Spring means BACK TO WORK for me! It’s great reopening the store, getting in lots of new things and seeing old friends again, coworkers and customers.

During March I did a presentation for the Wildwood Garden Club in Mentor showing them how to make lots of ‘living wreaths’ and other small ‘living gardens’ for inside the house and out. They sent me the nicest thank-you letter!

My husband and I have a few presentations prepared that we are glad to present to local groups:

• Long-blooming Perennials – Kris
• Fall Wreaths – Kris
• Shade-loving Plants – Kris
• Living Wreaths – Kris
• The Immigration Dilemma: a nurseryman’s perspective – Mark
• Nurseries, Natives and Invasives – Mark or Mark & Kris
• Who’s Afraid of Invasive Plants? – Mark
• Nurseries of Lake County: growing for 150 years – Mark

We’re working at creating a ‘farm preservation easement’ on our 19-acre farm on Antioch Road. Basically, we’re trying to sell off the ‘development rights’….we get reimbursed for that by a federal preservation program as well as North Perry Village…and set aside the property for agriculture…forever! No strip malls or housing developments! We feel strongly about farm preservation, especially in eastern Lake County, and it would also provide a great economic shot-in-the-arm. Rainbow Farms and others did this in North Perry about five years ago. We should know in a month or two whether our application goes through. Keep your fingers crossed!