TDN Newsletter: 3-07-15

Don't Forget!!!   Annual Spring Kick-Off Sale & Food Drive NEXT WEEKEND!!! March 14th & 15th 10am - 3pm at the Two Dog Home Nursery 914 S. Cloverdale Ave. Los Angeles, CA  90036 (we will not be in the Markets that weekend)   Friends, please don’t forget that our our Annual Spring Sale is also our most important Food Drive (benefiting the Los Angeles Food Bank). We hope you're putting aside some quality packaged or canned food for your Food Drive donation, which will earn you 10% off EVERYTHING we sell! Plus, it's a lovely way to begin this season of such abundance with a grateful heart!  And if you participated in our Tomato Survey, DON'T FORGET YOUR COUPON!   In addition to this year's 51 varieties of Certified Organic Heirloom Tomatoes, Cucumbers, Peppers, Eggplants, Seed Potatoes and Summer Squash, we’ll also have several varieties of Basil, gorgeous Lettuces, Kale, Chard, Carrots and, my favorite, Green Beans galore!   Plus our fabulous Blueberries, Strawberries & Fruit Trees!! We’ll also be very well stocked on EarthBoxes & Stands, Smart Pots, Soils, Compost and all Organic amendments!   The Tomatoes are alphabetized on the driveway, starting with Amos Coli up by the garage, and ending with Zebra Rita and the Tomatillos down by the gate. Make your Wish List now!!                  Street parking is available. Bring all your Gardening Friends, but please, no pets...thanks!   Sale prices will be given at the Sale only.  Regular pricing applies to all Pre-Orders.   CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE EVENT!

TDN Newsletter: 2-14-15

February 14th, 2015   Dear Gardening Friends, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!                            Things are heating up here at Two Dog as we prepare to launch our Spring season next month…thousands of Tomato, Peppers & Eggplant seedlings are getting ready for transplant, Cucumbers, Squash, Strawberries, etc., are filling the tables and light shelves, Basils are burgeoning, and in a week or so, we’ll be sowing the first rounds of my beloved Green Beans! Yay, I can’t wait!!   We recently had that huge Tipuana Tipu tree in our back yard pruned way back, and now the sunlight is pouring in!  Alex made new risers for four more tables, and Pre-Orders for Tomatoes and Strawberries are appearing regularly in our email now.   I’ve got our own personal Tomato list narrowed down to 24, but I think I may be overestimating our front yard!  I know I want to try lots of the "New" ones, though.  I'm happy to see that, in their Pre-Orders, folks are interested in our new Tomato varieties.  Not only the new Cherries, but some of the “Heat-Tolerant” ones, as well!  Please be sure to check those out, especially if you are a Market customer … we know how hot it gets in the Valley! And don’t forget to have shade cloth at the ready. It could save your entire crop.                       You can see the whole Tomato line-up here.           Hopefully, all of you who participated in our Annual Tomato Survey received your Free Tomato Coupon in an email last month; we sent it out the same night we sent the last Newsletter.    Be sure to print it out to redeem your Tomato Seedling at our Sale (March 14th & 15th) or at one of the Farmers Markets. Now, drumroll please… the Winner of the Random Drawing for a FREE EARTHBOX KIT is Tim Johnson!!  Congratulations, Tim!!!  We’ll see you at the Sale, I’m sure!   Don’t forget to mark your calendars for March 14th & 15th, when we hold our Annual Spring Kick-Off Sale and Food Drive!!   Bring a donation of canned tuna, dried beans, rice, lentils, fresh packaged bread, or whatever you can offer to our needy Angeleno neighbors, and that’ll get you 10% off everything we offer…and at the end of the weekend, Alex and I will donate 5% of the Sale profits to the Los Angeles Food Bank as a cash donation.                I’ve lost track of how many years we’ve been holding Food Drives for the L.A. Food Bank, but those folks do some very important work!!!  We do hope you’ll join us in showing them some LOVE!  You can see more details here:     In the spirit of the awesome EarthBox, of which, Alex and I now garden in 40+, I’d like to share this photo of one of our newest customers, Nate, and his first EarthBox. Actually, he and his Mom bought two, and he planted them up (and also built an amazing compost tumbler!)  I’m not sure that he wanted us to use the photo of him rockin’ his headgear, but I couldn’t resist!  Just look at the satisfaction in his eyes!!   Congrats, Nate, you did a great job, man!!   Just a Side Note about Kids & Gardening...   Parents, please, please let your kids garden when they ask.  Alex and I see it nearly every weekend at the Farmers Markets:  a child (of any age) comes in all wide-eyed, checking out the different varieties, and begs the parent to buy him/her some plants, any plants, “just one plant, Mom/Dad”…and that parent says, “Not right now...” “ We’ve got to figure out the yard first”, “Maybe next weekend”…blah, blah, blah, and that moment vanishes. It absolutely kills us. Just last Sunday, a boy came in and, I swear this is true, began exclaiming, “Mom, look, broccoli, Mom look, BROCCOLI!!, and it fell on deaf ears, and the ship sailed.  And our hearts sank.   Helping your kids learn where food comes from, how it looks when it’s growing, what time of the year it grows in, and how much better food tastes when you grow it yourself, is the greatest gift.  Please don’t miss the opportunity; they may not always be wide-eyed about it.  It’s really not that hard (we’re here to help!), and the reward is very great.     That’s it for now, Friends. Please do try to come to our Spring Sale & Food Drive, and bring your Gardening Friends!   Many thanks, as always, Garden On!   Jo Anne, Alex, Jake, Lalo & Charlie

TDN Newsletter: 1-28-15

January 28th, 2015 Dear Gardening Friends, Is it too late to wish you a Happy New Year!?  … we think not!!  So, Happy New Year to you all!  May it be a year filled with bountiful harvests on all fronts!   These have been such busy days here at Two Dog… we are well underway on our Heirloom Tomato, Pepper and Eggplant seed sowing, our Warehouse is filled to the brim with beautiful Organic Soils, Composts, Castings, EarthBoxes, and all the other necessities for a gorgeous garden, and we’re continuing to produce those varieties for which there’s still plenty of time for another round before we switch gears to Spring/Summer.   Our own garden is just lovely right now… cabbages heading up, delicate peas cascading gracefully, spinaches & specialty lettuces displaying their frilly, savoyed, colorful details, edible & beneficial violas and nasturtiums nodding in the breeze, pak choi going deep purple, mixed chards of every hue, broccolis budding and our blueberries bursting out everywhere in flowers & fruit!

TDN Newsletter: 12-17-14 Holiday

December 17, 2014 Dear Gardening Friends, How can it be that this year is nearly over? I honestly don’t know where it’s gone. It was a nice one in spite of weather difficulties, and we really look forward to gardening with you all in 2015. Now, not to distract you from all the lovely “Cool Season” varieties you are hopefully growing, or will finally get started growing any minute now, but it’s also time (for us, at least) to think ahead to everybody’s favorite: Heirloom Tomatoes! I’ve just completed the 2015 Tomato Line-Up, after much research, studying Survey Results, hair-tearing, and prayers to the Tomato Gods, and I’m very excited about it! I made sure to include several varieties that have “Heat Tolerance” as part of their profile, as I know, for our Market customers especially, this was a big issue last summer. I also found 3 new “Purple/Blacks” that sound incredible, 5 new and exciting “Reds”, as well as 3 new “Pinks”, 2 new “Yellow/Orange” and a new “Paste” to go with our other beloved, returning Paste varieties from last year. Also, 6 varieties from previous seasons are coming back by popular demand! Save These Dates!! Our Annual Spring Kick-Off Sale & Food Drive (benefiting Los Angeles Food Bank) Plan to join us on Saturday & Sunday, March 14th & 15, 2015 at the Two Dog Home Nursery. More Details to follow!! EXTRA, EXTRA, READ ALL ABOUT IT!! The big Tomato Page will debut on New Year’s Day!!! What a nice way to savor the Ultimate “Stay-in-your-jammies-day”! Watch the Rose Parade, and then read up on our 51 varieties and begin making your plans!! ________ Tomato Pre-Orders will begin on New Year’s Day as well!! I’m hoping by offering Pre-Ordering a full month earlier than in previous years, I’ll be able to more accurately schedule the seed sowing based on what’s “trending”. Strawberries…at long last! Many of you know how much I struggled to find Strawberries this past year. I think one of the Big Box chains must have purchased all but the very few we were able to get our hands on! But it’s a new year, and we’ve taken the bull by the horns, so to speak, and ordered 1,400 “crowns” to transplant up ourselves! The varieties we selected are: Sequoia Chandler Seascape (great for hotter areas) and the lovely, wild Mara de Bois Strawberries will also be available to Pre-Order beginning New Year’s Day as well and will be ready to pick up at our Spring Kick-Off Sale! It’s quite unlikely I will be able to re-order, so please don’t miss out! Calling all Rhubarb and Asparagus Lovers!!! FOR A VERY LIMITED TIME, we are offering dormant crowns of “Victoria Cherry” Rhubarb and two varieties of Asparagus - Farmers Friend and Jersey Knight. Unfortunately, we don’t personally have space for Asparagus (with the Nursery taking up our entire property! hahaha), but I do plan to grow Rhubarb in a big Smart Pot for my Mama!! Ordering for Rhubarb & Asparagus CLOSES January 2nd. Don’t miss it, or you’ll have to wait until NEXT December! You can order online through PayPal, send us a check, or see us at the Market; we expect to receive them by Mid-January, and you MUST pick up your order within ONE WEEK and either plant or store in the refrigerator temporarily. Please NOTE: We do not ship live plants or crowns!! You can read our “Helpful Guide” about Growing Asparagus here: HOW TO GROW ASPARAGUS MARKET NEWS: Head’s Up, La Canada!! We’ve been told we will be returning to our previous Farmers Market location early in January! Yay!!! All of us Vendors have suffered a significant loss of business in the temporary Park location, so we are looking forward to going back!! Watch for us!! Finally, 2014 for many of us was a difficult year, in many different ways. The one thing I can say about gardening is that it always brings us back to the possibility of happier harvests. I don’t think I could ever be without our garden…besides the wonderful food it provides, greater still is the oasis of calm and mindfulness that it constantly is. Alex and I thank you for your patronage this year, and we wish you all the Happiest Holiday Season and much love and peace in the New Year! With gratitude, Jo Anne, Alex, Jake, Lalo & Charlie