The Holiday edition of the Leaflet (our newsletter, but you knew that, right?) went to the printer on Monday, so it should be on its way to you next week. Don’t forget– this is the last one we will be mailing. From this point on, we’ll be sending them more often (monthly instead of quarterly) and via your email. So make sure we have your current email address if you want to continue to get it.
If you don’t do anything else tomorrow, get out and VOTE! The future leader of the country is going to be chosen. Make sure your opinion about who that should be gets heard.
Our grave blanket price lists will go out next week to the customers who have ordered grave blankets, pillows, wreaths and sprays from us in the past few years. If you have ordered from us before and do not receive your order form/price list by the weekend, please let us know and we’ll get one right out to you.
The greens arrived from up north today, and we’ll begin making blankets next week. If you haven’t seen our blankets, stop in toward the end of the week and we’ll have some of all the sizes made up that you can take a look at, or buy if you want to place the blanket yourself.
We make a blanket in straw on a sturdy wooden frame rather than on styrofoam as some garden centers do. This makes the blanket heavier, helping to prevent it from flipping over in the wind, and the straw absorbs rain and snow to help keep the greens fresher longer. We deliver the blankets and pillows to the local cemeteries at no charge; delivery to outlying cemeteries may incur an additional charge. We also make less expensive sprays that are intended as a cash and carry way to go, but they can also be delivered locally for an additional charge.
This year we also have an expanded selection of Christmas-themed artificial sprays on easels. These can be viewed on our feature wall to the right of the side door.
In Ohio, the old saw about the weather really applies. “If you don’t like the weather, just wait– it’ll change.” Yesterday it was snowing, in the next couple of days, it’ll get back into the 60’s. Indian summer? Or just some more evidence of global warming?
The landscape crew is still doing installations, as long as the weather cooperates. And when that ends, Dawn will still do We Plan/You Plants for next year’s DIY’ers or for installs in 2009. So call and make an appointment ASAP!
Definition:
Locavore (loh-kuh-vohr)- noun. A person whose diet focuses on foods grown and produced nearby, typically 100 miles.
I am compiling information about sources for foodstuffs (fruits, vegetables, honey, jams and jellies, syrups, meats, cheeses, eggs, wine) that are grown or produced in our Ohio Valley area (within 100 miles or so of Ferda’s Garden Center). I am putting together a web site that locavores or potential locavores can use to find sources of local foods and beverages. If you know of any farmers who sell their produce, meats or cheeses locally, or vintners who produce local wines, or restaurants that use local ingredients in their food, please help me out by letting me know about them. Or if you know someone who would know about these sources, please share that information. You can phone me at the garden center (740-546-4467) or email me at lynn@ferdas.com or fax me at 740-546-3241.
Bobby and Mel worked on getting more of the gift shop ready for Christmas. It is coming, and we will be ready.
Now that I can get back into the archives from this blog, I realize that I missed my 2 year blogging anniversary. I think my first entry was on Friday the 13th of October, 2006. I’m pretty much of a newbie in this media, but I enjoy communicating with you, and wish I really had more time to keep up with it all. I’m looking forward to writing lots more in the third year!
The happy little elves are beginning to transform the gift shop to its Christmas glory. We hate to overlap the seasons so much, but the transformation takes a while to achieve and people keep shopping earlier and earlier, so we are forced to have Halloween, fall and Thanksgiving all smooshed together for a few weeks.
Grave blanket letters are going out in a week or so– watch your mail for an order blank if you’ve ordered with us before. You can order by mail, phone or fax as usual.
I think my web guru fixed the archive problems. Let’s hope it all stays that way…
I apologize to any of you who have been trying to bring up archived posts from this blog recently. There is a glitch in the system somewhere. I have my web guru looking into it, (thanks, Steve!) and I hope it will be resolved soon. If it’s any consolation, I can’t bring them up either… 
