Plant a Row of Awesome!

SO ... the results are in for Plant a Row for the Hungry. For comparison: last year we raised about 3,000 lbs. of food donations. Our all time high from the previous six years is about 5,000 lbs. (2010 I think. One year it snowed 10" and we still got 800 lbs.)

Our 2012 total is OVER 7,000 POUNDS!!!

Saturday was unbelievable. The nursery was packed with people bearing cans to donate to the Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma. A few people declined the free tomatoes because their beds weren't ready but they wanted to bring a donation. One woman had heard on Channel 8's "Good Day Tulsa" that the Food Bank needed peanut butter and brought a case. There were seniors working on a community garden at their retirement community. Young families. New gardeners. People who had contributed every year except the year it snowed. People who had never been to Southwood before.

And my favorite - people who had heard the buzz about our Farm & Market and wanted to know more. Even with the demonstration called off, we had about 45 people at the vegetable and plasticulte class at the Market House.

The most touching arrivals, for me personally, were the people who had known former Jenks 3rd grade teacher Mrs. George, whose home has become the Education Center at the Southwood Market seen in the pictures below. Mrs. George's father, one of Jenks' first mayors and proprietor of its first general store, George's Cash Store, built it in 1920. Mrs. George never married, taught in the Jenks Schools for 60 years, and lived in the house until she passed away at age 100 in 2010.

The residents of Jenks have watched us remodel the house over the past year, without changing the exterior. Several have commented they were sure when she passed away that it would have to be torn down, and were grateful that we had saved it. We even refurbished the original front door and her interior "parlor" doors, the only parts of the interior we could salvage. It was not in good shape.

Dad, Emmie, my daughters Audrey and Catherine, and my husband Joe on the back patio.
Dad is explaining the Farm & Market project to the attendees.
The map on the left is the market, and the right one is the farm.

Emmie Sherry demonstrates how to build a vertical veggie & herb garden with a recycled pallet.

Micah Anderson shares the benefits of Plasticulture gardening, in a surprisingly funny presentation.
I love a good Power Point slideshow when the speaker is knowledgable about the subject and a genuine and genial person.
He had pictures of himself picking cotton on his family's farm when he was 6, and pointed out a crooked row in one of the plasticulture pictures saying, "My daddy would have made me re-do that one."

Tables of tomatoes. In exchange for one donation to the Food Bank, people got to take home one tomato plant.
If you've never been inside Southwood, this is one of about 6 huge greenhouses at the store.
And this is less than half of the room. You should totally go see it.

 KRMG's "OK Foodie" program taped live at the store on Saturday.
Dan and Amanda (aka The Cheese Wench and a longtime friend of my sister's) do a great program on local food and restuarants every Saturday at 2:00. Here they're interviewing Southwood's fruit tree guru, Chase Couch.

That's Audrey and Ozzie (the Osmocat - nursery humor - Osmocote is a fertilizer - yeah.)
Ozzie wants everyone to go away. Especially Audrey.
My kids have been known to carry him away from his cozy spots into other spots that are not cozy.

A Bit of Good Advice

First and foremost, the update on the March 24th event -

Plant a Row for the Hungry will be going on all day at Southwood. For up to 10 non-perishable food items donationed (they need peanut butter), we will give you a free vegetable plant. OSU Master Gardeners will be there to offer advice to thumbs both green and brown.

At 1 p.m., the Vegetable Education session will take place as scheduled at the Market House (106 E. Apache-now renamed Aquarium Place-in Jenks. There's a map here.) The actual installation of the Plasticulture beds at the Farm and the Market, has been postponed until March 31 due to this week's rain.

Southwood's lovely vegetable expert Emmie Sherry will demonstrate how to build a really cool vertical planter out of a recycled pallet, and give a brief overview of Southwood's 2012 spring vegetable selection.  Immediately afterwards, Micah Anderson, Plasticulture Program Coordinator with the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, will discuss the many benefits of this method (which include water and nutrient conservation as well as weed control.)

At 2 p.m. KRMG's OKFoodie will tape live at Southwood, featuring Southwood friend The Cheese Wench.  

We hope to see you there!

And now, as my sister calls them, some of "Brenda's musings" -

My dad says when he and my mom were first starting out in business, one of the best pieces of advice he received was to always seek mentors. Both of my parents took that message to heart. Throughout their careers, they have surrounded themselves with intelligent people and listened to what they had to say. Turns out, it's a good business strategy.

Southwood was built on the wisdom of those mentors. Some of the best employees - wonderful people who taught me how to work hard during my teenage years at the cash register - have been the retirees who enjoyed low-key second careers at Southwood. Mom and dad sought the wisdom of business, civic and industry leaders in the Will Rogers Rotary Club, the Tulsa Parks & Recreation Board (I cannot even begin to tell you how much Mr. Walt Helmerich taught my father), TU's Family Owned Business Institute, and the American Nursery & Landscape Association.

Still, the best mentors, who really taught my parents how to have the strength, resiliance and courage to build a thriving business, were their families. The Schultes, the Cronks, the McAulays - my array of Oklahoma German and Irish clans - are a loving, supportive and occasionally boisterous lot.

Today, in the families as well as the civic, business and industry organizations, my parents and their fellow Baby Boomers are stepping gracefully (sort of) into the roles and responsibilites of society elders. Not that they're old. 60 is still the new 20, I swear. And we, their sons and daughters, find ourselves needing to take charge of a few things while they're out discovering that 60 is, in fact, not the new 20.

Luckily for me, as it turns out, taking in a lot of great advice equipped my parents to, in turn, dispense equally great advice. And so, with the foundation and direction of my family's loving and boisterous wisdom, I - along with my MBA-finance-wizard sister and my hyperactive-earthy-plant-guy husband - am helping to steer Southwood into its next phase.

Interestingly, I'm finding that as I seek my own mentors in this project, I'm looking not just at my elders but also quite often at my peers and even my juniors. I'm really enjoying my new foray into social media beyond Facebook. As much of a news junkie as I am, I find so much of what's on older media like TV is depressing and sponsor-driven. The blogosphere and social media is so much more organic and real, I find a lot of inspiration here. And of course, it's all youth-driven.

So I've decided that my goal at this point is to take it all in, and as somebody once told my dad, to seek mentors everywhere I happen to find them.

Boo on You, Rain!

As Southwood’s spring-kickoff event on March 24 draws closer, and the rain keeps tracking over us, we have determined that the ground is going to be too wet for the Plasticulture installation demos at the Farm and Market. HOWEVER, the education session, with Emmie Sherry from Southwood demonstrating how to build a vertical container garden using a recycled pallet, and Micah Anderson from the OK Department of Ag presenting the pros and cons of Plasticulture, will take place as planned. These will happen inside the new Market location’s Education center, at 106 E. Apache in Jenks. The Plant a Row for the Hungry event at Southwood will go on as planned as well.

The demonstrations have been re-scheduled for March 31 at 10 a.m. More information to follow.

To learn more or to register for the education session, visit www.southwoodnursery.com/events.shtml

Thanks!

Brenda Baird

Plasticulture - Huh?

Hay!

My little monkeys on the farm.

Welcome to My Tweety Blog, Facebookland

So, tonight I'm going to make my big debut and announce myself as a newly-minted blogger on Facebook. If you're here because of said debut, welcome! I have spent a few weeks preparing for your arrival, and I hope some of you are willing to bear with me as I discover the art of blogging. Because I really want to tell you about this project I'm undertaking, the creation of Southwood Farm & Market. Link here to read the concept.

I have also, as of this afternoon, signed myself up on the Twitter. I have been tweeting all day, and boy are my arms tired (zing). If I'm not mistaken, my feed is to the right side of the screen, but if it's not you can find me at @brenda77ac, and please tweet me that my Twitter feed is not where I think it is.

In case it's not apparent, I am trying to throw myself into this project by means of throwing myself into the documentation of this project. We have been talking about this for many years, and everything is lining up to make this a truly great collaboration of exceptional people with amazing ideas. Every single time I talk about it, I get excited. This appears to manifest itself in the form of cornering innocent civilians and talking their ears off, so I'm hoping these little online manifestos can absorb some of my enthusiasm.

Plus, I'm hoping that by writing up a storm, I can wear people down and get them to read at least some of it, and perhaps by doing so I will find even more exceptional people with amazing ideas. Earlier this year I attended a really exciting event, the American Nursery & Landscape Association's Management Clinic. I know, right?! It was so awesome, like a Katy Perry concert and a deep tissue massage all rolled up into one.

My mom said to keep these a little shorter, so I'll just say that one of the themes was engaging customers with social media, and I am attempting to follow the advise of two speakers I found particularly insightful and engaging, Scott Stratten and Scott Ginsberg (interestingly enough, Scotts was a major sponsor). So this is me, putting to use my experience at this life-changing event. Please don't think the praise is sarcasm here, but this is seriously an amazing industry to work in, and the people I met were really inspiring. Although I might be exaggerating some about the Katy Perry thing.

P.S. I know that I use a lot of long and meandering paragraphs/sentences, but If you're going to read this blog, you're going to have to accept those as a weapon in my arsenal of sentence structures. I'm pulling all the big grammatical guns in this post. It is, after all, my big debut.

It's News To Me

You can tell a lot about a person by the web pages they bookmark. Twenty years ago, that would have sounded like gibberish, but today it's pretty true. The bookmarks on the computer I'm pounding on right now in my den generally fall into three categories: websites with free games for little girls that are less educational than I'd like, with the exception of PBS Kids; farm-related websites and the websites of businesses that inspire us, like Central Market in DFW and Tanners Orchard in Illinois; and finally, the websites that deliver my addiction to me - the news sites.
I am a news junkie. I read the local paper, blog sites, national papers - wherever the clicks lead me, I absorb it. It fascinates me that I have access to information from around the world, stuff that's happening right now, literally at my fingertips on a device the size of a bar of soap. The only subject I truly leave alone, unless something really huge happens, is sports. I find that not liking sports frees up a lot of my time, and thankfully I found the only man in Weatherford, Texas, who agrees with me. Worked out nicely that way.
As for the rest of it, I'm in. I want to know what the writer has to tell me, from celebrity fluff to the politics that are changing our world right now. The 24-hour news cycle, a development that has happened even since I started college, has taken what used to be private or unknowable - even if just until the newspaper delivery tomorrow morning - and uploaded it unedited for us to devour.
The same phenomenon has also given us a wonderful opportunity to discover, understand, and engage with the world around us. We are only beginning to grasp the ramifications of our connectedness with the world. I watch my kids buzz around the computer, witness them master an iPad the moment they pick it up, and can't even begin to imagine what's around the bend. All I know is, it's gonna be cool.
Meanwhile, I'm frantically trying to make heads or tails of the present day. Politics are fascinating to me. Not just the policy-making and campaigning done by politicians, although I do enjoy those aspects. But I also watch the spectacle of modern American politics, as created by our friendly 24-hour news cycle. The effect that a figure like Barack Obama or Sarah Palin can have on people - it's intense and visceral.
I know that passion in politics is nothing new, but it's on display now like never before, instantaneous and uncontrolled. There will always be disagreements, differences in opinion, opposing perspectives and the stubborn refusal to accept that not everybody who doesn't think what you think is rotten. We are, after all, humans. But I honestly hope that someday we can channel this incredible tool we have developed, the technology to communicate instantly and globally, and use it not just to talk but to listen as well.

Talkin' Bout My Generation

My best friend Linda asked me recently who is the target audience for this blogging endeavor - the Baby Boomers who comprise the majority of our Southwood shoppers, or Gen-X/Y readers like herself? (Herself is an arse-kicking 34-year-old mom who follows her passions and makes me laugh simply by being utterly genuine. There, I've flattered you and removed the default condition that you log in before you leave a comment. Also, I have your Girl Scout cookies, and I will eat them ... one ... by ... one ... until you leave a comment. That's the one that will actually get her to do it.)

So. My initial response was going to be both. I am writing for people of any generation. And then I read this blog, which I have linked just below. If you don't want to click over, it's an article from "Garden Center" magazine written by a guest blogger about a generational problem he sees in the nursery industry. But you should click, because really, who else is ever going to recommend an article from "Garden Center" magazine to you again?

Guest blog: What are these 'trend watchers' watchi - Garden Center Magazine

This guy is a Nursery Man. He's worked hard in the industry, and by the sweat of his brow he runs a darn fine nursery. I grew up in the nursery industry. My parents started a nursery when I was a very small child, doing business out of a shed and using a shoe box as a cash register. My childhood memories include many hours of playing on the stacks of peat moss, pine bark mulch, and various soil amendments, and I can tell you that play time is over when somebody breaks a bag of manure on a 100-degree Oklahoma day, and then they'll make you water the inventory.

I know how much sweat pours off your brow when you're building a nursery from the ground up, and running a modern garden center is no easy feat either.  This man is my father's colleague, and although I don't know him personally, I have nothing but respect for this writer.

In the piece, he expresses a dislike of what he calls the Madison Avenue Marketers, or trend spotters, and cites the Garden Media Group's Trends for 2012 report. He explains his reason for disliking that particular report:

"My main beef with the piece from the Garden Media Group is that it is not really an article about trends in gardening at all. It appears to be yet another "rah rah youth piece.". Once again someone is trying to drag the garden industry into the "social marketplace." This article has little to do with what product trends are emerging in this great industry and more about consumers' behavior in the realm of saving the earth with a very biased bent towards Gen X and Y. The mention of fairy gardening and vertical gardening come in well near the end of the piece seemingly as an after thought -- well after the praise of the millenials."

Now, I didn't read the report he describes, but I imagine that his assessment is pretty dead-on. There is a lot of emphasis on Gen-X and Gen-Y shoppers, their preferences and attitudes. The reason for this is that what we call IGCs (Independent Garden Centers) have not captured Gen-X or Gen-Y's business. And there's no reason why we shouldn't have. These are local businesses, selling products that are good for the environment, outdoorsy, healthy and family-oriented. Everything that's ever been written about these do-gooder kids is apparently wrong, because all these kids ever do is come in sporadically and wander around for a while, all the while pounding away on their phones, then leave with a couple of shrubs or a few hanging baskets.

These crazy kids are clearly not gardening with the fervor that their mothers and grandmothers before them did. And what's with the husbands, walking around participating in these grand shopping adventures that don't seem to lead to actual gardens? Husbands of the past were there to push the carts and hand over the Visa. Or to come jogging in three times on a Saturday mumbling, "just two more bags of mulch, and she forgot she wanted some trailing petunias," and sporting OU baseball caps, khaki shorts, dock shoes and increasingly dirty knees. The decision makers for making a house pretty, and therefore having ultimate say in the purchases, as everybody in this industry knows, are the women.

But I think our guest blogger for one of the industry's leading publications (yes, there are more, in fact a lot more, magazines for the garden center owner) very handily demonstrates the reason for this little generational problem that's wiping out 100-year-old, family run garden centers and suppliers. These blustery old capitalists will squeeze every last drop out of a run down John Deere before ever considering the purchase of a new one. At industry events, they will stampede to the free food, and walk a mile for a free beer. I have seen it happen. These are companies that should easily have withstood the recession.

The problem is - the Baby Boomers running these stores DON'T THINK GEN-X AND GEN-Y ARE RELEVANT! They apparently don't want any customers under 40 if those customers are going to think and act like 20- or 30-year-olds. In the old days, they had never heard of marketing! Maybe their hand-painted signs and newspaper ads advertising summer sales wouldn't have impressed the Madison Avenue elites, but they did just fine once, and they'll do it again.

Thankfully, my dad doesn't feel this way, and has recently handed the marketing reins to my sister and me. Hence the practice blog here - because it's going to be added to the new website she's putting together with a great PR group that's run by and for Gen X and Y (I know they're different generations, but that's a topic for another time). So where to go from here .... and who am I really writing for?

We shall see.