Most homeowners look at pottery as just a container to hold a plant on the patio or inside the home. But with so many unique shapes and sizes available today, more homeowners are using pots as decoration to add a piece of interest to the home or garden.

Sometimes a pot can be the perfect solution to turning a space that is missing something into a dazzling focal point. Just like a water fountain or a piece of statuary, a well-placed piece of pottery can turn a boring area into a visual treat for the eyes.

Consider glazed containers in unique vase or urn shapes. Tall and slender pottery can be especially stunning when placed in the right location. Instead of just putting out a sea of plants, consider how you can lead the eye to points of interest throughout your landscape or home by using a well-placed piece of pottery.

By this time of year, many people are running out of gift ideas. Well, if you have a gardener (or a potential gardener) among your friends and family, we have a few ideas for you!

For already enthusiastic gardeners:

You can always buy a plant for your gardener. But that's too easy--let's be a little more creative.

If you know a fellow gardener who would like food plants but just can't resist those beautiful flowers and decorative plants, plan a decorative food garden for them! Many vegetables and herbs have lovely flowers or foliage. Ornamental kale, for instance, is often grown simply as an ornamental but it is both pretty and nutritious. Many herbs have not only pretty flowers but also edible flowers! Plan and design the garden, slip a gift card to your favorite nursery into the plans, and you've got the perfect garden gift.

Some herbs grow well inside, too; you might also consider designing and planting a decorative herb planter for the kitchen. Pretty, and nicely fragrant as well!

A gardening book can rarely go wrong. You might want to buy them something about some aspect of gardening that they haven't tried yet. Do they have limited space? Perhaps a book on bonsai and a starter plant or two would be just the thing.

Sunset Western Garden Book tells us that botanically speaking, members of the genus Viola, which includes the pansy, viola and violets, are perennials. We just happen to treat them as annuals. The varieties that we grow are happiest in cool weather and have become known as one of our best winter bedding plants. Planting them now ensures wonderful color in your spring gardens.

There are many different cultivars of pansies and violas offering a wide range of colors and flower sizes: colors from white, yellow, apricot, violet, blue-purples, dusty rose and combinations of all of these colors! The flower sizes range from 1-4 inches.

Pansies like sun to light shade. If you plant them in deep shade, they will grow, but not reward you with as many flowers. Plant them toward the front of your flower beds along with your shrubs and other flowering bedding plants such as Iceland poppies, alyssum, lobelia, and nemesia. You may not want to put them too close to the edge if your planter is next to your grass (scary weed whackers may chop off their heads!). But these plants love to trail and would be beautiful in raised beds, planters and window boxes!

Sometimes our pansies don't get a chance to grow up. Don't be too hard on yourself. This is not happening because you have a brown thumb. At times that six-pack coming from the grower has baby plants containing a fungal disease called Rhizoctonia which causes "damping off." That fungus thrives in wet soil and causes the lower stem near the soil line to become constricted and dark brown. Usually, your little seedling pansy will die. Knowing that this can be a problem, here are a few planting and care tips:

Plant the little root ball slightly high, or above soil level. This will keep the roots drier, especially after watering.

Water, but be careful to not overwater.

Amend the soil with Kellogg Amend planting mix when planting to increase good drainage around the roots.

If you had a problem in one area of your garden with the fungus, switch and grow the pansies in another area for a year or so.

Once your pansies are getting established and blooming with smiling faces, don't forget to deadhead. Removing the finished blooms will increase the number of blooms and bloom time.

And here is the number one rule: start your morning with a stroll into your garden to gaze on all of these smiling faces. Oh sure, you can take your cup of coffee or tea along with you, too.

During the winter, we don't get to spend as much time in the garden. So why not spend some quality time with the garden tools instead?

First, see if you have any tools that really should be replaced--and replace them.

Thoroughly clean your tools and store those you won't be using again until next year.

Remove any rust on metal portions with a wire brush and wipe with a oily rag (a general-purpose oil will do). For wood handles, use boiled linseed oil.

Winter is a great time to get all those dull blades resharpened, too--don't forget the lawn mower!

Store the tools you won't be using till spring in a protected area, and your winter tool care will keep them as good as new for next spring and summer.

Many people have become interested in organic gardening, both from a desire for safer foods and an interest in the environment. But many people also have the feeling that organic gardening makes it much more difficult to deal with pests, disease and weeds. However, the use of organics to feed the soil does produce stronger plants that, from the start, are more able to resist pests and disease. And there are plenty of organic alternatives to using harmful poisons in your garden, even if you do have pest or disease problems. Weed control is also easier than you might think!

Pest and Disease Control
While some insects can simply be washed off or picked by hand, many require some kind of insect spray to control them. Slugs, snails and crawling insects can be controlled with Sluggo Plus. Aphids, mites, whiteflies and other insects can be controlled with an insecticidal soap like Safer or Schultz Garden Safe, a pyrethrum spray, such as Safer Yard & Garden, or spray oil, such as Saf T Side. Caterpillars and tomato hornworms can be controlled with an insect spray containing Bt like Green Light BT Worm Killer or Safer Caterpillar Control.

Some plant diseases can be eliminated simply by hand-picking the infected leaves and depositing them in the garbage. For more difficult cases of powdery mildew, rust, blackspot and other diseases we recommend using a sulfur spray or a copper soap, such as Concern Copper Fungicide.

Weed Control
If you are using an organic approach to gardening, then it goes without saying that you want to resist spraying herbicides to control weeds. The key to weed control in an organic garden is prevention. This can be done by applying an organic pre-emergent weed control, such as Corn Gluten, twice a year. Then cover your open spaces with a 2-3" layer of mulch. We recommend Gardner & Bloome Soil Building Compost. The mulch not only helps control weeds but also helps the soil retain moisture, providing a great environment for the beneficial microbes in your soil and for your organic plant food to multiply.

Gardening organically can be a truly rewarding experience. Not only will your garden be healthier, but the food you grow will be delicious too. And most important of all, you will be actively making a positive contribution to the environment.