Fresh From the Garden January 2010

In this issue:

• The Months to Get Smart
• VOTE TODAY!
• Weedy Wednesday
• Planning Ahead for Garden Success
• Garden Journaling
• Events and Shows
• Winter Chores


The Months to Get Smart

I don't know about the rest of you folks, but January and February are my months. I actually spend all year gathering "I'll do that in January or February" things. Always at the top of my list are those books I want to read and as is the case now, re-read. I can do this because the garden is not calling as loudly for me to come outside and the chore list is limited and flexible. So, I do my next favorite thing to gardening, I read and learn about gardening.

In years past, I have added new books to my list, but late last year I stumbled on to something. I was looking up some information I needed about a flower that I knew was in The Flower Farmer. (This is the book I read 12 years ago that got me started) Once I started searching the book, I felt like I was reading it for the first time! I had changed and grown so much as a gardener since reading it the first time, that things I totally missed before were exactly what I needed to know now. It was one of those moments when I'm sure a light bulb went on in my head.

So, this Jan/Feb I'm rereading those books that literally taught me the basics of good gardening and how to become a flower farmer. The Flower Farmer not only inspired me, but gave the over all picture on how easy it can be to have a great garden of flowers, so it is definitely on the list. The other book I have on the list is The New Organic Grower. This is the book that taught me how our natural system works, it's the original way to garden. It opened my eyes to the facts that we shouldn't and can't make nature work better with fast-acting chemicals, but instead should support it with food for the soil.

So, this is the time of year I try my best to get smarter. This is easily done with a good book or two and a calendar. Another thing I do this time of year is plan the garden and all foreseeable chores for the coming season. This might sound silly or like I'm being over zealous, but it is a key element to what makes me successful in my garden. I prefer to not have to use my precious time and energy (always in short supply) figuring out what I am suppose to be doing and when. I just look at my calendar and it tells me what to do. Sometimes, like in July, the toughest month around here, that calendar makes me think back to that time in January when I was having hot tea in the afternoon and writing it...those days will have been long over.

If you're going to read, you might as well learn something. So, in the effort to spread some good garden knowledge around, let's read some books. Garden magazines are another great resource. They are filled with real people with real gardens- something many garden books I think are lacking. When they are doing it themselves, it is easy to be inspired in a whole new way. I know this is why folks give me an ear; most have seen or heard of the gobs of flowers I produce from my little spot of Eden. I'm just a self-taught, struggling gardener that happened to read the right books!!

In honor of getting smart, our books are 25% off. This offer is good through Jan. 20. The other 2 books (all on sale) that I just couldn't garden without are Grow Organic and the Four-Season Harvest. Watch for new books coming in February!

I'm off for some afternoon tea and a good book. How about you?

Lisa Z

Click here to view all books and DVDs
(New flower arranging DVD series with Lee Snyder)

The Gardener's Workshop…TGW ● Online Garden Shop ● TGW TV● Blog● Group Programs ● TGW Events ● Ask Lisa

Vote on the Cover of our 2010 Catalog!

We have a little issue in our office, basically between sisters…which photo for the cover of our 2010 catalog? I have a favorite and she has one, so we decided to let you pick.

Click here to vote

P.S. If you get an email from my little sister suggesting which one to pick, let me know…


Weedy Wednesdays!

Every Wednesday through March we will have a "special of the week". This starts on January 20 when the book sale ends. These may be things we'd like to weed out or we have extra stock of or maybe something Suzanne would just like to see go on special. There will be great deals, so visit every Wednesday to see the "special of the week"!

Be sure to visit our site every Wednesday because we are not sending reminder emails to clog your email box!

Planning Ahead for Garden Success

Where do I start with sharing the many benefits of planning the gardening year? I'm not necessarily thinking about planning a specific bed, which also is a good idea, but more about marking the calendar for when specific tasks should be done throughout the year. The real benefit of this is that time just keeps on going, and before I know it, its winter time… again. This is the reminder I need to try to keep on track doing garden chores and projects.

Now is a time to read/research when the best time is to do certain tasks and chores in the garden. Chores such as: when to mulch, prune, seed the lawn, plant a summer garden, tree or bulbs, start seeds, and so much more. If you or someone you love is a lawn ranger, now is a great time to take that leap from chemical dependence to organic. It is totally true that it is easier, healthier and more economical to give-up chemicals that you continually need to apply. ( Grow Organic is the best book for holding your hand and walking you through the valley on this.) How about pruning? Do you know when and if to prune your Crepe Myrtles or hydrangeas? Don't have the right book or just want a quick answer? Google it.

To get started make a list of all the chores you routinely do each year, then add all those things you always wanted to do, but never got to thembecause time got away from you. Then add a couple things that you learn during the get smart months this year that inspire and intrigue you!

Now spend a few minutes on each listed task and beef-up your knowledge on improved ways of doing old chores and learn what to do with new tasks. Having trouble finding information? Submit your question to Ask Lisa on our website. Chances are really good that you are not the only one wondering about that!

Once your list is done, pencil it in on your calendar. This year I am changing from my old desktop calendar to a larger journal book method, because I am no longer the only one looking at this calendar. We now have others very involved in each step of gardening here. It is more important now than ever to have schedules of: soil prep, seed starting, planting, mulching, harvesting and feeding.

The first year of doing a calendar is the toughest. But after you begin one, it gets easier each year. Keep your calendar in a visible spot that you frequent. I think the best calendar spot I've ever heard from a customer wasin the bathroom, on the wall across from you know what!

Throughout the year, add tasks you have forgotten. Don't over do it, this calendar is intended to help you, not burden you. Be realistic, but challenging if that is in your nature.

Now, let me share another great helper that you can download for free from my website, the TGW Garden Journal.


Garden Journal Tips

The Garden Journal that I wrote and put together has been offered on our website for free the past year. It is based on my years of gardening experience and frustration of not being able to find a journal that was useable for someone that really worked in their garden and wanted to keep track of certain things. The Journal will be available until the time that we decide to pursue publishing an updated version of it.

The online Journal page offers instruction on printinghowever here a few more based on questions I have received the past year:

To print only certain pages, such as the cover on glossy paper or more journaling pages or graph paper, but you don't want to print the whole 91 page book, follow these steps:
1. After you have clicked on the TGW Garden Journal to download (this may take a few minutes if you have an older computer or a dial-up connection),
2. Go to the File menu at the top left side of the window choose Print.
3. At the Print window that opens, there is normally a Print Range option for the page numbers you want to print.
4. Choose the Pages selection and enter the page numbers you want to print. This is a great way to print only the pages you want.

There is also a way to save ink:
1. Follow the steps above to get to the Print window.
2. At the window, click on Properties, usually upper right side of window.
3. Choose the Feature tab at the top of the window.
4. Under Print Quality, choose Fast Normal.
5. This makes printing go faster and saves on ink.

As a calendar tells you when to do something, a journal is where you write it once you have done it. There are no words to describe the landscape or garden or lawn like a photo does. Photographing in the four seasons is priceless when looking back or trying to plan ahead. (Another great thing to put on the calendar)

The Garden Journal is a smorgasbord of tips and ideas I have gathered. You should add your own as you garden along. After all, each one's journal is unique. The most functional part of my journal is that it is in a 3-ring binder. This allows for changing things around (I do this all the time) and customizing your journal or just updating from year to year.

A great tip for yearly updating is to have a second binder with page dividers. Transfer last year's journaling and photo pages to this "Yearly Journal" and divide by the year. This is a great place to put last year's calendar also. This will make room for the current year in your Garden Journal.

A Garden Journal is so much more than a reference tool. It is a gift to be left to those that follow you. A loved one equipped with a garden journey of a past family member is a gift few ever have the benefit of receiving. During the time I was first exploring the gardens here at our family homestead 15 years ago, I found bits and pieces of garden notes that Steve's Grandfather had written and tacked to the shed wall. This is how I learned that we should plant bush sweet peas in February. How I would love to have a journal on how he spent his lifetime building the soil and garden in this place.

Click here for the free Garden Journal

New Cut-Flower Program

Our relationships with cut-flower customers began long before the first Farmer's Market started. Back in the day when there were no Farmer's Markets (imagine it) I was approached by a local garden club member that wanted to know if they could purchase cut flowers from me. Being the rule following gal that I am, I offered that I was strictly wholesaling to florist, but would investigate how I could do this and abide with city ordinance and so forth.

From this, my Guild Share program was born in 1999. This works basically by customers purchasing shares of the harvest before the season starts, to be picked up at will during the growing season. Customers redeem their Share dollars as they pick-up the flowers. Since its inception, there have been some changes, such as it is now referred to as the Garden Share program and we have limited the number of Share Members that may join. Shares are sold in $100 increments and flowers are available in season from May until Sept/Oct. Flower pick-ups are Friday mornings from 9am to 12noon at the garden or Share dollars maybe redeemed at the local Farmer's Markets we attend. Only Garden Share Members are invited to the garden. Our small working farm is not open to the public.

The Garden Share program was very successful and led us to add the Monday Mixed Bouquet Subscription Program in 2005. This was first targeted at local businesses in a designated delivery area. We offered 10 weeks of fresh mixed flowers dropped off into your vase or bucket at your business on Monday afternoons. Little did we know that it was not only businesses that wanted this convenience, we had several cut-flower customers that couldn't always get to the garden or the Markets for flowers each week, so the subscription business grew to include residences.

Now in 2010 we are offering what will be called the Friday Grower's Bunch Subscription Program. This program is being fashioned for restaurants, but is available to anyone in the designated delivery areas. It is perfect for those folks who want flowers for the weekend, don't need the flowers made into a bouquet, enjoy a variety of colors and flower types and want the convenience of our drop-off service. The weekly Friday drop-off includes straight bunches of flowers, meaning no bouquets are available on Friday drop-offs. However, when placing your order you may request that each bunch be split into two different color/type flowers. The subscriptions start at a base price that includes 2 bunches of flowers (normally 10 stems each with foliage) per week for the designated number of weeks. More bunches may be added for an additional fee.

Our Fresh Flower Bunch Program has a limited number of subscriptions available. If you or someone you know is interested in the new Bunch program or any of our cut flower programs, please don't hesitate to call with questions. All programs are available until sold-out.

Giving the gift of a season of flowers is a perfect Valentine's gift!

Click here for all flower programs.


Upcoming Shows and Events

FEBRUARY 2010

• February 22-23, Hot Springs VA
The Garden Club of Virginia 2010 Symposium, The Homestead, Hot Springs, Virginia. TGW will be set-up as a retail vendor.

• February 27, King George, VA
A Morning of Gardening Bliss and Retail Therapy with The Gardener's Workshop! 10am to 11am program with Lisa Ziegler, 11am to 12noon questions, shopping, placing orders. Sponsored by King George Relay for Life. Location: King George YMCA, 10545 Kings Hwy., King George, VA 22485. Free admission and a portion of proceeds benefit the American Cancer Society. All Welcome.

MARCH 2010

• March 13, Yorktown, VA
York County Horticultural Extravaganza, York County, VA. Lisa will be a speaker on cut-flower gardening. Details TBA, pre-registration will be required. More information York County Extension Office, 757-890-4940.

• March 22, Richmond, VA
Spring Fling, VFGC Piedmont District Meeting. 9am to 2 pm TGW will be set-up as a vendor. Koger Holiday Inn, Richmond, VA.

• March 27, Petersburg, VA
"Cut-Flower Gardening…the Secrets of a Flower Farmer" with Lisa Ziegler. Mini-MG College Continuing Education Program hosted by the Virginia Master Gardener Association,. Held at Virginia State University, Petersburg, VA. Details TBA. TGW will also be set up as a vendor. Stay tuned for more.

• March 26-28, Richmond, VA
The Spring Market at Bizarre Bazaar. Friday and Saturday 10am to 7pm and Sunday 10am to 5pm. Held at Richmond Raceway Complex, 600 East Laburnum Ave., Richmond, VA. TGW will be set up as a retail vendor. Admission $7.00. More information www.thebizarrebazaar.com/

APRIL 2010

• April 5, Richmond, VA
"Secrets of Flower Farming" with Lisa Ziegler, 1:00 PM, Richmond Horticultural Association. Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden, Auditorium of the Education Complex, 1800 Lakeside Avenue, Richmond, VA 23228. All are welcome to attend.


Winter Chores

•Plant Paperwhites and Amaryllis for Valentine blooms now! On sale, click here.

•The winter is the time to to trap voles- mousetraps loaded with peanut butter and chopped up apples placed next to visble holes. Cover the trap and hole with a flowerpot upside down. We place cinder blocks on top to keep our Golden Retrievers from wearing traps on thier lips...

•Get started on your gardening calendar.

• Download your free TGW Garden Journal Click here.

• Birds are desperate for fresh water in freezing weather. Birdbath heaters are available at bird food stores, are long-lasting and use little electricity. Our birdbath that has a heater has a traffic jam most days in the freezing weather.

• Remember to feed the birds. They have often depleted most of the natural sources, so full feeders are welcome.

• Get the weeds while they are small! Cool season weeds like chickweed will carpet the ground in spring; now they are just little baby plants and easily removed with a hoe. To view the easy how-to video with a garden hoe on TGW TV, click here..

• Don't be too tidy in the garden. Leave flowers heads to go to seed for the birds. Any insects harbored will become a thanksgiving dinner for the birds.

• Remember to scout for hardy annual seedlings in your garden if you planted in the fall last year. I found tiny baby Bupleurum, Larkspur, Green mist, Dill and Rudbeckias in my "self-appointed garden." Hand weed carefully!

• We mulch our fall-planted garden once the plants are 6-10" tall. We use any organic product that is available in masses to include, but not limited to: bark, leaves, compost and straw. We then consider our garden put to bed for the winter.

• Place a birdbath near a window you frequently look out. The variety of birds drawn to water far exceeds those at feeders. We have bluebirds splashing in our baths most mornings in spring and fall. Even a trashcan lid turned over and filled with water will do the job.

• Visit TGW TV and our Learning Center for Tips and references, click here.

• Squirrels digging up your plants? Mulch with gumballs from the Gum Tree, 2-3 gumballs deep. The prickly gumballs annoy the squirrels as much as they do us, keeping them out of your containers or beds. Gumballs are great in pansy containers!

• One inch of compost used as mulch or laid on top of the soil under mulch will feed your ornamental landscape or your lawn for 1 year. No other fertilizers are needed.


Garden because it is so good for you!

Please tell your friends about The Gardener's Workshop!