Page 2 - Sonoma County 2016 Gardeners Resource GUide.indd

Dear Readers,
Have I told you how much I miss being a professional gardener? Probably. This guide came about as a transition from gardening to publishing, since I have always had more than one way to make a living. Gardening is pure joy and great physical exercise. When I get too stressed, I literally put my hands into soil...grounding myself. I recommend it. Instant calm. And of course - it’s OUTSIDE where air is charged by plants filtering nasty air into fresh oxygen.
This is my 13th year publishing the Gardeners Resource Guide and each year it develops to another level. More businesses learn about it and support it with their advertising, and more people pick it up and use it as a way to support locally-owned garden businesses. This is a win/win for everyone. My favorite kind of project.
Please use this guide to support our locally-owned garden businesses - and please support the ADVERTISERS who make this guide possible. To encourage you to start with them when you are shopping, I have a full ADVERTISERS INDEX on the inside back cover - AND a center spread MAP where all the
a a d d v v e e r r t t i i s s e e r r s s a a r r e e l l o o c c a a t t e e d d w w i i t t h h a a n n u u m m b b e e r r . . I I t t ’ ’s s a a h h a a n n d d y y m m a a p p n n o o m m a a t t t t e e r r w
What a beautiful county we live in! Have fun gardening!
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Our Cover Art:
I get attached to particular artists and one of my attachments is to Sam Sirdofsky because her art touches my heart. She paints places where joy smiles at me and just makes me feel good. One day when I visited her house I saw
a drawing of a fairy riding a dragon through a garden. I’m a dragon junkie
so commented on how wonderful it is. She took it off the wall and gave it to me...“just a doodle” she said.
I look at that “doodle” every day. The flowers knock me out. So with all the coloring books out these days, I asked Sam to draw some flowers that people could color themselves. She got excited and now we have a full collection that Sam and I are producing so other people can color them as well.
At this point people
can purchase them at the Russian River Art Gallery in Guerneville (16357
Main Street 707-869-9099 TheRussianRiverArtGallery. com) where Sam is one of the gallery artists. As we refine what we’re doing, there will be more places to purchase these bits of wonder where Sam gets us started and we color our gardens the way we see them.
It’s a lot like gardening.
We dig in the soil...purchase
plants and scatter seeds and
dig in bulbs. Color comes up
because we have given plants
what they need...soil, water
and sun. Few things on earth
respond to nurturing as surely as plants do. They show us that our attention
is accomplishing something wonderful. When we sit and color we get to do something that just plain feels good. And the end result is a pleasure to look at. Another win/win.
A tiny portion of a very large painting...but to me this is a self-portrait of Sam Sirdofsky. I doubt she will agree and will laugh at the suggestion.
I am grateful for the joy Sam brings to my life.
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