Gardentopia – Jan Johnsen’s go to landscape book for Homeowners.
A few years ago Ann and I were fortunate to interview Jan Johnsen about a fascinating book she had written about gardens.
Jan’s book “Gardentopia” for the home owner with 135 lushly illustrated garden and planting ideas that aim to inspire and inform you. They are fun, easy to remember and can be implemented in any size yard. Designed to help you with the process of accessing, sketching, designing, laying out and finally creating their own garden.
Jan’s writing style allows the reader to follow the thinking process to such an extent that you are able to ‘join all the dots’ resulting in a much easier understanding of what can be quite a complex process.
Jan’s extensive knowledge of plants for a purpose, shines through in the selection on plants she recommends in the closing chapters of this delightfully, inspiring and easy to read book.
You can listen – below– to our truly fascinating interview with Jan Johnsen or if you prefer on iTunes at Growing Trends
We would love to hear from you, with your comments or ideas for shows write to us at info@growingtrends.org
 
 
Ann and Chris
 
 

Ann and I were fortunate to interview Jenny Peterson, just after her new book was published. Jenny is an amazing, extremely positive lady who is an inspiration for us all.
A Garden that Heals
Pittsburgh, Pa. (October 5, 2015): When Jenny Peterson was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2012, it rocked her world. Her cancer treatment was hard, emotional and often deeply depressing. But Peterson, a garden designer and Master Gardener, did not let the cancer diagnosis define her. She used her desire to garden and dig in the dirt again to pull her out of the darkness. And she discovered that gardening is good medicine –for the body, mind and spirit.
The Cancer Survivor’s Garden Companion: Cultivating Hope, Healing and Joy in the Ground Beneath Your Feet
(St. Lynn’s Press, January 2016) tells Peterson’s story and explores the therapeutic benefits of this vital “earth connection,” including inspirational profiles of other cancer survivors, both men and women, whose gardens became their partners in healing.
With gentle empathy, beautiful photographs and easy how-to steps, Peterson shows others how to create their own backyard haven for healing – a personal restorative garden – with well-grounded guidance about diet, exercise, mental focus and spiritual renewal. Her book adds a fresh voice to the growing fields of horticultural therapy and therapeutic gardens.
What others are saying about The Cancer Survivor’s Garden Companion:
“Jenny’s tips for incorporating gardening into your life for mind, body, and spiritual health are ingenious! As a cancer coach, I will definitely be suggesting this book to my clients.” – Susan Gonzalez, BSN, CPCC, co-author of 100 Perks of Having Cancer Plus 100 Health Tips for Surviving It, and editor of The Savvy Sister blog
“Jenny’s beautiful book reminds us all that life can be found in the healing, meditative act of gardening. By lovingly tending a garden, we can learn to nurture ourselves, restoring our mind, body and spirit in the process.” – Ray Anne Evans, Executive Director, Breast Cancer Resource Centers of Texas
“Jenny’s connection with gardening, garden design, and simply being in nature remained strong throughout her cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery. In fact, it was part of what helped her through. And now she is helping others to learn from her powerful experience.” – Naomi A. Sachs, Founding Director, Therapeutic Landscapes Network; co-author, Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outdoor Spaces
The Cancer Survivor’s Garden Companion will teach readers how to use the garden to heal, find hope and feel joy.
About the Author
Jenny Peterson is a landscape designer and Master Gardener specializing in xeriscaping and small urban spaces. She is a cancer survivor who found hope and healing in her garden, even during the darkest days of chemotherapy and radiation. In the process, she made deep connections with the cancer support community, including physicians, nutritionists, bodywork practitioners, psychologists and spiritual counselors. Peterson co-authored Indoor Plant Décor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants (St. Lynn’s Press, 2013) with Kylee Baumle. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her fiancé, 19 chickens, two dogs, two quails and a goat.
You can listen to the interview here :   Interviewing Jenny Peterson
If you would like to purchase the book : The Cancer Survivors Garden Companion

 
Ann and I had the pleasure of interviewing Linda Stanley  after she had completed this 1000km walk.
Linda undertook this walk on her own, it took the best part of 8 weeks to complete and more than three months to prepare for.
Linda isn’t your average walker by any means,  she suffered some serious injuries  breaking her back in an accident. Being a somewhat determined lady she set about challenging herself  to literally get back on her feet again.
We interviewed Linda in her new home, a beautiful chestnut farm in Nannup, Western Australia just after the launch of  the children’s book she wrote about her journey.
‘Grandy’s Long Walk’ is written for young children, superbly illustrated about her walk.
Linda wrote the book out of a concern that children today spending less and less time with nature and more and more time in front of the small screen. She hopes to encourage more children to get outside and discover the same senses of wonder and joy of nature that she had experienced on her long walk in the forest.
You can listen to her telling us all about this amazing journey below.
We were so curious about this really long walk that during our research we found some youtube videos of other people who travel from all over the world to walk this track.
Darren is one such person, he created  a video and kindly gave us permission to include it in this article. His video is just a part of the walk, you can view it here Bibbulmun track video   Darren is raising money for Diabetes  you can see his web site here   Darren’s website
There is also a specialist web site filled with information for those who want to plan their own walk..The BIbbulman Track
 

Kerry Mendez has a passion for gardening, in her latest book “The right-sized Flower Garden” she discusses how to develop a garden that you can manage, often this will reduce the amount of work involved. As she explains it’s all about making the right choices, whilst at the same time making simple design changes. Here is a practical book with sensible tips, lists, time and energy saving suggestions that will help the beginner and the experienced.
Come take a listen, I’m sure you will learn something new.

 
Ann & Chris continue their interview with Bill Sosinsky , CEO of Energime University. Bill has recently returned from a trip to China. He talks to us about how the Chinese are adapting, planning and coping with the enormous growth the country has seen over the past few years.
 

Hello everyone, we hope you like our new logo ?
We have some great interviews planned for the next few months.
Our first is with Bill Sosinsky , CEO of Energime University. Bill has recently returned from a trip to China. He talks to us about how the Chinese are adapting, planning and coping with the enormous growth the country has seen over the past few years.
Cities of 5 – 10 million people built in under 10 years !
This type of growth brings staggering infrastructure issues or as Bill says ” This is a big deal !”
The interview is one of those must listen to events…  we all have seen or heard of the Great Wall of China, a quite amazing feat of building, as seen here.

I wonder how many of us can comprehend the current building program?
100 million homes in the next 5- 10 years…!
That’s almost one third of the total housing in the USA

Truly a monumental task of ingenuity, engineering and collaboration, Ann and I were just amazed  talking to Bill about the growing issues they are trying to solve.
We will have two parts to this fascinating interview you can listen to the first part here….
We would love to hear from you with ideas or suggestions on programs, either fill in the form below or just send us an email to info@grotrends.com
Ann & Chris

Ann is in Paris, France talking to Valerie Langendorff, President of a Women’s Garden Executive Club.



Valerie looks at Garden Centers from the ladies perspective in France, her ladies group have identified a number of interesting trends..

Women make 70% of the purchase decisions.
Currently 90% of Garden Centers are managed by men.

They have developed an annual awards program judged by women.

Ladies nights are arranged in the Garden Center
They have an award for the most women friendly Garden Center.
They have discovered that women like innovation more than men..
You can listen to this fascinating interview here or on iTunes

Garden Centers have evolved over the years, there are Independent Garden Centers often in a local neighborhood, there are larger groups with multiple locations.
Many of the big box ‘Do it Yourself stores’ have larger and larger ‘Garden Center’ sections.
The question recently has been where are they all heading.
So Ann asked Sid & John – “If I were to open a Garden Center today what would be your recommendations?”
Sid Raisch
CEO of Horticultural Advantage (www.AdvantageDevelopmentSystem.com) , providing business expertise and extensive leadership training to small to medium horticultural businesses, primarily retail garden centers and selected wholesale suppliers.
John Stanley.
International retail guru is what people call me. Specialising in helping retail businesses to grow their bottom line and expand their market base. I work in 26 countries with retailers of all sizes. My expertise ranges from conference speaking to hands on management consultancy. My specialist retail areas are in perishable retailing – anything that will not last long without loving care on the shelf

Sid and John discuss future trends for gardens, garden centers, and our urban environment.
This fascinating , very informative interview is going to have you thinking.
Send us your thoughts to Growing Trends
 
 
 

It’s not often you find a garden that was founded in 1673. Which is when the Apothecaries’ Garden was formed. Ann was on a trip to Europe recently and dropped in on the beautiful Chelsea Physic Garden. Situated on the side of the River Thames in London. The gardens original purpose was to train apprentices in identifying plants. With the gardens location close to the river creating a warmer microclimate. This significantly increased the many non-native plants that could be grown.
   
In 1700 the garden had started an international botanic garden seed exchange system, which continues to this day.


The gardens cover some four acres and are leased on what is known as a peppercorn ( very low) rent in perpetuity.
They are with out doubt one of London’s secret ‘gems’ and thoroughly worth a visit.

The gardens mission  ” Linking people with plants and nature”
The interview starts with Ann talking for around 8 minutes to a group of school children on a field trip, the gardens have over 100 such visits a year.  Ann then talks to Michael a very knowledgeable and extremely helpful member of staff. We kept all the typical inner city sounds on the recording – the enthusiasm of the children is very heartening.
Integrated pest management is the preferred method of bug control…
They have a project called “Shelf Life’ it is just an incredible way to show children where their food comes from
You can also listen to Ann’s interview on iTunes at Growing Trends
We would love to hear your comments and suggestions for a show… just send us an email to Growing Trends

Ann and I interviewed John Stanley of John Stanley Associates  recently about his new book, he jointly wrote with his wife Linda,


 Food Tourism – A Practical Marketing Guide.





The fastest growth in tourism today is the culinary sector.


Listen to John as he explains the overall direction of food tourism, including how he sees future development.


A few snip bits:


Do you grow soil?


25% of the food we buy comes from 2% of the farmland around our cities, which is being swallowed up by development.


Farmers used to make 38 cents on every dollar now its down to an average of just 6 cents


Eating local seasonal food saves you around 25%, and is actually healthier for you!


You can hear this really informative interview here (click below) or on iTunes at Growing Trends

A few years ago I read a paper about how grasses ‘moved’ to music, then I read about the effects of harmonious sounds on plant growth.


Why do I mention this ? Well a few weeks ago we were talking about Tesla and his discoveries, which led us to talking about vibrations, sound waves, force fields etc., then a strange thing happened.
Ann and I interviewed a wonderful lady landscape architect Jan Johnsen, about her new book “Heaven is a Garden” we talked a little about how at a very young age she discovered during a science fair competition – which against all the odds she won – the effects early morning birds singing have on plants. The sound waves, which are similar to a violin stimulate a plant to open its stomata taking in carbon-dioxide to help it grow quicker.

Jan has written a new book called Heaven is a Garden, it’s a really fascinating and informative read.  Jan has ‘connected’ the dots so as to speak, between the natural world and our emotions. How the Four Winds are important when laying out a space,the careful use of curves, and my favorite Golden Rectangles and the Divine Proportion. – Phi is the mathematical proportion ( 1 : 1.618) we see in every natural form. Using this proportion ensures a sense of harmony in any outdoor space that contains it. I’ve always tried to use these proportions in my designs.
Jan then talks about Trees – natures rechargers as she puts it… The Celts  shunnache,  the Hindu tree devas, and Greek dryads are really references to light energy? The Chinese call this energy chi…the Japanese consider the health giving properties of trees the basis of a medical therapy called ‘ Forest bathing’, it helps reduce stress.
Jan then discusses the magnetic attraction in a Zen garden – rocks in these gardens reflect a deep understanding of the geomagnetic properties of stone and its impact on a place.
Finally the benefits of color in a garden.


You can listen to our truly fascinating interview with Jan Johnsen  or if you prefer on iTunes at Show more...