An impatient gardener’s wish list

Dear Santa,

All I really want for Christmas won’t fit in a box or under a tree. And, I’ll warn you, they’re not easy to wrap up with a ribbon and top with a bow. Yes, I am demanding. But I thought I’d give you the benefit of the doubt. So here’s my list of 15 wishes. Scroll over the copy line to read the full blurb or click on any photo to start the slideshow.

I want pansies in every eye-searing combination of colours. If you can work out some new colourations, please let me be the first to grow them. They’re the most humble harbinger of spring but each one is decked out in a miniature ballgown of velvety frills. Actually, if you’ve got a dress that looks like this, I’ll have one of them, too. Photographed in my garden.

If you could arrange to have more birds come into my life, that would be awesome. Even seagulls. Especially seagulls. Photographed outside Juneau, Alaska.

When the world gets too crazy, make garden centres suddenly put all their alliums on sale. Photographed in a private garden in Toronto.

On behalf of all the insects that help nature do what nature has to do, I’d like to request a free pass. Let them go ahead and have a chomp on all the roses. Imperfect beauty is healthier for the world. Photographed in my garden.

I’d love to see my garden from a bug’s point of view. Not in a scary “The Fly” kind of way. More in a “Charlotte’s Web” way. With no drama. For just a few minutes. Please. Photographed in my garden.

I know we’re just getting into winter, Santa, but is there any chance you can make all my snow days postcard-perfect? Photograph of Margerie Glacier, Alaska.

You’re pretty good about giving this gift to me every year but, just as a reminder, I love being shocked by nature’s beauty. Just a shift in the sunlight and–boom! Photographed in my garden.

I know I’ll probably get some mud this spring. But is there a chance I could have a full-on mud-fest one day? Not in my garden, of course. Photographed on Lake Koocanusa, B.C.

I’d like to learn to plant with wilder abandon. Maybe this involves taking all my gardening books away. See what you can do. Photographed at Les Jardins de Metis/Reford Gardens in Grand-Metis, Quebec.

I’d like just enough lawn that my guy is still happy and my flower beds keep getting bigger. I’m not sure you can deliver on this wish but I thought I’d give it a shot. Photographed in my garden.

Waiting for spring is not my best skill. I need more patience. Can you expedite this one and deliver before Christmas? Photographed in my garden.

I see critters every day in my garden. I love that. But I’d really like to see some bigger critters. Not necessarily in my garden. Shot near Juneau, Alaska.

I’d like a place in my garden where I can look out at the world in cool, green comfort with complete confidence that I am at one with the universe. My old cat used to have that kind of spot in the garden. Now she’s buried there. I haven’t quite found my secret observation post yet. Photographed in my garden.