Happy New Year!

The start of this new year brings with it the start of some pretty cool stuff! We have started a new monthly newsletter (which we are very excited about)! It will have more gardening information, tips, advice, reminders, random (and funny) information, gardening quips and more! Check out January's Newsletter HERE! (I will be posting the current month's newsletter on this blog and on our website, but if you would like it to come right to your e-mail inbox please sign up here!)

2011 also brings new projects to beautify Ontario! Check out the new Adopt-a-Pot community project HERE. I am working toward a 2011-2012 launch!

Our 2011 seminar schedule will be published very soon, so be watching for it! We have some fun ideas in the works for you! (Thank you to everyone who made the 2010 seminars a great success!)

I can't tell you how much I am looking forward to this next gardening season-winter is tough on gardeners! I have big plans for my garden- do you? It's a great time to start thinking and planning!

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year, and as always... Happy Gardening!
~Laura

Spinning away winter

What are you doing keeping yourself busy with this winter? I hope to have more time to spin during these cold months. About twelve years ago I learned to spin fiber and have been hooked ever since. Gandhi said that if people would spend one hour a day spinning there would be world peace and I am sure that he was right. It is the most relaxing, meditative thing to do. Even non-spinners sit staring at the wheel of the spinning wheel as it goes around and around, almost putting them into a trance-like state. I enjoy knitting with my handspun but most of the time the skein of yarn is my finished product. If I knit something with it that is just an extra finished product. It is always amusing to me when many of my spinning friends have a plan for their fiber, from start to finish. How am I to know if a fiber feels like a scarf or a sweater or a pair of socks until I am finished spinning it?

As far as knitting goes...I enjoy small projects. By the time I am done with one sock I am ready to move on to another project, not finish the second sock. Surely there has to be other knitters with the same attitude? Children's clothes are for me. They are small, almost always soft, and cute. What isn't cute in miniature? My children, two of them married and one in college still, often ask me who I am knitting the baby clothes for, like I am trying to hint at having grandchildren. But I just smile and say that they are for baby shower presents or just the right baby that happens to enter my life. They don't buy it!

That is just one of the many things that I hope to do this winter. I hope that you have projects that you are looking forward to doing on cold, winter days and evenings. Life is too short not to have joy and peace added to the daily grind.

~Susan

12 Shopping Days of Christmas

We are having big sales starting tomorrow, leading up until Christmas! Every day, for the last 12 shopping days up until Christmas we will be putting a different item on sale. Once the item goes on sale, it will remain that way until Christmas! Watch the video below to check out the items that will be on sale!


Original Video - More videos at TinyPic

Spring fever already! It's going to make for a long winter...

I have to admit that tonight, while sitting in my chair looking out the window at black nothingness, I am already starting to itch for spring... I know, it's just a bit early to be thinking that way (we aren't even done with Thanksgiving!), but I can't help it! Being busy outside in the dirt is just part of me! I already have plants in mind for specific areas in my garden, and plans cooking away for a new trellis system for roses to climb up and block out some ugly vinyl fencing (vinly fencing is a whole other soap box I will not make you suffer through...for now anyway :) Back to the garden....I finished up hauling out a huge pile of garden clippings out of the yard, filled the bird feeder, emptied some pots and threw away some of my fall decor. The wind was frigid! It felt like it was blowing right through my many layer of clothes sending me right to the store to buy some good winter boots. I loved every minute of it though, and wished I had more out there I could work on! This year, instead of leaving quite a bit of my clean up for spring, I cleaned out all that I could. While it doesn't make much difference to the plant's growth whether or not you cut them back in the late fall or early spring, it does lessen the likelyhood of insect pests harboring over until spring, and I really hope to get my aphid and mite population down (I had to spray and spray and spray this year!)

This fall, I decided to take the production part of my garden out. Yes... it doesn't seem quite right...working at a seed store and all...it didn't feel quite right either. My rationale: I have such a tiny yard and, late's face it, vegetable gardens, no matter how many pretty raised beds and bamboo teepees you have, still look untidy and wild. Because this part of my garden is emphasized by a boxwood hedge from the rest of my yard, it is the first thing you see when you go into the yard. My solution: everything out + a big fountain plopped right in the middle + formal French garden surrounding it = much needed structure and beauty! The rest of my beds are of a more wild nature, English cottage style, so my yard cried out for some definite structure and a focal point. I think this garden will do the trick! For now, until Aaron and I buy a bigger peice of land, I will be regularly visiting our local produce stand (and my parents garden!)

Now, for the important info I wanted to share tonight....

We only have one seminar left this season! This one falls this Saturday (November 27th and 10am). We are looking forward to teaching you how to make REAL garland and wreaths for your home! We have yummy snacks planned, and even decided to kick it up a notch and make you a latte or mocha to sip on while you work away! (There will be a small fee for those who want to make and take home their own wreaths and garlands, but feel free to attend to just watch the demonstration too for no fee!)

Have a wonderful and happy Thanksgiving!

~Laura

Holiday Open House

I can't believe it is this time of year again! In just a matter of days we will begin decking the halls in preparation for our annual Holiday Open House!

As long as I can remember, the Open House has been one of my favorite events of the year. Even though I haven't always worked here full time, I always enjoyed the days when I got to come help decorate. Every year has been different. A different inspiration. A different set of ideas. That is what makes the Open House so much fun!This two day event is filled with holiday treats, good music, beautiful decor and, best of all, fellowship with our wonderful customers and friends! Please stop by, sip on a latte made just for you, and browse the many unique gifts and inspirational ideas for your home!

I might be a tad premature in saying this, but what the heck, 

Happy Holidays! :)

~Laura

Adopt-a-Pot

     I thought I would fill you in on a new project that's currently in the works! 

I am calling it.... 

'Adopt-a-Pot, A City Beautification Project'

What it is: 24 large, concrete pots will be placed on the corner of every block from both sides of Idaho Ave to both sides of 5th Ave (street that runs by Belly Buster).
How it works: After the pots are placed, businesses or individuals can then 'Adopt-a-Pot', which means they pay a one-season-extremely-reasonable-fee that includes me going down and planting them up for every season with seasonal interest plants. (I am really excited about doing that part!)
The project's goal and message: is to bring some vibrant color and warmth to our downtown area. 'We aim to inspire growth, new ideas and a spirit of community pride!'
Benefit of adopting a pot: you will be contributing to the beauty and warmth of your city. The adoptee's name will appear on a plaque attached to the specific pot they adopted. AND...it's so easy and affordable!
Future plans for Adopt-a-Pot: are to place pots on the corner of every intersection running down Idaho Ave and SW 4th Ave, so that the entire trip through Ontario will be a treat!

     I think Ontario has a crazy amount of potential to be a charming city, we just need to dig in and get started area by area! My mom, Susan, has already made great efforts to start, block-by-block, sprucing up our town (have you seen the new landscaping running alongside Belly Buster on 5th Ave???), and I feel that I need to start getting involved as well (thanks to the support from both of my parents with this project in particular!) I think that projects like these inspire and are infectious!  It's amazing the effect just a few plants can have!
    I have visited with the city, and they have been extremely helpful and encouraging so far! I am hoping for spring to be the launch for Adopt-a-Pot! I just wanted to fill you in so you can be thinking about it!

    I meet again with the City Council next Thursday, Wish me luck!

~Laura

 

Here is an example of the pot I hope you will see next spring! 

They will definitely make a statement at 33"high x 35"wide (and 480 lbs unplanted!)

Fall's beautiful colors

Do you know of a tree somewhere that has beautiful fall foliage right now??? If you do, go cut a big bouquet of it's fall colored leaves and put them on your table (TODAY!). A bouquet need not consist of blooming things. Use branches (bare or with leaves) and grass with pretty seed heads. Enjoy fall to it's fullest! We like to scatter nature all around our homes. A big bouquet of brightly colored leaves surrounded by a few small pumpkins and squash makes for an easy, cheap, beautiful centerpiece! 

Look around and be inspired.