This past year, we made our own garden calendar, from pictures of our garden. It made a wonderful Christmas present, and was incredible to see, when it arrived – it looked like a garden from a book. The places where we could see that it was our own garden, almost startled us.

Apple has made the process very easy. We took pictures throughout the year, each month, with our iPhones, and synced them into iPhoto, just by plugging the phone into the laptop. We then went through and picked out 12 of the best pictures, one for each month. There are some nifty choices about covers – we did a cover shot that I think I will use every year, of the arbor, which is the entrance into the garden.

For $20 for each copy, we got an incredible record of our plantings, and a lovely memory of each season. My husband has one in his office, each of our children has one, and I ordered myself an additional one, in February, because they were so lovely, and I was missing having one. So we are now a 4 calendar household. Next year, I am going to order more, to give away, to family members and friends. I was rather shy about doing it the first year, because I didn’t know quite what to expect, whether it would be gift worthy. It definitely was.

Now I have a reason for taking more pictures of the gardens each month, and am grabbing the phone quickly when the light outside is just right. A friend taught me to take lots of pictures of the same thing, and then I go through and choose the best ones to save.

Now if I can just get the hummingbird to stand still for a moment!