May 8, 2010
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Events

Recent Past and Future Events

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Next weekend, we’re headed to Detroit for a joint book launch event for “Grow Great Grub” and graphic novel, “Sword of My Mouth.” Why is a food gardening book teaming up with a graphic novel about the apocalypse (and vice-versa) you ask? Well, as it happens, the story is set in Detroit and features urban agriculture pretty heavily. If you think it’s hard keeping the raccoons and squirrels away now, imagine trying to grow a tomato crop through a post-apocalyptic famine! Apologies in advance, but I don’t believe I can offer adequate advice or a homemade garlic spray that will effectively eradicate a plague of locusts. I can, however, take down a plague of aphids or currant worms.

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Meanwhile, I have finally updated the homepages events sidebar as well as the events page on the Grow Great Grub website with confirmed up and coming events. More will be added as they are confirmed.

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In the area of past events, I wanted to mention that You Grow Girl won the reader’s poll award for Best Farming or Gardening website in TreeHugger’s Best of Green Awards. Thank you so much for voting!

The site has also been nominated for two categories in the Mouse and Trowel Gardenblogging Awards: Best Photography and Best Writing.

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Update: I forgot to mention that I will be doing a live chat on The Motherhood at 1pm EST today (Monday, May 10, 2010.) Bring your questions!

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April 19, 2010
9 Comments
Events

Grow Great Grub at Drawn & Quarterly

Last August, Davin and I took a short jaunt to Montreal to wind down following the final delivery of the Grow Great Grub layout. While there, we stopped at the Drawn & Quarterly book shop, called Librairie D + Q to pick up some new comics.

Drawn & Quarterly are an independent comic book publisher that have published some of my very favourite comic books and authors including: Lynda Barry, Daniel Clowes, Chris Ware, Julie Doucet, and others. I really, really respect the kind of work they produce. So you can imagine my happy/proud surprise when I found they were selling my first book, You Grow Girl! Oddly enough, comic book stores have been excellent supporters of my books. Must be all that good karma I racked up buying hoards of independent comics through the nineties!

That day, we chatted with Rory the store manager who was nice enough to offer suggestions of good places to eat and printed out a map to boot! By-the-way, Le Pickup was awesome and they make a good cappuccino too. I suspect we will end up there at some point this weekend.

Many months later and I am thrilled to report that Librairie D + Q will be hosting an event for Grow Great Grub this coming Friday at their Bernard Street store. If you are in Montreal, please do come out. We will be replanting the store’s front garden spot followed by a presentation on growing edibles in small spaces. I hope to see you there.

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March 15, 2010
61 Comments
Events Press Published

The Little Book That Could

It’s been a month since my new book, “Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces” hit stores and a whole heck of a lot has happened during that time. I won’t go over everything — I just want to mention a few highlights for longevity.

The first big news is that the book has gone into two reprints since launching! It is available in all major bookstores within the US and Canada and lots of small bookstores including garden centres, art stores and comic book stores that I really admire and respect, and has also been picked up by major retailers including Crate and Barrel and Anthropologie. Anthropologie, guys! I actually jumped up and down and squeed a little when I heard the news and I am usually so cautious about these sorts of things… I never do that.

Even more thrilling, I recently found out that it is the current #1 selling gardening book in Canada! “Grow Great Grub” is the little book that could!

Several bloggers wrote glowing reviews of the book. Thank you so much. I have to tell you that one of the scariest things about making a book is releasing it into the world. I can’t speak for anyone else but I am scared and nervous when I sit down to write the first words. I get REALLY scared the week I am due to hand in the manuscript. I get INSANELY scared the week it is due on store shelves. Only I know what I went through in the process of making the book. I know what I originally wrote but had to cut for length, what the publisher wanted to change, or how that one picture is not the better one that I really wanted to use but couldn’t. Only I know the book that I set out to make and whether or not this book is THAT book. Those experiences are such a big part of how I feel about it that it is difficult, almost impossible, to separate myself and have an opinion or judgment about the final product as it is. But all that matters once it goes out there is whether you, the reader, can read it, want to read it, and whether or not you find it useful.

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I wrote an article on growing exciting and out of the ordinary cool season greens for a brand new garden magazine called “Garden Making.” Remember that over-ambitious bloody dock plant I wrote about last year? It’s in there along with a few other greens that made my top 5 list last year. Pretty exciting that a new gardening magazine is giving it a go when so many others are folding. I really respect founder Beckie Fox for taking the risk and going about it in a fair and conscientious manner to boot. I’ll be at their booth this coming Saturday, March 20 at Canada Blooms signing copies of “Grow Great Grub” between 10:30 and noon. Come out and say hi if you’re there.

I was on the Steven and Chris show a few weeks back taping a segment on growing vegetables in pots and in the ground. Everyone in the studio audience received a copy of the book courtesy of Clarkson Potter. I also brought remaining seeds and buttons from the launch party to giveaway. The best part was chatting with famous Canadian sex educator Sue Johanson in the green room! Unfortunately, I was too shy to ask for a photo.

And then there was this: About mid-Feb there was an article in O Magazine. I knew it was coming but I understood it to be an article about growing herbs. I was as shocked as anyone to discover they’d also written a little bit about my background and even mentioned my grandmother’s balcony potatoes. I didn’t think being featured in O Magazine would be a big deal on a personal level, and was surprised by my trembling hands and tearing eyes while I read the article out on the street minutes after purchasing a copy of the magazine at a newsstand. What took over in that moment was my child self, a little girl who never imagined that people like Scylla and I could be featured in such a mainstream and widely circulated publication.

I’m kind of proud of us.

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February 2, 2010
32 Comments
Deep Thoughts Published

First Sighting in the Wild & Ten Years!

Photo by Gayla Trail All Rights Reserved

It’s a big week over here as my new book, “Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces” (I’m already an expert at saying the title super fast) hits bookstores TODAY!

Except that we spotted it at a Chapters/Indigo here in Toronto last night.

If you pre-ordered a copy, it should be arriving any day now. Yay!

Photo by Gayla Trail All Rights Reserved

Books are available through a variety of bookstores across North America. I will also be selling signed copies via my online store. Details on that are forthcoming but I will post here once my shipment arrives.

Meanwhile, some very excellent reviews of the book have appeared online and in print media. Check those out over here if you’re so inclined.

I wanted to make a much larger book and was sad to have to leave out chapters on seed harvesting (luckily you can find that here & here), extending the growing season (you can also find THAT here), more recipes, and so many plants that I just love, love, love. Over the coming weeks I will be rolling out some of the extra content that I had to edit out.

To support the book we are furiously organizing media appearances and events to begin this month and continue right through the spring season. A full list of events as they are confirmed can be found on the Grow Great Grub website or the “Upcoming Events” sidebar on the right side of the YouGrowGirl.com homepage. If you’d like to have me speak at your event, garden shop, or bookstore please get in touch.

In the meantime, here’s what’s confirmed for the month of February so far:

TODAY! Tuesday February 2, 2010
Martha Stewart Living Radio Show
Morning Living
8 am EST

Saturday, February 13 & Sunday, February 14, 2010
Montreal Seedy Saturday & Sunday
Montréal Botanical Garden / Jardin botanique de Montréal
Montreal, Canada
10am-4pm

Sunday, February 21, 2010
Toronto Seedy Saturday (on a Sunday)
12:30-6pm
Artscape Wychwood Barns (Barn #2)
601 Christie St., Toronto, Canada
I’ll be here as always selling copies of the book along with some of my other gardening goodies.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Grow Great Grub Book Launch Party
Lula Lounge
1585 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Canada
6:30-10:30pm
FREE Admission!
Come out and help celebrate the launch of the book! Door prizes, book giveaways, seed starting station, nibbles, and music by DJ General Eclectic (Footprints, Uma Nota).

TEN YEARS!

And if that wasn’t enough, February also marks the 10th year that this here internet website has been online. Ten years! All last week I pondered something profound to say to mark the occasion but all I’ve managed to come up with is, ten years. TEN YEARS. Ten [insert expletive here] years.

When I look back on ten years it kind of blows my mind. When I started the site I was practically a baby, you know, comparatively. I worried about being blasted for starting an online magazine about gardening (that’s what it was then) without being a horticulturalist (in conclusion: irrelevant). I worried I didn’t know enough botanical names, like there was going to be some kind of test. As if I were applying to be on a game show. Name 300 plants, common name followed by Latin. GO! Over the last ten years I have worried about all sorts of things that I can now say with authority were kind of dumb and not worth the anxiety.

Ten years ago I was a graphic designer and that’s what I planned to continue to be when I grew up. Ten years later I still do some graphic design but it’s no longer my full time job. Not by a long shot.

Having spent a decade writing about gardening, speaking about gardening, teaching others how to garden and doing a heck of a lot of gardening myself, I find that I am even more enthusiastic, more challenged, and more excited about plants then I was back then. Ten years ago I would not have thought that possible. A big part of what fuels that excitement is YOU. Your enthusiasm is infectious as is seeing what you are doing in your gardens, and hearing about your trials and triumphs. I think of it like I am a part of a giant international classroom devoted entirely to gardening Show & Tell and I hope to bring more of that to the next ten years.

THANKS!

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December 5, 2009
14 Comments
Published

Preordering Grow Great Grub

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About two weeks ago I was pleasantly surprised by the arrival of a copy of my new book, Grow Great Grub: Organic Food from Small Spaces, fresh off the presses. I had a hand in every facet of making this book, from writing to photography to designing the layout. The wear and tear on my desk chair, mousing arm, and knees was and is substantial. As a result, I knew exactly what to expect, yet it was still really wild to finally see it as a real, tangible object. I like it, I really like it! I hope you will too.

But sending a book off to print is never the end. In many ways it is just the beginning of another leg in what can be a commitment of several years. Once the files went off, we got hard at work making a website, arranging events, and preparing some fun extras to accompany the book’s release on February 2, 2010.

Phase 2 of the website is now online for your perusal. It includes information about what’s in the book, a sneak preview showing 18 spreads, and the first free download for your enjoyment. More printable downloads will be available in January as we get closer to the book’s release date.

Many of you have emailed me asking about buying the book as a Holiday gift for friends and family. The book is currently on sale as a preorder through several online vendors, but will not be shipped in time for the holiday season. I know how frustrating it can be to preorder a book as a gift without anything tangible to show for it. As a result I have designed a little card that you can download and print out and present to those for whom you have preordered a copy.

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