We hope you enjoy this E-Journal.
Samuel Salsbury, Sabrena Schweyer and the staff of Salsbury-Schweyer, Inc
wish you and your families a joyous holiday season!

CONTENTS

• Company News: Feature in Fine Gardening
• Garden Experiences
  
• Garden Society’s First Event
• Other Educational Opportunities

Company News
Salsbury-Schweyer, Inc is featured in the latest issue of Fine Gardening!

Fine Gardening magazine, as you may know, is one of the top magazines in the nation for home and professional gardeners.Over the past several years, editors from this magazine have visited Ohio to see the award-winning garden designs of Salsbury-Schweyer, Inc. They encouraged Sabrena to write about how she creatively integrated the colors of her own house and garden.  She then expanded on the article, explaining to readers how they might select colors in their landscape to unify and enhance the overall look of their property. 

The article, "Matching the Colors of Your House and Garden" is Sabrena’s first to be published nationally.  In it, she has selected several potential planting schemes for each of six popular house colors.  A list of design tips detail some of the ways Sabrena chooses color schemes for clients’ gardens.  Palettes may be sophisticated, natural, or dramatic, depending upon personal style.  Photographs of Samuel’s and Sabrena’s home in Akron provide excellent examples of a well-coordinated palette.

Salsbury-Schweyer, Inc and Fine Gardening are both excited about future collaborations.  Perhaps the garden we design for you will be featured in the next article!

The January/February 2006 issue is available in newsstands now.

Garden Experiences
What memories do you have to share about gardening or maybe an unforgettable garden you visited?

I’m Still a Kid in the Garden         
By Elise Shuff
I cannot recall a time in my life when gardening was not a part of it. We grew everything, or so it seemed.  On our Easter table each spring were tender green onions, early radishes, much anticipated fresh asparagus, devilled eggs with fresh cut chives and of course, a huge bouquet of daffodils.  In summer we were practically vegetarians as the produce was so bountiful that we ate half of it and gave half away to our garden challenged neighbors.  I remember rows of magnificent gladiola’s that were taller than me and the entire backyard smelling of sweet peonies.  I used to hide in the midst of the asparagus patch in late summer when it had gone to seed.  Our kitchen table was always adorned with my father’s fresh cut bouquets.  In the fall we dined on spaghetti squash (my personal favorite) and my father proudly displayed the oddly shaped and colored gourds that he grew.  The weirder the better!  We actually had red and yellow apples growing together on one tree.  The delicious product of my father’s grafting experiments.  He never used pesticides, so you could always graze your way across the garden with no worries.  My parent’s philosophy was that they’d rather us eat a few insects than ingest poison.

As I grew older I learned how to garden firsthand from working alongside my Father and Grandfather.  They both had an amazing appreciation and respect for Mother Nature.  I spent a glorious summer working at a friend’s organic herb and flower farm.  I also discovered the therapeutic effects of gardening.  There is just something wonderful that happens when I plop down to work in my garden.  The minute my fingers touch the soil, all else ceases to exist and I transcend into a sort of meditative state.  It’s just you and your weeds, or tulip bulbs, or tomato plant or whatever happens to be the project at hand.   

It seems only natural for me to work in a place where gardens are created both beautifully and naturally.  I feel at home here as the new office manager of Salsbury-Schweyer, Inc.  Their sustainable approach to the landscape is a philosophy that I’ve grown up with and that I also share.  Sabrena and Samuel are, simply put, the best at what they do, and I’m proud to be part of their team. 

Thanks, Elise.  Salsbury-Schweyer is thrilled to have you join us.  Elise, as our office manager, is in charge of putting together our newsletters.  In each newsletter we would like to share a garden story or experience, such as hers, with our readers.  The topic can be anything from your own childhood memories, to a success story of learning to grow beautiful roses, to a fabulous garden you have visited.  So please send, e-mail or even phone in your stories to us. We look forward to hearing from you.

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The Garden Society of Northeast Ohio presents its first big event!
As some of you know, Salsbury-Schweyer, Inc has been instrumental in the founding of The Garden Society of Northeast Ohio.  The purpose of this developing organization is to serve as a network, helping existing organizations to work together for the improvement of garden education and landscape standards in our area. 

We are pleased to announce our very first public Garden Society event, which Sabrena has been organizing for over a year.  We have invited our very good friends, Wolfgang Oehme and Neil Diboll, to inspire you just as they have thousands of other designers and gardeners across the globe.  Be sure not to miss this world-class event!

Sustainable Landscapes Symposium
"Beauty and Sustainability: Gardens for the 21st Century"
Description:  This one-day symposium features internationally known experts, who will share insights into the newest and best in garden design and ecological landscape solutions.

Featured speakers include: 

• "Ecology and Nature: Partnerships for the Future" and "Going Wild in Suburbia: Creating Meadows in Small Spaces" Neil Diboll, Prairie Nursery in Wisconsin
• "Structures and Systems: A Sustainable Landscape is a Beautiful Landscape" Henry Hanson, Hanson Design Group in Pittsburgh
• "Dynamic Design with Maintenance in Mind" Wolfgang Oehme, co-founder of the world-renowned landscape architecture firm, Oehme, van Sweden & Associates. 
• Sabrena Schweyer, of Salsbury-Schweyer, Inc, will be part of a panel of regional experts.

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Other Educational Opportunities
Along with the Garden Society’s Symposium, here are some other spring-fever inducing lectures and seminars that you may enjoy.

“Earth-Friendly Solutions for a Beautiful Garden”
This winter Sabrena will be a featured lecturer for the 63rd Annual Cleveland Home & Garden Show at the IX Center:
Description: Sustainability means essentially “treading lightly on the Earth”.  Sabrena will explain the basic principles of a sustainable (or Earth-friendly) landscape and the impact on our daily lives, our future and the Earth as a whole.  Learn how you can make your garden a place of beauty and intrinsic value, with less use of precious resources.
When: Friday, February 10, 2006 at 3:00 pm and Sunday, February 12, 2006 at 1:30 pm
Location: IX Center – 6200 Riverside Rd., Cleveland, OH 44135
Cost: Adults - $11.95, Children - $4.00 (children 5 and under are free); Parking $7.00
For more information: Visit www.homeandflower.com

“Design and Beyond 2006”
Master Gardeners’ Seminar
Description:  Featuring TV personality, Kerry Mendez, British designer, Mike Shadrack, and Kathy Stokes-Shafer, a local designer.  The speakers will cover design-based topics.  The cost includes all seminar materials, a continental breakfast and lunch.
Date: Friday, January 20, 2006
Time:  8:30 am to 3:30 pm
Location: First Methodist Church, 263 E. Mill St. (in downtown Akron)
Cost: $45 (pre-registration required)
For more information: Call Priscilla Kiehl at (330) 940-2100 or e-mail commstat@aol.com

“What’s New and What Have You Forgotten?”
Description:A lecture by our friend, Tony Avent, at the Cleveland Botanical Garden as part of their Winter Lecture Series.   Tony is a great plantsman and owner of “Plant Delights”, a nursery of wonderfully unusual perennials, grasses and tropicals.
Date:  Tuesday, January 24, 2006
Time:  7:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Location:  Cleveland Botanical Garden, 11030 East Blvd in Cleveland's University Circle
Cost:  $20/member; $25/non-member
For more information:  Register in advance by calling (216) 707-2860

Gardening & Landscape Symposium
Co-sponsored by Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, Penn State Cooperative Extension, Botanic Garden of Western Pennsylvania, and Chatham College
Description:  A day long event with guest speakers & sessions to include “Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home” Julie Moir Messervy; “Twigonometry: Twig Trellis and Beyond” Greg Speichert; “Outstanding Garden Performers” Jim Nau; “What’s New and Unique From Seed?” Renee Shepherd; “Vines and Climbers: Reaching Out in the Garden” Jeff Jabco; “Great Little Gardens” Anthony Noel; and “Water Gardening for Everyone” Greg Speichert.
Date:  Saturday, March 11, 2006
Time:  8:00 am to 4:30 pm
Location:  James Laughlin Music Hall, Chatham College
Cost:  $90 if postmarked by February 17, $100 after February 17
For more information: Call (412) 441-4442 or e-mail edu@phipps.pgh.pa.us

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