This guest post was written by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth, authors of What’s Wrong with My Plant?, and originally appeared on their blog.

Well, we did it! Last week we held the first event of our book tour with a talk at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. There may be no better place to get inspired for the road ahead.

Display gardens at big shows always have an idea or two that can be incorporated into small gardens and home landscaping. Vendors always have enough stuff to sink several container ships, yet they also make attractive displays, offering useful tools, lovely plants, and often, solid information. We visited with the folks at Seattle Tilth and the Northwest Horticultural Society. We admired some of the new, more ergonomic pruning and digging tools.

We particularly appreciated the well-executed designs of two displays: “A Family’s Little Farm in the City,” designed by Jessica and Noah Bloom (N.W. Bloom and Seattle Tilth collaborated on the installation); and “Crops for Clunkers,” designed by Colin McCrate, Brad Halm, and Noel Stout of the Seattle Urban Farm Company.

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This guest post was written by David Deardorff and Kathryn Wadsworth, authors of What’s Wrong with My Plant?, and originally appeared on their blog.

David and I are wandering the Northwest Flower and Garden Show this week. The display gardens are beautiful, as always. Some are even spectacular.  But only two garden installations serve to truly inspire an urban gardener in these times. Since David and I are particularly interested in sustainable, organic food production for urban dwellers we found that these two gardens had the most to offer: “A Family’s Little Farm in the City” and “The Truck Farm.” (More on that in my next blog). “A Family’s Little Farm in the City” certainly lives up to its promise: to “demonstrate how a family can live sustainably in the city.” A small dwelling – actually a barn, but it could be modified – with solar panels, a quiet patio serving as a front porch, vegetable beds, an edible forest, compost bins, rain barrels, and bee hives. All thrive on this tiny plot of land.

I love this chicken tractor. The hen industriously scratches and pecks, tilling the soil for you. She can retire to her little shed to lay her eggs. Talk about a valuable partner!!  This is probably my favorite item in the display.

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Last year’s CENTS show was pretty slow due to a giant snow storm that prevented a lot of people from attending. This year there were only a few flurries, and much more traffic at the show!

Willoway Nurseries had a neat booth that included a lookout platform, where you could see out over the top of the whole show. (The picture only shows about a quarter of the show.)

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This year I’ll be helping to staff the booth at the Columbus CENTS show. CENTS, as you can see from the logo, is the “Central Environmental Nursery Trade Show”, but it’s better to say “CENTS” because a) it’s shorter, and b) people who aren’t in the know do a double take. “The what show?”

Of course, my favorite show name, hands down, is the PANTS show. The Penn Atlantic Nursery Trade Show. How can you not get a kick out of saying “I’ll be attending the PANTS show?” The only way it could be better is if it offered short courses, like CENTS does. Then you could attend a short course at the PANTS show, and all would be bliss.

Juvenile musings aside, I’ve never worked this show before, and am excited to find out if West coast shows differ from East coast shows. Plus, I’ve been informed that Jenni’s Ice Cream is not to be missed, and it’s right near by. There is nothing like ice cream in January.

Come visit us, January 25-27, in booth 2004-2006. See you there!

Last week I traveled to the Bay Area to attend the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association’s annual regional show.

This year it took place in Oakland. And surprise, surprise — I loved it! (It’s a well known fact around the office that I adore traveling for work. I don’t know why, but I really do). In fact, I fell in love with the entire area. I rode the BART, walked around downtown Berkeley, went shopping on College Avenue, had hot chocolate in San Francisco, and…

But, back to the show. Each regional area has a related association of independent booksellers—there is PNBA in the Pacific Northwest, SIBA in the south, NEIBA in New England, etc. Each associations hosts an annual Fall trade show. It’s a chance for publishers, bookstores, authors, distributors, and the rest of the people involved in publishing to come together to learn about — and hopefully sell — new Fall titles. I was there to help our regional sales reps — the inimitable Craig McCroskey and John Majeska of Book Travelers West.

So what did I actually do? I talked to booksellers, explained our new titles, searched out new event venues, and grabbed the catalogs of several other publishers. I also had the chance to host a dinner at Oliveto, an amazing restaurant in the Rockridge section of Oakland. I enjoyed pasta, wine, and great conversation with Saxon Holt, the photographer of The American Meadow Garden, Keeyla Meadows, the author of Fearless Color Gardens, Stephanie Deignan, the events coordinator at Copperfield’s Books, Ann Leyhe, the owner of Mrs. Dalloway’s, and Margot Sheffner, the book buyer for Flora Grubb Gardens and advertising manager for Pacific Horticulture.

A pretty incredible mix of people.

Each year there are questions about the viability and role of the regional shows. Fewer orders are placed each year and many publishers wonder if they are necessary. I don’t know if the shows as they are now are a good model, but I do know the very real value of the face-to-face time with booksellers and authors. No amount of email, promotions, or publicity can replace regular old human interaction.

And, if they canceled the regional shows, how could I convince Timber Press to send me to the south next year?

P.S. If you live in Berkeley or are just visiting, go to Mrs. Dalloway’s. I’ve never seen a bookstore with such an amazing selection of gardening books — they literally have a WALL dedicated to them (please ignore the awful photography).

Dave DeWitt signed and sold copies of The Complete Chile Pepper Book at the El Pinto Festival yesterday. His display was pepperfect. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist!)

Notes from Olivia:

It’s taken me a full week to catch my breath after the flurry of activity surrounding GWA, but I think everything is back to normal.

As usual, the symposium was packed with seeing old friends, greeting new acquaintances, and finally getting to meet people face to face after years of corresponding by phone and email.

The Timber/Storey booth was consistently hopping with activity—three author signings will do that. And I am happy to report that all of our books were completely gone by 2 o’clock on the last day of the exhibit. All I had to bring home were bookstands.

Our “Secrets of a Book Publicist” presentation went—I can happily say it went swimmingly!

Michael Taeckens, Publicity Director at Algonquin Books, talked about his publicity campaign for Wicked Plants by Amy Stewart (Center left). Amy Greeman (far right), Publicity Director at Storey Publishing, discussed Backyard Homestead, and I covered my publicity plan for Bringing Nature Home.

All in all it was a great trip, and I can’t wait to see everyone next year in Dallas!

Notes from Emma:

GWA is one of the only times in the year we get to meet our valued media and authors face to face. It is always such a treat to have conversations in person with the people we usually interact with through a keyboard. Everyone has traveled far and wide to connect with a group that shares the same passion — the energy and excitement is potent.

There were many new and familiar faces who brought life to the show, thankfully keeping our Timber/Storey booth lively from beginning to end. Photographer Saxon Holt shared stories of photographing the dazzling landscapes in The American Meadow Garden. Pam Baggett talked cannas and elephant ears while signing copies of Tropicalismo. Amy Stewart and the rest of the Garden Rant crew brought their usual vivacious, plant loving personalities. Patti Moreno of Garden Girl TV walked the grounds filming the action, while Joe Lamp’l talked about his new television series airing on PBS this spring. There was a strong feeling of good things to come with all things gardening.

Jennifer Bartley’s seminar The Seasonal Useful and Edible Garden was particularly inspiring. Her designs were smart and breathtaking, and her year-round use made me want to rush home and get to work on my own. She shared images of the pathways she and her sons created out of reclaimed bricks from a demolished building (so artistic, so affordable!). She showed images of the butternut squash soups and winter greens cooked from her winter harvests, and heirloom tomato salads and berry tarts from her summer harvests. It was a pleasant reminder that you can make use of your garden year-round—that you don’t have to pay $5 for kale in the winter if you just do a little planning. She lives in Columbus, Ohio—case in point. Hearing her speak and seeing her photographs whet my appetite for gardening and cooking. Can’t wait for her new seasonal harvest book next spring!

I look forward to seeing everyone again soon. Thanks for a great meeting this year!

In the grand scheme of things, four business trips a year doesn’t seem like much. But for me, four trips feels like a lot. I’ve been to Seattle for the Northwest Flower Show. I’ve been to New York twice–once for Book Expo America, and again last month for pitching New York media. Next week, I’m headed to the most anticipated event in the garden media world–the annual Garden Writers Symposium, this year held in Raleigh (September 23-26).

If you’ve never been to the Symposium, you’re probably wondering what it’s all about. Typically, the show has a two day exhibit, lots of seminars, fabulous garden tours, and an awards banquet. This year is no different, but there are a couple of differences for me in my third year of attendance.

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Timber Press attended the FarWest show in Portland, August 20-22. It’s amazing how convention centers are transformed during nursery trade shows. The floors are covered with carpeting, and there are plants everywhere. The florescent lighting helps you remember that you are indoors, but beyond that, there are trees and grasses and flowers, oh my!

We spent most of our time at our booth, ringing up purchases and testing our knowledge of our books.

(In real life, our sign did not reflect that much glare. Yet another example of life not imitating art.)

During a slow period Saturday afternoon, Kathryn and I went into the show to check it out.

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