In the Zone

In 1996, I was a young mother of two toddlers and a freelance graphic designer working from my house.  There were times when I would have my 10 yr old niece, Lauren come take care of them while I worked in the den. This usually only worked when the kids thought Mommy left the house - which I would pretend to do and then sneak in the side door and hope one of the dogs didn't give me away.  Otherwise, they would come banging on the door - MOMMY!!!  Most of the time, once they had been read to and tucked into bed, I would then "go to work" down in the den from 7pm to 2am. These were some of my most sleep deprived years of my life. 


I was fortunate enough to work on a couple of projects with my sister-in-law who had a small publishing company called High Tide Press. One in particular was the work I did on the book series The Zone Garden: A Surefire Guide to Gardening in Your Zone by Charlotte M. Frieze.  I'm credited with "keeping the hard drives spinning" since I was in charge of laying out all the books on my computer.

At the time, I didn't realize how much I would learn simply by laying out and editing information about gardening. Through all my work, I was learning all about "Knowing your Site", "Raised Beds", "Pests and Intruders" and so much more.  My sister-in-law was insistent on making a book that would be a comprehensive resource for gardeners. Remember, this was before the internet and Google. Separating out the zones into three books, the publishers were giving gardeners a resource book that was directly related to gardening in their specific zone that wasn't a huge over-weighted volume with more information that actually needed.  I find that many times, I will be reading a gardening article and find it's written for a different zone than my zone. We now are getting familiar with gardening in zone 5b, a change from my CT zone 6b. 

Who knew at the time that my graphic design career working on a gardening book would one day come full circle to my career today in helping people learn about growing their own healthy nutritious food and living a more sustainable lifestyle.  All my jobs throughout my life, although very different from one another, had something to do with the other, but not in the traditional sense. My first job in radio gave me valuable design experience since our stations' never had a budget, I was the in-house one person ad agency promotions director. I designed ads, promotions, logos, bumper stickers, bus stop signs -I even had a billboard on I95 in Norwalk, CT, a high traffic area outside NYC. I developed my portfolio and networked like crazy, eventually allowing me enough clients to leave the radio business and freelance and be a stay at home mom. My time as a freelance graphic designer eventually turned into a full-time job when the kids were in full time school. At first,I was simply designing the corporate material for my brother's start-up company, but then I ended up working there and for him, as a research analyst for the next 15 years.  Initially I covered media stocks and the food and beverage sector which grew into researching water and agribusiness sectors.  After years of reading about the state of our country's water and agriculture coupled with a mid-life epiphany, thanks to Dennis Hopper (a story for another time), I decided to help others learn how to grow their own food and live more sustainable lifestyles. That's when Mark and I started Homegrown Harvest. We wanted to show people that starting your own garden and growing some of your own food could be simple and rewarding nutritionally, as well as in so many other ways including financially, physically and psychologically. 

As I look back through the pages of the books that I helped come to fruition, I see where I subconsciously learned about organic gardening back in 1996. I used the book as a reference guide in my own garden as my children grew and I juggled a full time career and single parenting. Eventually I became an accredited organic land care manager through CT NOFA in 2011 when I had made the decision to help others learn how to grow their own.

I have always told my kids that they will most likely have more than one career in their lifetime. I've worked in sales and promotion in the radio business. I was a freelance graphic designer. I was a research analyst for a hedge fund. I am an organic land care professional. I am a woodworker who manufactures cedar raised garden bed kits. I am an entrepreneur. I am an artist and a writer. I am a creator.

Just looking at this map makes me think cold! Brrr!

We're in zone 5b but at the top and surrounded by zone 5a!
 
Wish us luck!


Although The Zone Garden Series was an important part of my salad days of garden training --sorry, I couldn't resist -- the first book which I truly learned most about gardening initially was from the book, The Contained Garden: A complete illustrated guide to growing plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables outdoors in pots. This book spoke to me since back in mid-eighties when I first bought the book, I was a young twenty-something living in a small New York City apartment trying to bring as much greenery in my concrete jungle life. Growing up in the city, my mother would fill the few sunny windows we had in our apartment with tons of plants. It didn't matter that we were only on the third floor at least we faced southwest corner-facing apartment would fill with enough light to grow plenty of greenery.  So I, too followed in her footsteps, eventually filling my own windows and patios with plants, flowers and herbs when I could.  

My mother has always also been into researching. It didn't matter what she was researching -- although her bible was The Merck Manual - the hardback 10 pound leather bound version of WedMd.com before the internet. A book only registered nurses and doctors could have at one point. My mother only had hers because of her mother, a registered nurse. Hmm...I became a research analyst - weird how things work out sometimes.

Anyway, in that vein, and since I have always loved to own books, I have amassed quite the library over the years. I've listed the copyright dates where I could find them, I thought it interesting that they span the years from 1979, when I was a freshman in high school to 2014, just around the time I started to switch to reading my Kindle more often and started to buy less and less physical books. Here a list of books about gardening that are physically in my library. In a future blog post I will give a list of gardening/homesteading related books that are on my Kindle or a list of books I have on canning, but that's for another day. Until then, enjoy spring and get out there and garden!

Christine's Gardening Library

in no particular order

links to Amazon where available

no I don't get anything from Amazon

I wish. 

1. Better Homes & Garden's Complete Guide to Gardening©1979
2. The Edible Front Yard: The mow-less, grow more plan for a beautiful, bountiful garden by Ivette Soler, photos by Ann Summa©2011
3. Grocery Gardening: Planting, Preparing and Preserving Fresh Food by Jean Ann Van Krevelen, Amanda Thomson, & Robin Wedewer ©2009
4. Gardening with Herbs by Emelle Tolley & Chris Mead ©1995
5. Week By Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook by Ron Kujawski and Jennifer Kujawski ©2010
6. The New England Gardener's Year by Reeser Manley and Marjorie Peronto ©2013
7. The Heirloom Life Gardener: The Baker Creek Way of Growing Your Own Food Easily and Naturally by Jere and Emilee Gettle ©2012
8. The Mix & Match Guide of Companion Planting by Josie Jeffery ©2014
9. The Naturescaping Workbook: A Step by Step guide for bringing nature to your backyard by Beth O'Donnell Young ©2011
10. What's Wrong With My Vegetable Garden? 100% Organic Solutions for all your Vegetables by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth ©2011
11. The Contained Garden: A complete Illustrated Guide to Growing Plants, Flowers and Vegetables Outdoors in Pots by Kenneth Becket, David Stevens, David Carr ©1983
12. The Encyclopedia of Herbs and Spices by Andi; Richmond, Katherine; Morris, Sallie; Mackley, Lesley Clevely ©1997
13. Edible Landscaping by Rosalind Creasy ©2010
14. The American Horticulture Society's Encyclopedia of Gardening Editors Christopher Brickell & Elvin McDonald ©2003
15. Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening ©2002
16. American Horticultural Society's Northeast: Smart Garden Regional Guide ©2003
17. New England Gardener's Handbook by Jacqueline Heriteau and Holly Hunter Stonehill ©2012
18. Northeast including Southeast Canada: 54 Landscape designs by Roger Holmes and Rita Buchanan ©2012
19. The Backyard Homestead edited by Carleen Madigan ©2009
20. The Postage Stamp Kitchen Garden Book by Duane & Karen Newcomb ©1998
21. The Zone Garden: A Surefire Guide to Gardening in Your Zone 5,6,7 by Charlotte M. Frieze ©1997
22. The American Horticultural Society's Great Plant Guide ©2000
23. Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America by Eric R. Eaton and Kenn Kaufman
24. Good Weed, Bad Weed by Nancy Gift ©2011
25. Good Bug, Bad Bug by Jessica Walliser ©2011
26. The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Pest and Disease Control: A complete Guide to maintaining a healthy garden and yard the earth-friendly way by Fern Marshall Bradley, Barbara W. Ellis and Deborah L. Martin ©2009