Flutterby & Neon 2013

January 14th, 2013

So, it has been a year since I have written anything. I am amazed at the rapid rate at which 2012 flew by us and all of the changes that I and those around me have endured. This year I aim to document all of the lessons learned and adventures had and share them with those who chose to listen, because at the end of the day, no matter how hectic life gets, I feel I am truely blessed.

Flutterby Gardens via the North End Organic Nursery: Hello Spring!

Flutterby Gardens via the North End Organic Nursery: Hello Spring!: "I am finally feeling as though things are settling down a little bit. This has been an exceptionally busy spring and I am glad to say that ..."

Hello Spring!

I am finally feeling as though things are settling down a little bit. This has been an exceptionally busy spring and I am glad to say that I think we are getting a handle on things. Our vegetables are now officially certified organic and looking soooo beautiful. It has been a long journey since October when I first started growing them. This morning, while watering, I was reflecting on how scared I was that I was going to fail when I started the whole venture. Yet, I was so exstatic at how fabulous they all looked. I never could have done it without Tanya. She came to us at just the perfect time and helped me pull everything together. She has now become our official greenhouse manager and I am so happy to have her help. I do not know what I would have done without her the past couple of months, she is like my right arm. We communicate well and both are on the same page about what needs to happen in the nursery. It is nice to know that there is someone there to cover me in the areas that are lacking due to my awesome schedule! Which brings me to Suzanne and Anna, to rocking chicks that are successfully helping me run Flutterby Gardens Landscaping while working at NEON. These two lovely ladies keep the crew moving and the clients happy and again, I do not know what I would do without them. Anna is new to us this year and is going to be running  her own show with mowing, personal gardening, sprinkler work and tree pruning. She is a go getter and I have full confidence that she will take this position and run with it.

          

On Earth Day, in cooperation with, ICAN, a local non -profit I helped Washington Elementary School students plant a community garden that I had been planning with them over the last couple of months. This is a project that I have been doing for the Ada County Master Gardener program. It was so rewarding to walk them through the planning and planting of the square foot beds and to see our visions come to life when the children came and helped us to plant. They planted violas, potatoes, peas, rhubarb, spearmint and strawberries, as well as, planted seeds of beans, tomatoes and squash that they will put into the beds when they return in a month. Channels 2, 6 and 7 were there and they interviewed the kids. It was way too cute! I am super excited about this project and can not wait for the next phase.

On Saturday, in cooperation with Idaho's Bounty, NEON held our first annual Easter egg hunt! We all had a blast. The Easter bunny himslef even made a special appearance and took pictures with alll of the children and their families. I think that everyone had a great time. We should do it again next year! Thanks again to Idaho's Bounty for supplying the fresh eggs and to Bittercreek/Red Feather for boiling them.

Flutterby Gardens via the North End Organic Nursery: Whew.

Flutterby Gardens via the North End Organic Nursery: Whew.: "Another crazy week and this is just a sign of the times to come. This week we planted more peppers and tomatoes at the North End Organic Nur..."

Whew.

Another crazy week and this is just a sign of the times to come. This week we planted more peppers and tomatoes at the North End Organic Nursery. We moved all artichokes, violas, peas, swiss chard, stevia and spearamint out into greenhouse #2. It is starting to fill up and is looking so good!! The nasturtium trays and multi packs are starting to emerge and the trailing petunias are filling out quite nicely. I restarted 2 trays of marigolds and the have come out quite beautifully, they will make a beautiful 4 inch plant. This upcoming week we will be putting together our multi packs of flowers, basil's and lettuce's. We will finally be getting our annual baskets put together as well. We are having a 1 year celebration, or spring sale the weekend of the 19th and we need to get the nursery put back together in time for it, as well as, getting the remainder of our spring bulbs planted in the front beds. We also recieved a shipment of IDAHO grown fruit trees from Clayton Nursery. The trees loeeked beautiful and will be available for sale next week. There is always something fun going on at the nursery. On Thursday,. I gave a talk to the 4 Seasons Gardening Club on tree and shrub pruning for my Master Gardener credits. Then on Saturday, we sponsered the Horticultural Symposium held by The Idaho Horticulture Society. It was great to see some familiar faces and to hear others views on edible landscaping and xeriscaping. Many thanks to Elmer Hurd for giving us the oppurtunity to sponser you.
Flutterby Gardens Landscaping is off and rolling. Randy and the crew were busy with spring cleanups, as Suzanne, Tanya and I layed out and planted one of our clients homes in a square foot garden. What a great project this has been, from the design of the edible landscape, to the design and planting of the vegetable beds in a square foot garden. I am very excited about this project and can not wait to see it through the year. We will be starting a new garden this week at another clients house. This was a project from early spring of 2010. We removed all of the sod from the back yard and added a drought tolerant, edible garden. We planned and planted the vegetable beds last year and are very excited to come back and do it again. We will be working with her to plant the garden, we love to work with our clients and to share some knowledge that will help them to prosper in their yard.
Well, I am off now I have some plant tags to finish! Until next week!

Flutterby Gardens via the North End Organic Nursery: Busy week

Flutterby Gardens via the North End Organic Nursery: Busy week: "This was a very productive week, I am happy to say that I accomplished all goals. Well, I did not do it all by myself, I did get h..."

Busy week

This was a very productive week, I am happy to say that I accomplished all goals. Well, I did not do it all by myself, I did get help from a few really good people.
For Flutterby Gardens Landscaping, I had 10 appointments! Spring is quickly approaching and people are starting to get their ducks in a row. We have 5 new jobs on the books, a design underway and our first mowing contract of the year!! I can see good things to come, we just need to keep pushing forward. I know that all of the hard work will pay off and our reputation for working hard, being honest and dependable will show through in the end.
For the North End Organic Nursery, I nailed down my plant orders through 3 local vendors, a relief for the spring. Randy and Lindsay helped me pot up 512 'Delta Blue' pansy, 228  ORGANIC 'Green Globe' artichoke, 228 ORGANIC stevia and 228 spearmint. Randy also helped me to move all organically grown cold crops outside along with the johnny jump ups, bowles black viola, historic pansy and wildflower mix. Tanya was kind enough to help me get the bare root blackberries and raspberries settled in. While inside, I started 10 trays of various hot peppers, nasturtium packs and spicy mesclun packs. When you go out into the greenhouse it is almost full and that makes me smile. All of the hard work since October is starting to pay off. I think it is going to be a great spring.