600 kinds of trees that are native or adapted to North America.

Light on text and heavy on illustrations, Sibley's book brings the advantages of painting to tree identification, keeping plant parts in scale when necessary, showing variations in the shapes of everything from leaves to acorns, and making finely nuanced color choices that really help you parse similar species and outright hybrids. Though there are 4100 paintings in the book, tree shapes are more often described than shown. I understand the tradeoffs you have to make in publishing, but still I wish there had been more whole-tree paintings.

Descriptive listings are succinct and helpful, but you'll learn at least as much from the 29-page introduction, which outlines Sibley's approach to tree i.d. He groups them taxonomically so that he (and you) can get a feel for the way each tree fits into its family and genus. Family resemblance is more telling among trees than among people.

Though the book is too big for a pants pocket—well, it might fit into cargo pockets—it's obviously made for field use. The durable, flexible cover has end flaps to bookmark whatever you happen to be studying, and the extra size gives you pictures you can see easily. The book also has a checklist in the back so you can start your tree life list (this is undoubtedly an artifact from Sibley's birding past), and a handy quick reference index on the last page.

This book will become a classic. Now's the time to give it, since it's hot off the presses, and few people on your Christmas list will have it yet. 

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

 A living Christmas tree just makes sense: it  stays fresher indoors, does its holiday job for years, and eventually finds a place in your garden. 

If your garden has plenty of room, go with a conventional living Christmas tree. But if your garden space is limited, go for a premium dwarf conifer. Each is carefully selected for shape, for size, or for color of cones, needles, or new growth. 

Most are pricey because it takes growers longer to get them up to salable size. For example, I bought a 2-foot-tall potted 'Irish Bell' Bosnian pine for $125, but it's been worth it. Like most natural dwarfs, it is densely handsome, and has grown well in a container for years.

There are literally thousands of species and cultivars of dwarf conifers to choose. That's Pinus aristata 'Sherwood Compact' (and part of Juniperus communis 'Gold Cone') at right, both photographed at Iseli Nursery in Oregon.

Though Iseli is a wholesale grower—you can't order from them directly—its web site is a great place to begin your search, since it offers lots of information about dwarf conifers in little space, and includes better pictures of more varieties than almost any other site. It helps that Iseli has its own arboretum, pictured below, so they know how their trees perform over time.

You can learn more on conifer-lover Ed Remsrola's blog, and see photographs from an Iseli photographer on Flickr. 

By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

Developed by the University of California for the state's residential gardeners, but useful far beyond, these three make a great gift set: California Master Gardener Handbook ($23), Landscape Pest Identification Cards ($15), and Tree Fruit Pest Identification and Monitoring Cards ($12). The handbook covers all the nuts and bolts with topics including soil health, water management, pest control, and plant care. Both sets of cards are laminated and secured in a handy deck that's easy to carry around and ID pests.