TDN Newsletter: July 4th, 2014

4th of July Sale Announcement!!  View this email in your browser

Dear Gardening Friends, Suddenly, a SALE!! Since Argentina is playing in the World Cup quarter-finals this Saturday, you know we’re not going to be at the La Canada Farmers Market!!  Sooo, it seemed like a good idea to have a    4th of July Sale this Friday…4 hours on the 4th!!!   We often get calls on the legal holidays from folks asking ifwe’regoing to be open…makes sense… So before you fire upthe grill or head out to someone else’s BBQ, why not come by the Nursery and get 10% off everything you’ll need to make this a Happy Holiday/Gardening Weekend!! We’ll be open from 10am until 2pm… Everything will be 10% off, including Certified Organic Plants, Soils, EarthBoxes and Smart Pots, and all Fruit Trees and Blueberry Bushes (YES, they're back!!)  The Two Dog Organic Nursery is located at our home: 914 S. Cloverdale Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90036                                            Click for more details     It really is time to get your Pumpkins in for Halloween, and those Heirloom Tomatoes which will carry you through the Fall and beyond….  We’ve been planting lots of “second rounds” here in our own Garden: Corn, Beans, Lettuce, Cucumbers and Tomatoes…it’s a very long season!!  We hope you plan to join us, and bring a friend!

Speaking of our Garden…     Because we could not have our usual Roof Top Tomato Trial Garden this year, we ended up growing 15 of the “New” Tomato varieties in our own personal garden. It’s turning out to be the Summer of the HUGE Tomatoes!!  German Johnsons are weighing in at over a pound, and Brandywine Sudduth, Gold Medal, Beefsteak Heirloom and Spear’s Tennessee Green are not far behind! Our kitchen counter is covered with these ginormous wonders! Here’s a photo of just one morning’s harvest this week…  They’re not only big, they’re delicious!!  Another “New” standout is Zebra Rita (the “slightly larger, slightly sweeter” big sister of Green Zebra); WOW, this is one fabulous tomato…flavor, size, emerald color, yield…love it!!  Here’s Alex making the his world-famous Caprese for the whole crew last week.      We’re ready to plant our 3rd round of Corn this week, too. The Sugar Pearl White Corn is nearly all harvested, and I must say, everyone who ate it SWOONED!    EarthBox Three Sisters…   Our Glass Gem Popcorn is going to produce tassels any day now. We decided to experiment with a Three Sisters in the EarthBox this season. We planted 6 Corn seedlings in each of 3 EarthBoxes, spaced in a “block”; then we planted one Pole Bean seedling next to each Corn, and one Butternut Squash in each EarthBox. So far, so good!!! The corn is tall, the beans are climbing, and the squash is beginning to vine out. Can’t wait to see how it all comes out!  If you’re doing a Three Sisters, we’d love to see your photos!!   CLICK HERE TO WATCH OUR GLASS GEM VIDEO ON YOUTUBE!! Customer’s Photos…   (ABOVE)  “New Gardeners, Kelsey and Greg, are thrilled with their EarthBox tomato success!!” (Above) “Long-time La Canada Market customer, Red Baron, devised a great way to “hang” his Organic Tristan Strawberries!”   (ABOVE) “First-time Gardeners, Jeanie and Benny, who found us online, filled their gorgeous new raised beds with our Black Gold Potting Soil, Compost, Worm Castings and Organic Seedlings! Great job, guys!! Want to be featured in our Newsletter?! Please send your photos to TWODOGNURSERY@GMAIL.COM To Everything there is a Season… At the end of May, we bid a Nursery farewell to our friend/fan/employee, Nitzia (on the right), who, way back in the early days, took not one, but two, of my EarthBox Classes, then never missed a Sale, and then one day offered her volunteer services (at the beginning of Spring, last year, when yours truly was about to tear out all her hair)…I’m not a big fan of free labor, so we hired her instead. Supremely organized, Nitzia helped me so much this Spring keeping production on track for Tomatoes, Peppers and Eggplants (the Big Three, which take so much more work than any of the other veggies!) She also completely re-worked our many, many Seed Boxes and the ever-expanding Sign Library. We miss you already, Nitzia!! (and I’m secretly working on a way to have you back next Spring!!!) Wedding Bells for our Syd!! Sydney Latimer, aka Mrs. Dalton, has been my beloved Assistant for more than 4 years. She’s a superb Seed Sower, my right hand at all things Administrative, a true believer in the Two Dog Mission, AND the very talented artisan who constructs our monthly Newsletter (I just write ‘em, she makes ‘em a work of art)!!.  On June 21st she married her sweetheart of 3 years, Anthony, in a beautiful, intimate ceremony which we were so happy to be part of.      Many of you have met Syd here at the Nursery, and we’re sure you join with us in wishing her and her new hubby much happiness and love as they begin their new life together.  Isn’t she beautiful?      CLICK HERE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE ALL OF THE WEDDING PHOTOS on FLIKR! Well, on that happy note, I’ll close by wishing you all a very Happy 4th of July!! Please come on by the Sale if you can…we hope to see you soon. As always, Happy Harvests, and many thanks!   Jo Anne, Alejandro, Jake & Lalo   P.S. VAMOS ARGENTINA!!!!!   Copyright © 2014 Two Dog Organic Nursery, All rights reserved.

TDN Newsletter: 5-11-14 Mothers Day

Happy Mother's Day from Two Dog Organic Nursery! View this email in your browser

A mother is a person who seeing there are only four pieces of pie for five people, promptly announces she never did care for pie.  ~Tenneva Jordan

Dear Gardening Friends, Spring rolls on like a freight train, and we rush to keep up! Wishing all our “Moms” a lovely day this Sunday, May 11th! A special shout-out to the Gardening Moms who strive to nourish themselves and their families, engage their kids, share with their neighbors and inspire one another to get their hands in the soil! Just a few announcements and a very cool DIY projectfrom one of our customers (and extremely ace P.O.S. consultant), Ryan Powell!

Certified Organic Strawberries!! This year, we’ve really struggled to have Strawberries (Organic OR Conventional) to offer. But we’re happy to announce we’ve procured another 288 tiny baby Tristan Strawberries (Certified Organic), and they will be available in about 2 weeks. We’ve already begun pre-selling them, so if you are interested, please contact us at 323-422-3835 or see us at the Markets… Certified Organic “Certified Seed” Potatoes! Russian Banana Fingerling, Yukon Gold, German Butterball (new!) and Burbank Russets have arrived!                                  Please see us at the Market to buy some of these little beauties; homegrown Potatoes are a cinch and oh so yummy!   CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR POTATO SELECTION!!  You're Invited... Spring Open House at our Home Nursery on  Sunday, May 18th, from 10am until 3pm. 914 South Cloverdale Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90036 Cookies & Lemonade will be served, as usual.                                                                 This is not a Sale, but just a day on which you can visit and shop without having to make a reservation (and it’s on a Sunday, yay!!) PLEASE NOTE: We will NOT be at our Westlake Market that day. Please mark your calendar and plan to join us. Street parking is available. No Pets please. Jake & Lalo rule the roost around here! :-) DIY “Bean Wall”! Our customer & I.T. Consultant Ryan Powell, Owner of iLifestyle, designed this amazing “Bean Wall” and graciously shared photos and instructions! Photos and instructions Items for the bean wall: (3) 10' x 1/2" metal conduit pipe (2) 90 degree (right angle) fittings (2) 2-hole straps (to anchor the poles to the beds) (2) packages 5' x 10' trellis netting Zip Ties Deck Screws   "Since I have a deep bed, I sunk the two pulls about 2' down to give it some extra stability then anchored them to the bed. I then cut the horizontal bar to the proper length and attached the fittings to make the connection. zip-tied the netting to the poles and done! Would have been a ton of money to buy a large trellis and this was maybe $30 in materials if I remember correctly."   Ryan also shared a lovely story of gardening with his niece: "I planted my mom’s earth boxes yesterday. My 7 year old niece was over at her house so I let her take the lead at doing on the planting. She has a lot of anxiety issues and usually won’t be out of site of my mom, or her mom, but she spent a couple hours back there prepping and planting with me, totally relaxed. Such a great bonding moment. Thanks for your part in facilitating that!" Awww... Happy to be of service, Ryan! Other Customer News... Congratulations to our La Canada customer, Judy Reilly,  whose dog, Velo, just graduated as a Certified Guide Dog!  We saw him progress since he was a pup!   Good work, Velo!!! Judy’s already training her next dog… Good work, Judy! A Word (or two) About Corn:      Many of you have place orders similar to this: “one 6-pack of Glass Gem, one 6-pack of Sugar Pearls”… Please know, that you MUST grow your Popcorn and your Fresh Corn at separate times!  AND you must grow at least 18-24 plants.  They must be planted in a block formation, NOT in a row… My Grandma, the Indiana Corn Farmer, told me to I needed a block of 10 x 10 plants. Pretty much none of us has the room for 100 corn plants, so I grow two EarthBoxes with 12 each, side by side, for a total of 24 plants. Remember what happened to us last year with the 2 varieties getting fertile all at the same time??  If not, please review our video on the subject. Believe me, it was a huge amount of work. But in the end, we saved a lot of Glass Gem corn, (which happily is germinating at a 100% rate!!), and we had a nice harvest of Bon Jour fresh corn.  But had we not done all that Isolation & Hand-Pollination, we’d have ended up with a big mess of nothing! My game plan for this season is: First, 2 EarthBoxes of Sugar Pearls; when the tassels form, I’ll plant 2 EarthBoxes of Glass Gem Popcorn.  Then when their tassels form, I’ll plant 2 EarthBoxes of Bon Jour. This way, I won’t have a “collision of fertility” like last year!!  And we’ll be able to enjoy all of our 3 varieties. CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO SEE OUR "GLASS GEM POLLINATION ADVENTURE" VIDEO!! The Three Sisters: And don’t forget to try the charming “Three Sisters”! This is an ancient Native American companion planting idea utilizing Corn, Pole Beans and either Pumpkin or Winter Squash. You can do this with seeds or seedlings; just be sure your Corn is at least a foot high before you plant your Bean seedlings around them.  Unfortunately, I haven’t found a way to grow this in an EarthBox! Link to instructions & photos http://www.almanac.com/content/companion-planting-three-sisters Try Amaranth! 21 Days to harvest baby leaves; 70 Days to flower; 110 Days to seed. Heirloom. Harvest the gorgeous purple-red leaves for salads and soups; later the shiny black Amaranth seeds can be eaten as a nutritious hot cereal or ground into a Gluten-Free Flour. 6' tall plants. CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR SPRING AND SUMMER ORGANIC PLANT SELECTION!! Well, that’s it for now, friends. We do hope to see you at the Markets, and at our Open House on May 18th!  CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR FACEBOOK EVENT As always, many thanks, and Happy Harvests!! Jo Anne, Alex, Jake & Lalo Copyright © 2014 Two Dog Organic Nursery, All rights reserved.