Spring is almost upon us, and very soon you will be blissfully working on your garden beds, preparing your organic vegetable gardens, planting organic bulbs, working side-by-side with your partner and kids as you prepare for your spring plantings…and a gift card to The Farm can help you outfit your kids as well as yourself in colorful new garden boots and garden shoes for those family gardening afternoons.

It’s a fun and colorful way to start looking forward to the spring gardening season ahead, and kids especially enjoy picking out their own favorite colors and designs of gardening shoes or boots, as well as gardening gloves. Our Chatham, Madison, Morristown and other local customers say that it brightens these bleak winter days to trek to The Farm for a shopping spree centered on wardrobe-centric gardening gifts for their families and themselves, and here’s a creative idea for presenting kids with their gift card to The Farm: make it a reward for a great report card, or a birthday gift from far-away grandparents and other relatives who may ask you for creative gift ideas for the kids…as well as for you. And grandparents love getting photos of the kids in their vibrant new gardening gloves, shoes and hats, especially if grandparents are avid gardeners themselves.

Using our gift cards allows you to choose your own new, bright accessories as a well-dressed gardener, and also pick out the garden accessories you’ll need to garden in comfort as well as style. Kneeling pads in colors coordinating with those new garden shoes let you and the little ones undertake organic gardening steps such as garden seeding and manual weeding without straining yourselves or bruising little knees.

You’re almost through this winter season. A gift card to The Farm lets you get into the springtime spirit sooner!

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Planning my organic garden is the only way I’m getting through this horrifically cold and snowy winter. While it is beautiful outside, with ice crystals on the tree branches and an unspoiled blanket of snow on my lawn, I am cheered and uplifted by imagining my property in full spring bloom, with brightly-colored organic tulips and organic daffodils clustered around my Morristown property. One thought of bright red spring tulips, and I’m sure my blood pressure drops down.

Among the cheery things I love to envision during these winter months are the outdoor parties my husband and I will host, including birthday parties, summer barbecues, and perhaps we’ll resurrect the neighborhood block parties we’ve heard so much about since we moved in. Someone has to bring those back to life, and we have the perfect property to be the ‘home base’ of our Morristown neighborhood block party. I’m not just talking about our beautiful organic trees and colorful Asian-inspired maples and wispy exotic plants grown from organic seeds. I’m talking also about the fact that our lawn is 100% safe for kids and adults to play and gather on. Our organic pest control products and organic fertilizing methods mean that no small child will be crawling on grass that’s coated with toxins. No one’s dog is going to curl up at their feet, napping in the shade while breathing in pest-killing poisons. And no one’s going to track non-organic particles into our home during the party.

We use The Farm’s organic pest control supplies and organic fertilizers, organic soils, organic seeds and more, so that our lawn and gardens are safe for any being who socializes on our property. As for that neighborhood block party we plan to resurrect? It’s going to be sensational and safe, thanks to the experts at The Farm who helped us pick out the perfect organic garden supplies and – importantly! – gave us the perfect timing and schedules for what to use before people will be on our property!

If you’re having a party of any kind, indoor or outside (because even at indoor parties, people venture out onto your property!), be sure to get your personal organic products recommendations and smart tips at The Farm in Chatham.

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

When you add garden accents of birdfeeders and birdbaths — and many types of organic flowers and plants – to your property, you invite New Jersey’s birds to bring their spectacular colors and pleasing songs to you. It’s a gift both you to and to the birds, since you’re joining our Morris County community’s circle of birdwatchers help our NJ native avian species make it through the winter. It’s a cold one out there this winter, and birds need a reliable food source. When they find it at your property, they reward you with their beauty.

I personally love it when cardinals and red-headed woodpeckers brighten my view on these dark winter days, and their ability to mingle with other birds, taking turns on the feeding ledge, is quite impressive. The birds get along better, and are more polite, than some people we know!

No matter where you live in New Jersey, from our local Chatham neighborhood to nearby Morristown, Madison, Florham Park and East Hanover to southern points like Princeton, Short Hills and more, you’re treated to New Jersey’s resident birds. I wanted to know more about what I was seeing, so I looked up on Wikipedia a list of birds native to New Jersey. Did you know that we’re home to two tropicbirds, usually native to tropical islands? Or that we’re home to 41 different species of warblers? 24 species of sparrows?

With these FYIs in hand, I’m even more excited whenever doves land on my birdfeeder or garden accent birdbath, since I now know more about them. Specifically, New Jersey is home to 7 different species of doves, most of which I’ve hosted on my front lawn! In addition to the mourning dove and common ground-dove you’ve seen a million times, we’re home to the Eurasian Collared Dove and the White-winged Dove.

Like so many of my Morristown neighbors, I’m not a fan of woodpeckers pecking on my house, but I am a fan of the ‘you live in the most beautiful place in the world’ sound as they peck on the trees in our nearby woods. Fascinatingly, we have 10 New Jersey species of woodpeckers, including the red-headed woodpecker, red-bellied woodpecker, the downy woodpecker, the red-cockaded woodpecker, the black-backed woodpecker, the American three-toed woodpecker [I’m dying to see this one!], the pileated woodpecker, and one that always reminds me of my childhood in East Hanover, a bird name that struck my child self as silly: the yellow-bellied sapsucker. For a long time, I thought that was a made-up name from a cartoon, but it’s a real bird native to New Jersey. And if I ever see one, it’ll make my day.

This is a post by Sharon Naylor

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

Your gorgeous garden statuaries and garden planters don’t have to suffer outside in the cold and wind, nor do they have to hide in your garage during the winter months. Bring those pretty garden accents like stone planters and urns inside to add a new and natural look to your indoor décor.

Which home garden accents can come inside? Everything from stone and ceramic pedestal planters to planting boxes, small stone décor such as stone butterflies and birds, birdbaths (cleaned well, of course), fountains and more.

Here are the top ways to get double the life from your garden accents, creating attractive and functional new décor pieces for your home:

Set cast stone urns by your front entryway to hold indoor fresh garden plants

• Set small cast stone urns on your bathroom vanity table to hold fresh flowers.

• Fill small cast stone urns with smooth and shiny river stones and place next to the bathroom sink.

• Set a cast stone urn filled with either garden plants, fresh flowers or river stones on your kitchen countertop or kitchen island as an attractive, natural focal point.
• Set cast stone urns or pedestal planters on either side of your fireplace.

• Set elongated planter boxes next to your fireplace to hold logs and kindling.

• If you have an enclosed porch, decorate that space with multiple garden accents such as planters and urns filled with greenery or river stones.

• A small, stone birdbath can hold not water, but no-fuss décor items such as a display of stones, moss, and decorative branches.

• Birdbath garden accents can be used as an indoor water garden, with fresh green plants ‘living’ there.

• A fountain moved into the corner of a living room and surrounded by potted garden plants creates a Zen atmosphere for those long winter months.
A statue moved into the corner of a living room or den, surrounded by potted plants, creates a conservatory look that’s used in many of the finest New Jersey restaurants and banquet halls and is a new trend – our customers consider garden statuary for both its outdoor and indoor accenting.

• Small stone planters make excellent table centerpieces, especially when filled with fruits such as shiny green apples or cheery lemons.

Explore the garden accents here at The Farm in Chatham, New Jersey to bring outdoor garden décor into your home and to talk with our garden and design experts about unique and creative placement of our most unique home and garden accents.

This is a post by Sharon Naylor

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

To mark your success with your New Year’s Resolutions, reward yourself for each milestone – each five pounds lost, each week without an unhealthy habit – with the prize of new garden supplies. Buying a fresh garden plant or a pack of flower seeds to reward yourself for your dedication and efforts creates an all-positive momentum that’s far better than choosing a reward of, say, brownies or a fattening latte.

When you know that you’re just a pound away from a fragrant new herb garden, your reward for ten pounds lost, the excitement of your reward can inspire you to skip that dessert temptation and put in an extra effort at the gym.

Here in Morris County, our customers love their gardens, and they miss working on them during the winter months. Bringing garden supplies into their New Year’s Resolution reward plans allows them to get back in the gardening mindset, dream of their springtime plantings, sketch out designs for their dream vegetable garden or tomato plant row…and they begin right now, in the depths of winter, to prepare for their dream gardens of the near future.

Here are some garden supply items that we recommend for your New Year’s Resolution rewards list:

• Organic vegetable seeds

• Herb garden planters

• Container herb garden

• Tomato garden supplies, such as stakes and planters

• Terra cotta pots for planting strawberries

• Organic herb seeds

• Herbal plants

• Gardening gloves

• Gardening shoes

• Gardening kneeling pads

• Bamboo plants

• Perennial seeds

• And additional garden supplies

Save the big prize, such as a raised vegetable garden or a garden pond or a palate of stones for a rock garden, for when you reach your ultimate goal, and you’ll further motivate yourself in your efforts…and when spring arrives, your healthier and happier self will be well on your way to the garden of your dreams.

Experienced gardeners know that vegetable or flower gardening begins in the cold months of winter, not with new growth in spring. Planning a garden takes work that beginners often do not realize. However, with a little organization and some creativity, this becomes a winter tradition that is as anticipated as Christmas to a child.

We all hate doing our autumn gardening chores, but you know they need to be done. Your list may include things like:

• Sharpening blades on clippers, shears, and lawnmower blades.

• Cleaning and servicing your mower, edger, and tiller and other large equipment.

• Washing dirt and grass from hand tools and putting them in their place in your garage or shed. Don’t forget to put away the garden hose.

• Replacing worn out tools or equipment during off-season sales.

• Pruning dead branches throughout the yard to prevent ice or snow build-up from pulling them down and causing damage.

Now the fun begins. To plan for your spring garden, you must get your seed catalogs from your favorite garden supply store. I always draw a scaled version of my garden to make sure that I take advantage of all my gardening space without over-ordering seeds and plants. This helps me to plan which plants I’d like in which locations in my garden or yard.

Take the time to research native plants, which often require little care and help foster local wildlife. It is also a good idea to study composting and perhaps start your own compost bin or worm farm. These are fun to do and a great learning experience for children. Determine where in the yard you would like to place your compost bin and perhaps locate plans to build one during the cooler months.

To help conserve water, consider getting a rain barrel. My sister put hers under a runoff spout from her roof to gather more water for her garden. You may also choose to move your garden to an area that is lower than the rest of your yard. Rain from other areas of your yard will seep into the soil of this lower area, making the most of each rainy day.

Throughout the year, you should keep a gardening journal and refer to it during winter gardening planning. This always helps me to remember which plants thrived and which ones died so that next year’s garden will be even more successful.

http://www.iwantmarylandsbest.com/

This is a guest post by Sharon Naylor

Sharon Naylor is the author of over 35 books on family celebrations, including weddings, bridal showers, vow renewals, and more. She is beyond thrilled to be the new guest blogger for The Farm, and she will be posting inspirations and tips for your parties, get-togethers and big family moments throughout the year. Visit her website www.sharonnaylor.net for more on her books and articles.

When I was a kid, Christmas morning was all about whether or not there’d be a Barbie Dream House, a bike or a puppy under the tree. Now, I’m all about the stocking stuffers.

Yes, I love the Victoria’s Secret gift card, my most wished-for bestselling novel from Barnes & Noble, and the exotic spice collections that my family and friends have given me as lovely wrapped presents, but the real fun begins when the little treasures from my stocking spill across the couch, and I see the wonderful items for my garden that my loved ones know I adore.

The gift of gardening

With Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa on the way, I thought I’d inspire you to give your fellow garden-lovers some fabulous stocking stuffers, or collections of these little treasures in beautiful baskets as their main gift! Here are my favorite stocking gems to give and get:

• Cute, colorful garden gloves

• Unique garden gadgets – as thrilling as those kitchen gadgets from Bed Bath &
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• Beyond! I love my bulb planter and my Ph level tester!

• Garden stones with inspiring words on them…you can never have enough of
•
• those! I place mine on my windowsills as well as out in my garden.

• Garden and potted plant markers, telling me what’s growing where in style.

• Tiny charms to glue onto a wooden potting bench’s top shelf. My favorite is a flat, metal dragonfly.

• Packets of unique seeds, something new each year.

• Packs of blank, colorful stickers – such as pastel-hues circles or daisies – to affix in the new year’s calendar to mark those upcoming days of seeding, planting, mulching, yard collections, and other big days in a gardener’s season.

• And Gift cards to The Farm, of course.

The best part is how affordable these are, and how much joy just a few small things can bring!

Some don’t think twice about gardening in fall. Many gardeners start in spring and have vegetables through the summer. The fact is here in New Jersey we have hard zones from 5 to 7 which makes for great fall family vegetable gardens. You could be planning in fall or planting in fall, it doesn’t matter. Planting in fall has key benefits for gardens and there are a few tips to follow to have a successful fall garden.

There are many benefits to fall gardens. The benefits to a fall family vegetable garden are that it’s cool in the fall for the most part. Insects are usually less of a problem for gardeners come fall. Falling leaves can be used as mulch and compost in most situations. With weather moderately cooling, the bugs will start to diminish, it will be more pleasant to work in the cooler days, soil will become moister and your need to water will be less. The only drawback to fall gardens is you must act fast before it’s too late for many crops. With fall gardens it is usually ideal to start from plantings to avoid the winter coming and destroying your corps.

There are many vegetables that will thrive in a fall family vegetable garden. You can plant summer squash, green beans; cucumbers maybe even another round of tomatoes. You can plant cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, collards, Brussels sprouts, and more. So many plants to start with and the perfect time to do it, with fall being a cooler season in most areas; the whole family will enjoy working together keeping up the garden and eating the fruits of the families labor. What is stopping you? Grab a gardening catalog and see what you can plant in your local area today.

Perennial favorites

Tulips are another favorite perennial flower of the Northeast. Being a perennial, a tulip should bloom year after year, but this isn’t always the case. Tulips are planted in the fall and they immediately start to root not blooming until spring. Once you see the Tulip blossoms you will find them in almost any color. Tulips come in many varieties in size, scent, and shape. They can be found as a double, fringed, or even twisted. Some tulips are perfumed and even unscented. You may find tulips in a variety of sizes from miniature blossoms to larger tulips like that of 2 1/2 feet high. These lovely flowers aren’t too big, too small, too elegant, and too romantic; tulips are just right for any occasion. Tulips are known for being a symbol of imagination, dreaminess, perfect lover, and a declaration of love.

Tulips have many needs and have strange characteristic that you may not see in many other flower types. As stated, tulips bloom in springtime, however, they can bloom from three separate flowering seasons; early, mid, and late spring. This is nice because they will provide beauty in your flower garden throughout the spring. Tulips are pretty easy to grow in colder climates, because tulips need cold in order to bloom. Don’t fret; those that live in a warm climate can buy pre-cooled bulbs that will bloom a few weeks after planting. The drawback to these types of tulips is that you have to replant these year after year and they aren’t effective in cost.

Tulips look beautiful in a garden or as a center piece. In a garden, tulips look great in garden beds and along the borders of a flower garden. As cut flowers, tulips are long-lasting and look great alone standing tall in a vase or in a centerpiece mixed with other colorful flower varieties. In your garden or resting on your table, tulips will make you feel delighted and will look great no matter what you decide to do with them.

A favorite amongst perennial flowers are the Butterfly bush. What is a Butterfly bush you may wonder? Butterfly bushes are known as the buddleia davidii and are also considered a shrub. Shrub, bush, or flower; you want to treat Butterfly bushes as an herbaceous perennial rather than a shrub.

Perennial favorites

Butterfly bushes grow quickly and bloom in mid-summer. It’s best to plant these plants in spring or fall. The Butterfly bushes flowers will bloom in summer. Butterfly bushes can grow to 6′ to 10′ in height and spread to spread of 4′ to 15′.in width. The Butterfly bush is best used as hedges, accents, beds & borders. They need plenty of sun and their soil needs to be well-drained and fertile. These wonderful beauties are perfect for the Northeast; their hard zone is from 5 to 9.

Butterfly bushes can handle the warmer elements even though they prefer a moist environment. They do just fine in a drought and will survive in some tougher climates. In warmer climates it’s best to cut back at least once a year after this plant finishes blooming to encourage another bloom.

The Butterfly bush has a special honey-scented fragrance that calls to butterflies. Butterfly bushes are great for butterfly gardens and deer tend to avoid so these are great for the countryside. These wondrous plants also attract bees and hummingbirds, planting Butterfly bushes will make for wildlife like scenery.

Butterfly bushes not only look beautiful in our flower gardens but have other uses. The blooms can be purple, pink, white, or red, and usually have an orange center. This plant looks beautiful in a vase and lasts a week as a cut flower. Cut when half the flowers on the stem are open and before they fade. No matter what you do with this beautiful perennial it is sure to shine in your garden.