Things have been hopping for my co-author Janet Melrose and myself since the publication of The Prairie Gardener’s Go-To for Seeds and The Prairie Gardener’s Go-To for Small Spaces on March 2! Here are a few of the exciting things that have been going on over the past month….
We now have a Facebook Live series! Every two weeks (ish) we get together with Curtis Samuel of TouchWood Editions and chat about gardening-related topics and answer viewer questions. Our first two episodes have been primarily focused on seed planting, and we’ve been monitoring the progress of some tomato seedlings. Last week, we also covered chitting potatoes and sowing sweet peas. You can keep up with all the episodes and find out when we are going to do the next one on TouchWood Editions Facebook page (Janet and I also have links on our Facebook pages, as well!)
Janet and I also did a Q&A session about wintersowing in the Alberta Gardening Facebook group at the very end of February – although the Alberta Gardening Group is private and I can’t share the link, the event was well attended and we had tons of questions that kept us super busy! We also ran a contest in the group to win a set of the Seeds and Small Spaces books. Congratulations to Lisa R., the lucky winner!
We also participated in the virtual Calgary Seedy Saturday event, held on March 20. Thank you to everyone who visited our booth during the event!
Janet appeared on the CBC Homestretch radio program twice this past month, talking about small-space gardening and all things related to starting seeds. You can check out her interview with Doug Dirks from March 23 here.
Janet was also interviewed by the Calgary Herald in March. She discussed best practices for getting into the garden in early spring. You can read the article here.
And…we were interviewed by Julia Guerra of mindbodygreen to talk about tips for successfully setting up a lasagna garden. You can read the article “Everything You Need to Know to Start (and Maintain) a Lasagna Garden” here.
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A big shout-out to several organizations who generously gave us and our books a mention on social media or in print:
YYC Growers and Distributors – Instagram 1 and Instagram 2
The Gardener for Canadian Climates magazine (a huge thank you for the wonderful review of our Seeds and Small Spaces books in the Spring 2021 issue)
AMA Insider magazine (Spring 2021 issue)
Garden Making (There is a lovely review of the books on their website, here – and they also ran a contest to win one of our books this past month! Congratulations to the winner!)
49th Shelf (who also ran a contest – thank you!) Twitter
McNally Robinson – Twitter (Thank you very much for setting up displays of our books in your stores over the month!)
Glass Bookshop (Edmonton) – Instagram
Shelf Life Books (Calgary – check out the photograph of their window display of the Guides for Prairie Gardener books on Janet’s IG)
Regina Seedy Saturday (hello and much gratitude to Sharon P.!)
Edmonton Seedy Sunday (Thank you for listing us on your vendor/exhibitor list, seen here)
And we want to send along a huge thank you to all of our friends and family and several new acquaintances – you’ve all been so encouraging and supportive and we truly appreciate the love!
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Where can the books be purchased?
YYC Growers and Distributors (Calgary)
Blue Grass Nursery, Sod, and Garden Centres (Calgary and Edmonton)
Countryside Landscapes and Garden Centre (DeWinton)
Salisbury Greenhouses (Sherwood Park)
The Green Spot (Brandon, Manitoba)
Garden of Eden Greenhouse and Gifts (Blumenhof, Saskatchewan)
We can’t thank all of these businesses enough for carrying our books!
If you live in Calgary and want to order directly from us, please send an email to prairieguides(AT)gmail(DOT)com and we’ll make arrangements to get your books out to you as soon as possible.
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Let’s get social!
Sheryl:
Janet:
Facebook: calgaryscottagegardener
Instagram: calgaryscottagegardener
‘Til next time! Happy gardening!
Flowery Prose 