Best wishes for a peaceful holiday.

In 2010 Lisa Gustavson resolves to spend more time teaching and helping others grow their own gardens. Lisa’s organic cottage garden (shown below) will surely serve as inspiration.

Thanks to all the gardeners who took a few minutes to contemplate their 2010 gardening resolutions and share them here.

The randomizer selected Lisa Gustavson’s number as the winner of the gardening gift grab bag.

Lisa gardens in Chili, New York, a town just outside of Rochester. She says her yard is in the process of being transformed into a series of gardens and plantings, but that it’s far from complete.

Her focus for the last two years has been a large organic “cottage style” heirloom vegetable garden filled with annuals, perennials, herbs and veggies all mingled together.

Lisa’s gardening resolution comes from the number of visitors to her garden who express surprise at what she can grow in an average backyard.

The beautiful colors of this novelty poinsettia are due to unstable genetics.

Poinsettias are the traditional potted plant for the holiday season and most people prefer those with brilliant red bracts.  Others opt for snowy white or shades of pink to match their decor.

Then there are other plant lovers (like me) who can’t keep their hands off the most unusual plant on the pallet.

That was the case the other day when I was at Home Depot looking over the fresh shipment of poinsettias and caught a glimpse of the one that stood out from all the rest of the picture-perfect specimens. It was the only one like it in the entire display.

The Sonora Glitter has crinkly, red bracts speckled with white and dark green foliage, but some of its bracts are pink and white. I just had to learn more about this plant and tracked down the grower, TGE, from the plant tag.

If you won’t have the chance to visit the Denver Botanic Gardens and its holiday light show, here’s a glimpse into the Blossoms of Light winter wonderland. John Pendleton captured these images using the night scenery setting on his camera and a tripod for each long exposure.

Click on “view all images” to see the slide show and to enjoy each scene individually. Be sure to look for the full moon captured in the Peace on Earth photo.

With the 2009 gardening season just a pleasant memory, it’s time to start planning for 2010.

One of the most important lessons I learned talking with other gardeners at the Garden Writers Symposium in September was that no matter what part of the country you live in, there are gardening challenges.

Too hot or too cold. Too much rain or too little. Hail. Bugs. Poor soil. Short seasons.  Squirrels.

But every gardener I talked with works hard to overcome the obstacles. It could be by using a  new planting technique, a simple trick to improve the soil, choosing different plant varieties, adding more of this or less of that. Sometimes we’re successful and other times we simply give up and resolve to do things differently next time.

Is there something you’ve resolved to do differently next gardening season? I’d love to know.

Molasses sugar cookies are an old-fashioned favorite.

In December I just can’t stay out of the kitchen. For one thing, it’s warm in there so it makes a perfect refuge for days when the thermometer won’t budge much above zero.

The kitchen is also where I love to pull out old recipes and greet them like long-lost friends.

Molasses Sugar Cookies are John’s favorite cookies and I try to bake at least one batch every holiday season. Ingredients like cloves, ginger and cinnamon combine for a wonderful fragrance that reminds me of an old-fashioned Christmas.

These cookies are easy to make and they bake up crunchy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Because molasses is the key ingredient, these cookies are almost good for you.

Molasses, a sugar derived from sugar cane or sugar beets, gives these cookies their delicious dark brown color and adds a deeper kind of sweetness. The thick brown liquid also contains vitamins and minerals, like iron, calcium and potassium.

See the Denver Botanic Gardens in a whole new light and kick off the holiday season as the Blossoms of Light show returns to the York Street location this year.

Last year the Denver Botanic Gardens was in the midst of its huge renovation project and the annual Blossoms of Light extravaganza was dark in December. I really missed being able to stroll through the gardens on a frosty night, oohing and ahhing at the fabulous light displays and stopping for a hot chocolate along the way.

But Blossoms of Light is back and I can’t wait for the opening this weekend.

If you haven’t seen the gardens decked out in 1 million sparkling LED lights, you haven’t seen it in its full potential.

I love the trees wrapped with red and white lights so the trunks look like giant candy canes. The evergreens decked out in electric blue are stunning, the scene by the lake is something out of a fairy tale.

The gardeners I know prefer to receive down-to-earth gifts that help save time and effort in the garden, like this basket designed for gardening fun.

It’s December 1 and time to start thinking about what will warm your gardener’s heart this holiday season. Garden centers, gardening catalogs and web sites  (like aHa! Modern Living) are loaded with gardening gear and gadgets sure to please the gardener in your life.

Need some ideas?

Every gardener I know appreciates high-quality garden tools that will hold up under the toughest gardening chores. Stainless steel tools with hardwood handles are guaranteed to last for many seasons, as are trowels made of a single blade and shank.

Electric hedge trimmers, chipper/shredders and tillers are thoughtful additions to the wish list. Combination tools, like a knife and trowel, simplify transplanting and weeding tasks.