Dear Thistlebrook customers,
Thanks for all your support during our 2010 bare root tree season. We had an excellent few months meeting lots of new customers, and feel very glad that more and more home gardeners have caught the fruit growing bug. Selling fruit trees is one way that we make a living here at Thistlebrook, but our underlying aim, and greatest source of satisfaction, is to facilitate your efforts to “Grow It Yourself”.
To this end, we’ve decided to relaunch the “garden school” component of our business. Two factors have prompted us to give it another go: one is that there have been lots of people expressing an interest in attending a workshop. The other is rainfall. This time last year we were buying in water to keep the nursery and garden alive. Now, the soil has a full moisture profile, the tanks are continually overflowing and best of all, the prospects for rain in the months ahead are the brightest they’ve been since 1974. Weather like this is too good an opportunity to pass up. So workshops are back on!
What will we be offering? Obviously there will be workshops on growing fruit trees, but these will be accompanied by others on vegetable gardening, organic pest control, soil and compost, as well as more specialised topics like grafting and pruning. Initially, we’ll be hosting workshops here at Thistlebrook on a couple of Saturday mornings each month from 9am to 12pm. For $65 we’ll include home made morning tea in each course, take home notes and other goodies, along with three hours of hands-on instruction and lots of opportunity to ask questions.
To make it work though, we need your support. If you’re keen to attend a workshop, please make sure you sign up, and bring along a friend or two. Get a group of eight together, and we’ll offer a 10% discount on the booking. We understand that some of you may not be keen to attend a workshop for whatever reason, but we’d appreciate it greatly if you could pass our details on to an interested friend or family member. Gift vouchers are available, and would make a lovely Christmas or birthday present for a keen gardener.
For more details on our workshop calendar, workshop topics, and to make a booking, please give me a call on 0746979371, or visit the workshop page on our website.
Hope spring is proving fruitful in your neck of the woods.
Cheers,
Justin
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Justin,
my husband attended a workshop you ran earlier this year on natural pest/disease control – which he enjoyed immensely (special mention was made over your wife’s morning tea!). Mick arrived home with his samples but also some seedlings and seeds. We are currently enjoying the beans we grew from your seeds – they are a really tasty variety – it is a climber and the beans are quite long and flattish – just wondered if you can recall the bean and the name. By the way, we love your column in Saturday’s Chronicle – it is usually the most interesting thing in there!
Regards
Leonie Youngberry
Thanks for that Leonie – very kind.
I’m just trying to remember what I gave Mick, but I think the variety was ‘Lazy Housewife’. It is a nice bean, and a classic name. Not because the housewife who first grew the bean was lazy, but becuase the bean is easy to prepare, requiring little work.