Where to buy a gnome?

 
       So lets say after all this you're still interested in having one of these little guys live in your garden? Where can you find one? Besides looking at your local gardening store there are many different places right here on the web where you can order your new friend. Here are some sites for example:

http://www.gnomeoutlet.com/
http://www.gnometownusa.com/
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/gardengnomes.html
http://www.gnomefrenzy.com/
http://www.kimmelgnomes.com/index.html


- Click Here if you're looking for an Obama Gnome. 

- You can also find some on amazon, ebay, and craigslist. 


Gnome accessories, such as a fancy new door for your friend can be found here.


And if you're not sure which one's for you click here.


I'm sure there are plenty more places to find a good garden gnome friend, just keep your eyes open. Once you've meet your match make sure to take good care of him. Click here for some tips for you specific gnome. You don't want to have to pick up the book How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack (In case you do here's the link to where you can buy it: How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack). As long as your gnome is happy (Like the Gnome below) you shouldn't have any problems. Good Luck! 

You just want to visit

    
      

      The best place to go to visit and see gnomes is in Trusetal, Germany.  There is the gnome theme park, where you can find hundreds of gnomes. Not to mention it is thought that the gnomes birth place is in Germany as well. Click here if you can read German and want more information  
    
      If you don't have a gnome of your own, and possibly don't want to own one there are many places to go to see or visit with a gnome without leaving the country. Besides going two houses down to your neighbors garden you can go to a local gardening store. They also can be seen in parks, and gardening shows. In fact the biggest gnome in the world is located at Iowa State University's Reiman Gardens (For more info click here). Gnomes are all over you just have to keep an eye open for them.

 

A gnome in Trusetal, Germany.

Gnomes in Media

 Gnomes can be found in all forms of media across the globe.

News: 

     Gnomes considered a hazard
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1232247/Elf-safety-police-ban-homeowners-6-inch-garden-gnomes.html


Internet: 
     
     This website is to help gnomes become free of their owners, and having better living conditions

http://www.freethegnomes.com/

     When a man sized gnome coexists with us humans, he makes a blog
http://gnomebomb.tumblr.com/


TV Commercial:

     Travelocity Gnome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6cTC_37gdG4&feature=related


TV Shows:


      A historical South Park episode, where Tweek first appears has gnomes in the show
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnomes_%28South_Park%29


      And probably my favorite example is the King of The Hill episode with a gnome.The summary follows:

"Yard She Blows" 

Peggy buys a gnome for the garden, and Hank is embarrassed by it. Bobby accidentally shoots off the gnome’s ear, so Hank decides to throw the gnome away. Peggy learns what happened and is very upset. Hank and Bobby find another gnome for Peggy who decides to keep it in the house to prevent theft.

Pets

 Q = Mice Pets

       Gnomes just like humans do have pets. Although they take care of all the animals in the area, mice are the only ones they keep in their homes. These mice act just like a cat or dog would act in our home. They have their own bed in the gnome home, and have a similar relationships with their gnome owners.

What's for breakfast?

      Just like us, gnomes need to eat. One of the most important meals of the day is breakfast. For a typical breakfast for a gnome, they often have tea. As posted earlier there are many different kinds of tea that help keep them healthy. Some typical breakfast teas are mint tea, rose-hip tea, linden-blossom tea, or a jasmine tea. Along with the tea they often have eggs from a songbird, mushrooms (of many different varieties), butter, porridge, bread, ant eggs, jam, and spice cakes.

What do they do for fun and games?

 

           Children gnomes, just like regular children like to play games. They use their imagination and pretend to be dragonflies using "winged seeds of the maple" trees (seen above), with a half of a chestnut husk they play hedgehogs, and little girl gnomes play with willow catkins as dolls. They also play other games such as marbles, bowling, tug of war, jump rope, checkers, parchesi, kite flying, dress up, and even soccer (seen below).  They also love go to on swings, and even adults do so as they think about serious problems.  They aren't so different from us after all.

Clothing

Gnomes make their own clothing out of the cloth they make themeselevs. They use doe hair, rabbit hair, sheeps wool, and any other hair/wool they can find will be made into a cloth. "Each of these types of wool is washed, oiled, dried, combed heckled spun, twisted and knitted or woven." They also take the time to dye the cloth to have different colors.

My very own gnome sighting!

         Last week on Thursday, November 11th, 2010, Veterans Day around 1:00 PM I was bike riding around on Fire Island. While biking down the small narrow streets and pathways I spotted a small gnome sitting on a rock.  He was very small and didn't seem too dangerous, so I snapped a photo of him using the camera on my cell phone. Than again maybe I shouldn't be underestimating this little guy.

Where Gnomes Live

For the average forest gnome, they tend to live in tree house's. It's not your typical tree house high up in the branches, this tree house is way down under the roots in the soil.  A male gnome begins to build his adult home 15 to 20 years before he plans to marry, and this is also down with his fathers help. There is a hidden entrance which leads to a long tunnel, that has a few traps for greedy animals in the area. The gnome and his guests are too light to set off the traps. Most gnome homes consist of a boot room, wash room, 3 sleep alcoves, and living room which has kitchen space, and hobby space. In there home gnomes often have a large bathroom, and a large stove, they also have a well with a bucket for water and a chimney. They also often have a trap door leading to a secret exit.

Being a Good Neighbor

Gnomes are neighbors to many creatures out in the wild. They are known to help out the animals around where they live.  Since the gnomes help out the other animals (usually first aid) they often return the favor in many different ways. Examples are help with travel and protection from enemy's or mother nature.

The gnomes help the animals of the forest by  getting rid of their ticks which they themselves can't get out from under their skin. When fighting, animals with antlers sometimes become stuck together, gnomes help to separate them so they don't starve to death. They do surgery on animals who eat things that may cause them to die, such as glass or wire or other things that are sharp that can hurt them internally. They set free animals that get caught in traps. They are referees to animal fights so no one is too badly injured.  Gnomes help squirrels and other animals find the food they have hidden for the winter when they have forgotten where they left it. They take care of abandoned baby animals, and even  help animals with aces and pains by performing acupuncture on them.

What Happens if a Gnome is Sick?

  
      Gnomes have many different illnesses they can contract from living in the wilderness.  They have also created many remedies to fight this. Here are some examples of how gnomes maintain their health:

- To help keep blood pressure low they drink Shepherd's Purrse Tea, along with eating minimal salt
- For pain and stiffness of the joints and muscles they use arnica externally and drink tea from dried stinging mettle's to help internally
- As protection against flu, colds, and infections of the bronchial passages they drink tea made from elder blossoms
- For digestive system problems they drink poppy juice
- For insomnia they drink camomile tea
- For flatulence they drink fennel seed tea
- For constipation they use a few pieced of dandelion leaf
- For a broken leg they wrap the leg in old twigs used as a splint
- For insect bites they use vinegar made from fermented fruits
- For snake bites they apply a tourniquet, open the wound and suck out poison



Drinking a lot of tea could quite possibly be the secret of being a healthy gnome it seems.

(Most information from the book Gnomes by Rien Poortvliet and Wil Huygen)

Some Facts About Being A Gnome

              

                 A female Gnome is pregnant for 12 months.  Gnomes are born in sets of twins, two girls, two boys, or a girl and a boy.  Children are breast fed for several years after birth.  Gnome children wet the bed until they are 12 years old.  Gnome girls are raised by their mothers and gnome boys are mostly raised by their fathers.  Parents still spend time with the opposite sexed child but they don't teach them much about gnome living.  At the age of 13 the gnomes are taught the things every male/female gnome should know.  Male gnomes teach their son gnomes about knowledge of mushrooms and herbs, how to increase running speed, methods of escape by using mole tunnels rabbit tunnels and other ways, whistling, woodworking and painting, and many other tasks a gnome needs to know to do his everyday tasks. Young females are taught the "homely arts" such as cooking, spinning, knitting, identifying animals of prey.  Once a gnome is and adult the adult male gnome weighs 300 grams, and the adult female weighs 250-275 grams. They are about 15 cm high. Gnomes at 275 are in the prime of life, with their life-span being around 400 years old. An adult gnome is 7 times as stong as man.

Gnomes Aren't All Fun and Games...

Why Not?

Like stated in my last post, gnomes can be helpful to humans, but are also very well know to have mischievous behavior towards us as well. This mischievous behavior can turn into something serious fast. Some gnomes have went off into a way of life, that's destructive to humans.This post is to help you protect yourself against those bad apple gnomes.


How to Protect Yourself Against a Gnome Attack:

- Know the Signs:

        Are you at risk? People whom are more at risk live in a suburban area, or near a wooded area. Risk for an attack is higher if you live alone, and/or you follow a strict routine. An of course risk is high if you yourself or a neighbor actually own a gnome.


- Look out for Suspicious Activity and Recognizing Communication:

       Have you even found something in a different place than from where you left it?  Do you feel like you're being watched? Are your pets acting a little out of character lately? Have you felt more drafts in your house than normal? Watch out the gnomes might be lurking around. If they are trying to communicate with you look out for agriglyphs, or mini crop circles, also look for mazes, stonescaping (stones places in shapes, arrows, and other designs),  and lights.


- Protect Your Home, Inside and Out

        When planing to protect your home be prepared to trap a gnome, you need to have a place to put him once you've caught him. To catch him, or keep him away creating a moat or mixing quicksand are great ideas. Fertilizers also keep gnomes away, motion-activated lights, chimney caps, and a big dog are great ways to stay protected. Inside make sure things are clean and clutter free, so if they do get in there aren't many places for them to hide.





A lot of my information from this post was goten from the book "How to Survive a Garden Gnome Attack" by Check Sambuchino, check it out for more facts and great tips to protect yourself from these sneaky little guys.

Good Luck, I hope you never have to use these tips.

Where did these guys come from anyway?

       Gnomes come from a time when people thought fairies, centaurs, dragons and other mythical creatures roamed the earth.  Each was seen as a spirited representation of an element, such as air, water, earth,  fire and also other things found in nature.  Gnomes were chthonic-spirits, chthonic means of the earth. People began drawing and making statues of  gnomes and other fairytale creatures when stories of them began to circulate.  

       Graefenroda, Thuringia, Germany is the supposed birth land of the garden gnome sometime in the sixteenth century. They weren't just cute little human like figures with boots and red pointy hats with gardening tools.  They were often posed as musicians, beggars, dancers, drinkers, and lovers.  How they were posed and what they were called varied all across Europe.

Gobbi - Italian

Tomte - Swedish

Nisse - Danish

Gnomen Figuren - English Tourists

       Gnomes are also closely associated with other mythical creatures who also represent the earth such as:

Brownies: Invisible elves who live with families in houses and assist those who live there. Sometimes a child might catch a glimpse of them but they do not appear to adults. They are considered to be very helpful and a benefit to have around. (Taken from http://folkloreandmyth.netfirms.com/creatures.html)

Goblins: From their birthplace in France, these nasty, hideous cousins of gnomes have spread all over Europe. When they entered England in ancient times, the Druids called them Robin Goblins, from which the name "hobgoblin" derives.  Goblins have no permanent home, living temporarily in old trees and under moss-covered rocks. Reported to be playful on occasion, goblins are nonetheless to be avoided. A goblin's smile can curdle blood, and its laugh can make milk turn sour. Goblins amuse themselves by hiding things, spilling food, and confusing travelers by changing signposts. (Taken from http://www.mythicalcreaturesguide.com/page/Goblin) 

Gremlins:  Are thought to disrupt machinery and are active in modern folklore. (Taken from Dictionary.com)

Kobolds:  In German folklore, a haunting spirit, gnome, or goblin. (Taken from Dictionary.com)

Leprechauns: Merry little human-like creatures who live close to humans but do not like to be seen by them very often. They can be very helpful, like Brownies, and will exchange good luck and other treasures for goods they can use. (Taken from http://folkloreandmyth.netfirms.com/creatures.html)

       In the mythical stories of gnomes, they are often portrayed as helpful to plants and animals, and sometimes humans too.  They have also been know to  interact mischievously with humans, playing tricks on them for fun and causing them lots of trouble.

        
     Over time the garden gnome faded in and out of popularity. Each time it came back they changed their style even if just a little bit.

         "Garden Gnomes Today: Garden gnomes are currently more popular than ever. The figure of the garden gnome is instantly recognizable and is seen as a universal symbol of whimsy. There is, however, some controversy associated with them. The Royal Horticulture Society of Britain has banned the appearance of garden gnomes from their official garden shows, calling them a distraction. If past history is any indicator, garden gnomes will survive this snubbing and continue to bring good luck to gardeners everywhere."(http://www.ehow.com/about_5106065_history-garden-gnomes.html)  

Why Gnomes you ask?!

Author's Background:

            So you're probably thinking, "Why in the world would someone make a blog on gnomes?!" My name is Christine Mathewson and I have an obsession with gnomes. My love for these tiny guys (and girls) started three years ago in my senior year of high school. I was taking an advertising art class, and we had to come up with type of business and create a theme for the business cards, flyers and other advertising art for the business. I had created a little cafe, with a spring garden theme and of course there were some garden gnomes. I'm a horrible artist, I can't draw anything. After that class, the one and only thing that I could draw that you can tell what it is, is a gnome.  And I just like to draw them, it's fun. Ever since I've kept my eyes open for them. I plan to one day have a gnome garden myself. 

In the class we had a book all about gnomes, that I first used to help me draw them. Going thew that book helped me to get to know about them and like the even more. 

What's in store:

          Above is why I chose to do my blog on Gnomes, but what bout them?  I plan to post all sorts of information on these little human like creatures. Their history, what kinds there are, how to take care of them, how to protect yourself against a gnome attack, and many other topics.  Let me know if there's anything you want me to cover, and I'll try my best to getting around on posting on the subject.  I'll update each post if I find more information on the topic, so  keep checking back for updates!