Archive for The Business

Miniature Gardening: It’s an International Affair

28/03/2013 at 2:11 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, Customer Interaction, Resources, The Business ·Tagged connecting, hobby, inspiration, Janit Calvo, japan, mini garden, mini gardne, miniature, miniature garden, romania, trend

Loosely quoted, “With a touch of magic, your beautiful garden will spring from your dreams. A bench leaning against a tree or a small fountain hidden among giant flowers will create a peaceful space you can escape to anytime.”

Miniature Gardening: It’s an International Affair

Sharing the new miniature garden hobby is too much fun. With customers throughout the world, it was inevitable that the international garden magazines would pick up on this latest huge garden niche / hobby. We were tickled when a couple of them came to us for pictures and input, here’s what came out of the connections. They told us what pictures they liked from our website/ this blog and our flickr-photo page and we sent back the high resolution photos for them to use.

Romania!

Here is a Home and Garden Magazine from Romania. They found some plant sources for those of you across the pond who need to find the right plants we use. Here is their website: www.casa-gradina.ro

Gradini in Miniatura – now you know how to say Miniature Garden in Romanian!

For some of the trees we use: http://www.multeplante.ro

For the Fairy Vine or Mulenbeckia:
www.eutopiamall.com

The article tells how to use slow-growing plants, where to place them and general potting tips on soil and fertilizer. Here’s a loosely edited quote from the article:

“Finally, add accessories – they make the difference between a simple flower pot and a miniature garden. For the planting seem more real, always use same scale (find it stated on the label products). Even if you put a doll, it’s nice to create the impression of human presence, this will create a story: a rake “forgotten” on the grass or miniature cup of tea on the table. Animals add charm to the arrangement.

For the translation, we used the handy Google Translate and had some help from my Romanian friend, and fine artist, Florin Brojba. (Wave! Wave! ;o)

Want to know more? Check out our About Miniature Gardening page on our new website that we are adding to each week here.

They even have the cover of our new book in the article too! Timber Press is everywhere!

The photo, middle-right, is Laney’s miniature garden from MS, she was one of our contest winners from last year. Way to go Laney! ;o)

Very sweet! A huge, warm thank you to Sabina Usurelu, the Garden Editor at Casa si Grandina!

Japan!!

This next article was such a pleasure to help with. From Japan! We’ve always known the Japanese are as equally enthralled with all things miniature, but to be ask to contribute was such a treat knowing that the art of bonsai, the grandfather of miniature gardening, has long roots in the history of Japan. And here they asked little ol’ me for photos of my work. I’m still giggling… check out the fun they had with this 6-page article.

Bises is a beautiful, full color, huge, glossy magazine dedicated to gardening in Japan. All kinds of flower and vegetable gardening, lots of roses, recipes, garden design and much more. I wish I could read Japanese!

I didn’t have any luck translating the Japanese in this article but I’m still going to try.

The editors at Bises loved our miniature garden shed made in 2005.

I love how they dissected the big garden into the smaller photos.

And here are some of their miniature gardens and plant suggestions.

Look for the woman in the photo in purple on the right side, just in front of the garden bed. She was ‘photoshopped’ in to look as if it was her garden. Too fun!

I love their miniature stonework – check out the stairs that the little guy is standing on.

“Watch out, tiny gardener! Here come the scissors!” Lol! Hey, they are probably giggling in Japan too! ;o) Check out those wonderful doors on the building. Small-leafed ivies and Baby Tears fill up the beds. I think that’s a small-leafed Sedum that the “giant” hand is cutting. Photo is from www.bises.co.jp

See the gardener on the bottom trimming the Rosemary? Lol! A big thank you to Ms. Hanako Yagi, the Editor in Chief at BISES.

This photo is just too sweet. Two tiny gardeners tending their miniature garden. The plants look like Scottish and Irish Moss for the lawn, Fairy Vine for the twiggy shrub in the back and small-leafed Sedums are in the pots in front of the building. Photo is from www.bises.co.jp

Hey, the Beatles had to make it big overseas before they were a hit in their own country – who knows what will happen in the brand new world of miniature gardening?

Most of the items in the photos are from our online store here.

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Miniature Garden Workshop Tips

21/03/2013 at 1:01 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, Customer Interaction, D.I.Y. Ideas, Miniature Garden Accessories, Miniature Plants, The Business ·Tagged business, container gardening, craft, DIY, fairy garden, gardening, green, How to's, inspiration, Janit Calvo, miniature garden, miniature plants, nature, party ideas, trend

For a successful miniature workshop – and with very little effort- you can take care not to set your students up for failure with plants that work and pots that last.

Miniature Garden Workshop Tips

Spreading the joy of miniature gardening is just as much fun as creating one. With our beloved hobby travelling like wildfire throughout the country, and the world, there are many fellow miniature gardeners who have stepped up to teach it this year. Here are some pointers that we developed after teaching this hobby for the last decade.

Looking for a Miniature Garden class? – If you are looking for a class in your area, the first place to start is your local garden center or nursery. Give them a call, find them on Facebook or, better yet, go and visit them to see what’s going on and say hello.

We punched a bunch of holes in the bottom of this galvanized tub before planting to give the excess water a place to go.

Here is a last-minute checklist for our fellow miniature gardeners who are conducting workshops and classes this spring and summer.

Group plants horticulturally to make it easy-peasy for your students to assemble their gardens. Put indoor plants together, outdoor plants together, full sun, full shade etc. Group plants that like dry soil together – or moist soil together too.

Not all plants will make a great miniature garden. The satisfaction and reward of a miniature garden is to have it grow and weave together over several seasons, if not for years and years. If the student has to repot her “investment” in two months time and buy new plants – they will be disappointed and may not try again. Simply put, plants that stay small and grow slow are the best choices to start with. See what’s in our store for more examples here.

Gather a wide selection of containers if it’s an open class where students choose their own. Some may live in condos and want lightweight containers, while others may have a larger space to work with and want to plant a bigger miniature garden.

Choose pots or containers with a drainage hole. Just about any container or teacup can be drilled.
I chose this “container” because it was new and, being a barbecue, it already had holes for drainage. My plants are true miniatures and I know I can keep this together for years before it will need repotting. (I shelter it from the hot, summer sun because it is metal.)

Don’t set your students up for failure by telling them that anything can be used for a miniature garden, it simply will not work for everyone. Broaden your students success rates by providing a drilling service, or only recommending containers with drainage holes.

Give careful consideration of what you are recommending to plant in. Yes, that old drawer or broken pot may look cute for the first couple of months after the miniature garden is planted but, after a while, your still stuck with an old drawer or broken pot! As the miniature garden keeps growing more magical and fun throughout the seasons, you may regret not investing in a nice container that will last and not fall apart when it’s moved. Note that baskets lined with plastic are temporary containers and will not last.

Recommend accessories that are weatherproof and/or are staked to hold their place in the soil. It is cute to add wee books, refreshments and tiny details but they will weather quickly and get lost in the garden – which is hard on some people’s budgets and their patience. Put the focus on what will stand up to the weather for the more satisfaction.

Provide some snacks or refreshments to keep everyone engaged. Miniature garden workshops can sometimes take up to four hours at times. By providing a little nourishment, you can avoid people having to leave early because they need food. Make sure to mention this in your flyer or ad, to let the people know. Better yet, team up with a local caterer and make it a luncheon-event. The students can eat while you teach, then plant afterwards.

Need to know how to build a miniature garden like a pro? Here is our complete instructions on how to create a miniature garden, it includes some in-ground tips and tricks, scale information and recommended plants to use.

Stressed out?
Frazzled?
Don’t have time for a vacation?

Visit your local garden center
for a few minutes of peace.
Being surrounded by
plants and flowers will
dissolve your tension and
help get you centered again.

Like this? You’ll like our Mini Garden Gazette – join us here for more fun in the miniature garden.

Get on the first edition list here through Amazon for our upcoming Gardening in Miniature: Create Your Own Tiny Living World, by Yours Truly, published by Timber Press. Available this summer!

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Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show #4

20/02/2013 at 4:26 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, Customer Interaction, D.I.Y. Ideas, Garden Art, Life-sized Gardening, Miniature Garden Accessories, Miniature Plants, The Business ·Tagged Conifers, fairy garden, garden shows, hinoki cypress, hobby, inspiration, Janit Calvo, miniature, miniature garden, miniature plants, moses lake wa, northwest flower and garden show, plants, sagina subulata, small space gardening

Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. This year’s display is called ‘The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette.”

Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show #4

Welcome to the fourth blog of our Northwest Flower and Garden Show series. In case you missed it, here are the first installments: #1 of the Series, Part Deux, Part III.

Aaaaand today was the big opening day of the show and here is our display in pictures – we know you’ve been waiting for it!

We teamed up with Bruce Bailey of Heavy Petal Nursery in Moses Lake, Wa, who did the full-sized plant design and installment, as well as the painting on the backdrop.

A pretty blend of mulberry-reds with a variety of different greens make up the color scheme. We wanted to blend the meadow with the interior and what better way to do that is with a carpet of plants. The ferns, grasses, moss and flowers mix up the textures to make it interesting to the eye.

Hinoki Cypress is a favorite tree for the miniature garden. This one is over 12 years old and is still a great tree for the tiny garden.

Marie Antoinette had rivers and streams built into the landscape so she could have ducks and swans. The green stone sheets available in our online store really helped with the stone wall.

Irish Moss (Sagina subulata) creates an instant lawn. The small bush at the front is a Parahebe that we are testing to see if it behaves this summer. The yellow grass in the river is Miniature Sweet Flag (Acorus griminess ‘Ogon’)

The details lure in the viewer for a closer look.

Lil’ Hameau in HO scale. The gangly Boulevard Cypresses create the illusion of tall trees. The small details, combined with the tiny gravel, deliver the scale of the garden to the viewer.

Teenie tiny! The grounds close to some of the buildings were kept simple while the larger gardens surrounded the palace, like the popular Gardens of Versailles. That’s a Majestic Japanese Holly on the left that has kept its berries from last summer.

Marie Antoinette was known for her shoes and her fashion but she enjoyed the outdoors and gardens too. She built the Hameau on the palace grounds to simulate a small farm complete with sheep and chickens so she could have a place to play with her children.

The Gardens of Versailles are represented by topiary shoes. The classical diamond motif is repeated on the living cushion.

All I need is a tiny dancer! A little pagoda cinches the scale of the tiny Pixie Dust Dwarf Alberta Spruce. That grass is Irish moss that has been starved – it’s small, yellowy and mossy – and perfect for this wee scene!

Must get a better picture! Here’s a close up.

Maidenhair Ferns from Fancy Fronds Nursery are mixed with English Daisies.

Steve layered in the back of the display to look like the outside of the Hameau. Marie Antoinette staged several of her outdoor buildings to look like an old farmhouse and barn. This would be an interesting technique to use for miniatures.

A lovely blend of textures and colors by Bruce.

That small Almond Tree on the right is just about to burst into bloom – just in time!

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Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, Part III

19/02/2013 at 6:13 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, Customer Interaction, D.I.Y. Ideas, Garden Art, The Business ·Tagged dry riverbed, garden shows, How to's, inspiration, Janit Calvo, miniature garden, miniature plants, new, northwest flower and garden show, small space gardening

Moving boulders around in the world’s smallest dry riverbed – it’s tough work. ;o)

Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, Part III

This is the one week in the year that the Washington Convention Center turns into a garden mecca. Perfect timing for winter-weary gardeners just itching to get out and turn some soil. Today was the polish-up-your-display-day at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show that is on tomorrow through Sunday.

In continuing with this series, here are some final prep photos and a couple of sneak peeks of the final display – the big reveal is tomorrow so stay tuned!

PS – I’ll show you how we pack and move the miniature gardens at the end of the show with minimal fuss. With all the flurry and excitement, I forgot to take photos of the load-in!

Little Majestic Dwarf Japanese Holly kept its berries on – thankfully! We needed some orchard-like plants for this display.

There are a number of smaller Saxifraga that make great miniature bedding plants for the tiny gardens. They like sun and well-drained soil. A grower-friend puts a big rock in the planting hole and plants her Saxifrage on top of it with good results in this rain-soaked region.

I cut up the square brick sheets to create the stone “walls” for the wee driveway to the Hameau. Glued them to a piece of border, then painted them the same color as the gravel. The small clips really helped clamping it together until the glue dried, and standing up the piece, so it could dry after painting it. I think we found them at a dollar store.

The brick sides were installed using the Mini Patio Mix Kit (includes the borders too.) The gravel was laid down right on top of the Mix and pressed in ever-so-slightly before misting. There is still loose gravel on top of the patio, but it’s not going anywhere now. We found the crushed mini-gravel at Bedrock Industries, Seattle, Wa.

A mix of accessories – we always bring several possibilities because you never really know how it is going to look until you get everything together and installed. Then you can swap out the accent pieces to see what looks best. Most of these accessories are either discontinued or one of a kind.

SNEAK PEEK – The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette: The Meadow

SNEAK PEEK – The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette: A Cherub in the Daisies

SNEAK PEEK – The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette: The First Vignette.

See the previous blogs in this series here.

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Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, Part Deux

18/02/2013 at 1:16 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, Life-sized Gardening, The Business ·Tagged connecting, creativity, garden shows, hobby, inspiration, Janit Calvo, miniature garden, seattle, trend

Hey Hercules! One of the many, many reasons I love my husband – he can lift heavy pots to strange places!!

Miniature Gardening at the
Northwest Flower & Garden Show

Welcome to part two of this series of blog posts for the Northwest Flower and Garden Show.

Load-in was yesterday and, as usual, it was a fine balance of organized chaos. It looks a lot worse than it really is. AND it always takes days to get organized and to set up – but it’ll take minutes to dissemble!

Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show

Load ‘em up! We got the bulky stuff into our garden truck… doesn’t look like much, huh?

Our big miniature garden is trapped in so it wouldn’t slide around. We place it on cardboard so we can slide it to the back of the truck-bed.

More flowers are tucked in here and there – bracing them so they don’t slide out of the truck on the viaduct.

… and the rest of the plants into Bruce’s van.

On our way to the Seattle Convention Center. That’s the Skybridge where we will be displaying.

No, really, everyone is organized – really! Lol!

Load everything in, sort it out and start building!

Get the trim on and the facade in place and everything else will follow.

Judith Jones from Fancy Fronds Nursery lent us an array of really cool ferns for the display. Judith is a fern-aholic, quite entertaining and extremely knowledgeable – I learn something everytime I speak with her! She’s creating a Teddy Bear’s Picnic with her co-conspirator, Vanca Lumsden – can’t wait to see what this very creative garden duo come up with! It’s always fun!

Inside the Convention Center: Huge trucks, bull-dozers and the piles of compost and sawdust are for the big display gardens – or “full-size” gardens as we like to call them. Another reason to go with miniature gardening – it’s much easier on the back!

We’re going back again today – and I’ll get some more sneak peeks for you – stay tuned!

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Miniature Gardening at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show, 2013

16/02/2013 at 1:20 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, The Business ·Tagged business, connecting, container gardening, craft, DIY, french queen, Garden Art, gardening, Humour, inspiration, Janit Calvo, miniature garden, miniature gardens, miniature plants, moses lake, northwest flower and garden show, plants, seattle, trend

Preparing for the Marie Antoinette Display at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show this weekend. This is a tiny Hameau for one of our display gardens – the young French Queen sought solace in her faux cottages and farm buildings set up around the palace grounds that make delicious fodder for the miniature gardens!

Miniature Gardening at the
Northwest Flower & Garden Show

I’m taking you with me this year.

We’re going on a visual romp of the Private Realm of Marie Antoinette – and then some!

That’s our theme for our annual display at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show in Seattle this coming week. This year we are teaming up with the very creative and knowledgeable mind of Mr. Bruce Bailey of Heavy Petal Nursery in Moses Lake to bring you a taste of this young Queen’s inner life.

Did you know what she was a plant-nut as well as a trend setter and fashionista? Neither did we until we dug deeper into her … private realm – ! Lol!

So, this is the first of the series for this long week ahead. I’m going to try to do one a day and show not only our display work, but I’ll take you into show to see what kinds miniature gardening we can find now that this trend is upon us. It’ll be nice to have some company in this niche, it’s our 9th year doing a display and more than not, we were the only ones with miniature gardens – plugging along… Lol! But I bet that changes this year!

(If you’re logged into WordPress, the Follow button is on the top of the page. ^)

And, do join us for our free monthly Miniature Garden Gazettes too – there is nuthin’ else like it. Click here and follow the prompts – you’ll get into the Gazette archives after confirming through your email.

And here’s the start of your visual romp! (I just wanted to say that again.)

Planning, planning, planning. We start with a lot of ideas and the ones that are doable eventually emerge as the deadline draws closer.

Bruce paints the backdrop as Steve horses around. Humor is a required ingredient in doing these shows!

Bruce found the PERFECT chairs – they aren’t authentic Louie XVI so we had no problems painting them to match the display.

Marie Antoinette created a faux farm and had her servants tie ribbons on the sheep, clean the eggs in the chicken coop and even created fake rivers and ponds for her swans. Oh to be a Queen!

Bruce’s painting on the backdrop to bring some Chinoiserie (a fancy word for Chinese-style) into the display. Marie Antoinette was heavily influenced by the new furniture, art and decor from China during the late 1700s.

Moo Poo Tea is a life saver when one tries to revive dormant plants to get them ready for the show in the dead winter. Moo Poo Tea is a soil conditioner to add to your water – so you give the plants a little boost every time you water and it’s 100% organic. While us miniature gardeners tend to shy away from fertilizers, it really helps during showtime.

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Miniature Gardens: The Fun is Contagious

23/01/2013 at 3:47 pm · Filed under Gardening in Miniature Book, Resources, The Business ·Tagged business, hobby, Janit Calvo, miniature, miniature garden, nature, plants

The front page of this year’s Timber Press catalog – a la miniature gardening!

Miniature Gardens: The Fun is Contagious

If you aren’t part of the retail industry, chances are you won’t see this at all. The miniature garden pictures in this blog are from the spring edition of the Timber Press book catalog.

Who would have thunk?

Miniature Gardens: The Fun is Contagious

As far as I can glean from the hallowed halls of Timber Press, this garden was created by Laken, one of the resident designers at Timber, and my editor, Andrew Beckman, a.k.a. Editor-in-Chief / Associate Publisher of Timber Press.

How’s that for contagious fun?

We also learned that when Andrew introduced this new book at “the big meeting in New York” he flew the plants, parts and pieces in his luggage to plant up an example in his hotel to show everyone what a miniature garden is.

I guess they enjoyed it.

My guesstimate that this pot is about 20 to 22″ wide – a nice size for a miniature garden because it gives you lots of room to layer in the plants and trees – and enough room for a big patio for your patio furniture, barbeque or a potting bench.

Our Gardening in Miniature book is due out in the stores this July. Join us here for the release party coming up this spring and you’ll also get our free monthly newsletter, the Mini Garden Gazette.

Find your plants, parts and pieces up in our popular online Miniature Garden Center here.

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The Mini Garden Guru Blog: Back in the Saddle

04/12/2012 at 10:39 am · Filed under The Business ·Tagged business, Gardening in Miniature Book

Oh the joys of living in Seattle! Thankfully our subject was waterproof. That’s Kate Baldwin up on the ladder, Patrick Barber, the creative director from Timber Press, in the purple coat and Yours Truly in the ugly brown sweater. ;o)

The Mini Garden Guru Blog: Back in the Saddle

Holy absence of blogging Batman!

Between our furnace breaking down and a huge flood in the studio the week before a major photo reshoot for “the book,” it’s no wonder I didn’t have any quiet space to write a blog in the last couple of weeks. Ugh. I need a clone. Sometimes, there aren’t enough days in the week even if I work the weekends! Needless to say, the blog ideas still pile up in my head.

Here are some photos of our big reshoot at the studio last Friday – I thought you might enjoy seeing a little behind the scenes. We had to do a couple of the projects shots over and we worked out the cover photograph for my new book from Timber Press, Gardening in Miniature: Create Your Own Tiny Living World, due out July 2013.

Look forward to some new Christmas ideas, new gift ideas and a whole lotta cuteness to share – I’m getting it together. Join our mailing list for the inside scoop, tips and insight into this wonderfully enjoyable hobby. Can’t wait any longer – off to do more! ;o) – J.

Reshooting the project sequences for The Book. Still tickled that I’m working with Timber Press, the world’s leading horticultural publisher! La creme de la creme!

Towards the end of the day, we had to take cover on our lanai and shoot outwards towards our very dormant garden. Thank goodness we only needed close-up shots of the miniature garden pots!

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How to Save Money, Have Fun and Give Great Gifts this Holiday

15/11/2012 at 1:50 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, Customer Interaction, The Business ·Tagged business, connecting, fairy garden, garden, grass roots, green thumbers, hobby, inspiration, Janit Calvo, miniature garden, miniature gardens, nature, personalized gifts, plants, trend

Miniature Garden Arbor in a Part Shade Garden

Miniature Garden Arbor is part of our Anniversary Sale that’s on until November 30th.

How to be Save Money, Have Fun and Give Great Gifts this Holiday

The Anniversary Sale is ON!!

We are now in the young teen years of this business of spreading the Joy of Miniature Gardening. We are 11 years old this year! (Note that we will be skipping the attitude and the tantrums of a typical teen. ;o) We are evolving and growing each year thanks to your support throughout all these years.

Use this gift-crafting-time to practice your miniature garden skills, get your ideas out there &
make FANTASTIC personalized gifts!
See what’s on sale now!

Eleven years ago this month, we started selling miniature gardens at the Fremont Sunday Market here in Seattle, WA. We branched out (yuck, yuck!) slowly to other street markets in the greater Seattle area to spread the word and feel the response before we went “all in.” Internet and library searches came up empty for any variation of the words “miniature gardening,” there were no signs of anyone doing the level of gardening that we were doing save for only one lonely company back east making fairy garden accessories (Gnomenculture.) So, we were left to spread the word boot-strapping-grass-roots style – and spread it we did! Checkout the photos on this blog post from last year here to see some of our beginnings.

“Hanging out our shingle” in touristy street markets, selling at garden and miniature shows – while connecting personally with everyone who came into our booths – really laid the groundwork for us and our message travelled far and wide. Demonstrating, talking and teaching the miniature garden hobby at numerous garden centers and garden clubs helped get the message to other green-thumbers too.

A couple of weeks after one big garden show, I got an email from South Africa thanking me for introducing them to Miniature Gardening!

It’s funny to recall the very first garden club I spoke at, miniature gardening was met with such skeptism that several of the women asked, “You’re really going to make a business out of this?” and looked at me sideways. Then I found this quote by Grayson Marshall, “If people aren’t laughing at your dreams… then your dreams aren’t big enough!”

You can make a four-inch miniature garden in a few minutes, a big garden can be completed within an hour. The trick is to have all the ingredients ready at hand. See what’s up in the store now.

Texas, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Connecticut, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, California– you name it, we had people visit us from all over the world! (We took names for our mailing list, which is how we knew our reach. Note that was a “mail” and not “email” list, THAT’s how long we’ve been at it!) Here’s another blog post with more background and history here. In an interview with HGTV.com last week, Danny Bonvissuto captures our beginnings in a few sentences – up in her gardening blog here. We now have fellow miniature gardeners (Fellow MGs) from every state on of the Union and just as many worldwide – check out this little garden from Turkey:

Miniature Gardening in Turkey – this is by Ozgur in Mersine, Icel, Turkey. She made everything herself, including the teddy bears and the completely adorable rope furniture.

So look forward to more new and innovative ideas from Two Green Thumbs Miniature Garden Center this coming year. The main differences between us and “the new guys” are simply experience, passion and great customer service. We have been gardening in miniature and studying the nuances of the gardens for well over eleven years. We don’t just sell the plants and accessories, we plant the plants and watch how they grow before passing them on to you. We use the accessories in our own gardens to make sure what works is sturdy, durable and doesn’t end up in the landfill. We are just as in love with this idea as you are. We are miniaturists who love gardening – or you can call us gardeners who love miniatures – either way, we’re hooked! We’ve been selling online for over 10 years, we have secretly shopped “the other guys” and yes, we know give great customer service, we pack with the utmost of care and we have very competitive postage rates!

Gift-giving is the perfect excuse to make Miniature Gardens – to try out some of your ideas and to play with a different assortment of plants. Everyone loves a thoughtful, personalized gift made especially with them in mind – no matter how small it is.

Look forward to another year of creative, crafty, garden fun. Our brand new, definitive guide on Miniature Gardening by the world’s top garden publisher, Timber Press, Gardening in Miniature: Create Your Own Tiny Living World is due out in the summer so it’s a big year for us. (BTW – You’ll want two copies, one for your coffee table and one for the potting bench!)

Join us in celebrating the Joy of Miniature Gardening. This month, for our anniversary, we are trying something completely different – because we love to try different things – we’ve put over 50 of our best sellers on sale at up to 25% off!! Trees, plants, furniture, tools, fairy items and more are up in the sale department now – go here and see what’s on sale! Hurry, quanitities are limited and the sale ends on November 30^th

To get this kind news before it goes public, join our email list here!

PS – We have miniature garden PLANTS on sale too! Until November 30th only!

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Miniature Gardening: And the Winner is….

28/02/2012 at 7:00 pm · Filed under Because it's fun, Customer Interaction, Resources, The Business ·Tagged business, connecting, dining room table, flower and garden show, hobby, hobby industry, inspiration, Janit Calvo, joy and wonder, miniature garden, northwest flower and garden show, page layouts

Two Green Thumbs Miniature Garden Center does the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. It is still interesting to see the response after all these years. Miniature Gardening is now old-hat to some people, brand new to others, but everyone got at least a giggle out of it.

Miniature Gardening: And the Winner is…

“It transports you to somewhere else.”

“It puts you in a different world.”

“It ignites the imagination.”

These are loosely quoted snippets from some our top actors, during a video montage played at the Academy Awards this past Sunday night. The actors were talking about the role of movies and the film industry in our daily lives, as if getting lost in a movie was something so unique, so needed by our imagination as a vehicle to transport us, to inspire us, to bring us joy and wonder…

I smiled to myself while watching the familiar faces ooze with such sincerity describing their beloved industry but, in reality, they could have been talking about any hobby under the sun. And hobbies last much longer than movies.

But, let me back this up before we move forward. ;o)

I have spent years in the hobby industry. In fact, I was weaned on it. Hours were spent during summer nights at the dining room table with my father, gluing down page layouts to get them ready for the typesetter. Dad would come out to the farm on the weekends and bring the publishing work with him. He would cut up the old edition of whatever book he was working on at the time, and place the pieces on a sheet of paper in the order that I was to glue it down for him. I think I was about 10 years old and very content to finally have the attention of my father – if it was only for a couple of hours.

For the next few decades, half of the family business was buying and selling gold and antiques, the other half was publishing catalogs on collectibles. I didn’t care for the cut-throat-I’m-smarter-than-you-are-so-I-win world of antiques and, after demonstrating a penchant for the visual arts, I was relegated to working at The Charlton Press.

The Charlton Press is a small publishing company that specializes in collecting and cataloging 20th century collectibles. Coins, medals, badges, hockey cards, Beswick and Royal Doulton Figurines are just a fraction of the subjects they now catalog and publish. The mandate was to create the catalog which would help the build interest in the respective hobby, which, in turn, would create a need for the catalogs.

So, I spent nearly two and a half decades of my life unknowingly learning about the various ways that people approach hobbies. We figured out what information needs to be collected in the first place, studied it, collected it, measured it, called in the experts to help clarify it and packaged in a book form, in order to make it easy for people to access the right information to learn and grow within the hobby.

I think its funny that I’ve found myself
being the trailblazer of the
miniature garden hobby.
I only wanted to do something
that could transport me and
make my imagination spin. ;o)

And in living this hobbified? hobbitastic? life, I’ve learned that it doesn’t matter what hobby it is that you partake in, it will take you to somewhere else. Whether you are collecting plants and creating your own private space, collecting coins and diving into history’s corners, crocheting a new afghan blanket and designing it as you go, or whether you are creating a garden in miniature, you will be transported to your very own world. And that’s okay, they know you there.

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Subscribe to this blog over on the right… ~> ;o)

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Stressed out?
Frazzled?
Don’t have time for a vacation?

Visit your local garden center
for a few minutes of peace.
Being surrounded by
plants and flowers will
dissolve your tension and
help get you centered again.

Miniature Gardening at the
Northwest Flower & Garden Show

Miniature Gardening at the
Northwest Flower & Garden Show

Use this gift-crafting-time to practice your miniature garden skills, get your ideas out there &
make FANTASTIC personalized gifts!
See what’s on sale now!

I think its funny that I’ve found myself
being the trailblazer of the
miniature garden hobby.
I only wanted to do something
that could transport me and
make my imagination spin. ;o)