What happened to summer?

Oh, I know... 15 credits in 8 weeks is what happened to summer. And lots of music on the weekends and a micro-vacation to the coast. During all of this, the garden was barely touched after the tour, leaving the bind weed to run amok. We did get (and are still getting) a nice batch of veggies, which was mightily enhanced thanks to Reemay (floating crop cover). I'm putting out fall/winter crops in these waning summer days with high hopes. Today I spotted broccoli forming along with aphids and cabbage worms. It's really awful what insecticidal soap does to cabbage worms. They writhe in agony and for a moment I feel terrible but then get over it. One does not grow crops for worms no matter their fetching green coloration.
So, to chores in the garden... transplant a lavender, weed, plant a small Yak Rhododendron, a Mahonia, 5 Cotoneaster horizontalis, a Philadelphus and a few others, install a sweet, silly copper fountain, augment/add to a section of the drip system (something one is never done with), move a Philadelphus 'Aurea' to a shadier spot, pick plums (this means making jam), weed, deadhead the Euphorbia (lots and lots of Euphorbia ~ let me know if you want some), thin the Epimedium and pot it up, same with Shasta Daisy, Bearded Iris and Ajuga, did I say weed? Assemble the new push mower, if G doesn't get to it first. And weed some more...

New Quarter

The summer 2010 quarter started 7/6/10. I had an ambitious 15.5 credit thinking that only 2 classes were 'academic.' After three back to back full days, one of them being 12 hour long, I just about had a melt down! All the classes have final projects, midterms, tests and homework... I think the dean may have landed on the hort department. Granted, this is not chemistry (which I love!) but 5 projects in an 8 week quarter on top of the rest of my life was overwhelming. So, I dropped a 2.5 credit elective and replaced it with a 2 credit internship.... No rest for the weary!

Catching Up

June 26th was Mukilteo's day for the Snohomish Master Gardener's tour. Our garden was on the tour. It went wonderfully. After 2 weeks of intensive prep that followed 9 months of general to specific work, the garden looked incredible. About 150 people came through. The comments were very similar: Peaceful, tranquil, whimsical (yea!), lovely, restful, etc. We directed guests around the house so they could be surprised by the view toward the end rather then the beginning. It was very gratifying not only in people's reactions but in answering questions and actually teaching and passing on knowledge. It was a perfect day!

Personal Pest Applicators License

I took Pest Management this quarter. At the end we had to take the Washington State Department of Agriculture's Personal Pest Applicators License exam. I STRESSED over this test. We spent the quarter going over the WSU manual as prep for the test. As a study guide we were encouraged to do the post test in this guide with the comment that if we did well on the post test, we'd do fine on the state's test. I did not do well on the post test. I scored a 96% on the state test. Now I have a license that will allow me to can Terminex as I can buy the rat bait box material myself and save a cool 4-500 bucks a year. Other than that, I don't see using this license at all. Unless someone wants to hire me to run their grounds on their swanky estate... Even then we'll head for Integrated Pest Management before whipping out the card that allows me to buy the cool chemicals.

Social Media

I understand how social media reaches out and connects you and your business with the world at large, especially with folks who are not yet old enough to be grandparents. At this time I am launching this blog, a Facebook page and a website, www.heronandcrowgardens.com. It has the potential to take up an amazing amount of time and then you have to work each day as well as do the books and advertise/network with customers who do not do social media. It strikes me as important to mull over the following when considering how to leverage social media:

• No one potential client who will find their way to you, or keep up with you via social media will necessarily do so through your favored social media genre. My favorite genre is the web. However, I stand to lose out with a huge set of people if I choose to scoff at Facebook. 
• A website and Facebook, while both electronic are hugely different experiences for the user. I like a well done website for its content and researchability (is that a word?). I like Facebook because I can get a snapshot of what my friends are doing all at once. My potential 27 year old client may far prefer to look at my portfolio on Facebook because that's where she happens to be anyway rather then navigate to yet another website etc... 
• If I want to be competitive from a communications point of view, I need to make it easy and comfortable for my customers and potential customers to both keep in touch with me and view my work. The blog is for die hards!!

Finding a tool that one could post to all three sites (blog, web & Facebook)at the same time, or would make it easier would be fabulous! How about from my phone? Too much to ask? Probably not, but I'm actually old enough to be a grandparent so the social media thing does have a bit of a learning curve <;-).

Three quarters down, four to go.

I'm in the 9th of 10 weeks of my 3rd quarter of an ATA degree program. While in the greater scheme of things, this is easy stuff for me, I feel like I'm about to hit a wall. Every spare minute of my time is filled. Filled with things that I, for the most part, really enjoy doing yet there's almost no downtime. Relaxation has taken on a new definition: Gardening, working on the website, this blog, photoshop etc. Yes, there's family time but it's rarer these days. I keep telling my husband I miss him and we live at the same address! Thank goodness there's a cooking daughter still living at home until she moves half way across the country, that is. I see a lot more Costco chicken in our future!! The kale needs Sluggo (approved organic treatment of our robust NW mollusks). Ta.

A life of its own!

Yesterday I went to the bank to find out about opening a business account. It was an object lesson in why it's a good thing to have all you banking in one place. I was able to easily open a no fee account due to our relationship with the bank, and by the time I left was also able to send my fledgling business into the red by far more than I project earning this year! Good credit is helpful and frightening all at once.
Showing my buddy the business banker my FIT # on web generated IRS letterhead made it all extraordinarily real and concrete. It's like Heron & Crow Gardens became its own entity and has a life of its own all of a sudden. I have to feed and nurture it. Time for some website work!