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!