Vacation, seed planting, fall/winter programs

We will be heading off to the Poconos in PA next week for our annual company claims conference. This is our chance each year to have a vacation, as it is a company paid trip for my husband's company. We have traveled all over the eastern part of the country, and up into Canada, one year.

We will be away from Thursday, August 7th until Friday, August 15th.

I am trying to get my Mia's new laptop up and running so that I will be able to stay in touch and continue my daily posts.

I will be pushing to get as much gardening done as possible before I leave as I will be leaving my gardens for a week! (Oh, no, not again) But this time my older daughter, Paula will be staying here with her family and will be able to keep things watered.

When I return I will be scheduling work getting seeds planted in new seed bed as I will be able to ensure they will be kept nice and moist for germination. With 2 preschoolers, I did not want to leave that chore to Paula. The seeds will get enough of a start to be ready for next spring when you will all be wanting them for your gardens.

Plan to come and help with this process. This is being done to give you plants for your gardens. The seed bed will need to be raked, and prepared for the seeds, then as the seedlings come up they will need to be thinned and replanted with room enough for their anticipated growth before winter.

I will also use the seed be to lay in plants new to the gardens or winter over plants for those who may need the space here. I am working on getting new native varieties, so let me know if you have any I do not have.

So what will I be doing with all my free time when the gardens are put to rest for the winter?? Glad you asked! I will be offered all sorts of classes. Sewing, knitting, crochet, to name a few hand craft classes I could start up, from beginners to advanced.

I will also be offering two gardening class series. One for the beginner perennial gardener, with everything you need to get a gardens started. The first thing you will learn is how to plan for and prepare your soil for next year's planting of perennials (which you will be able to get free from my gardens!) The other will be for the intermediate perennial gardener, who wants to learn more specific skills. The first one we will address will be putting your garden to bed for the winter.


I was going to do this through adult education at King Philip, but they don't yet know if they are even going to have a program, so I will be offering it here in my studio, overlooking my back gardens!! I will be limiting my class to 8-10 gardeners each. The fee will be about half of what it would be at adult education. I need to figure out how many weeks each course will be to figure out the pricing. Those of you who have worked in the garden will be able to apply points towards it, so no one should have to be excluded due to cost.

The fall classes will be able to benefit from being right here in the gardens, and the winter classes will be more from books.

I will be getting more information set when I get back from vacation. I'm planning on getting started with the beginner course the last week in August, so you have plenty of time to get your soil ready before the winter. Let me know if you are interested in signing up as it will be on a first come first serve basis.