Thirty Days-

Thirty days from now I will be opening a new business. They say if you write it down, you're more apt to remember it, yes? Well, I could hardly forget the opening day of my own shop. A coffee shop, in fact. I've already found the building- or more, the building found me. The dream found me. I've always had a plan to own my own shop- the merchandise selection would fluctuate over the years: flower shop, greenhouse, bakery, gift shop- and now, I'm beginning that dream. It's a lovely little shop with full display windows, one of the oldest on the main strip of the village- right across from a train station. It's a train for tourists and themed rides, such as wine tours, breakfast with Santa, and the like. The village itself is small, but with a quaint center dotted with a few restaurants and other businesses. There's the typical Chinese food place, pizza shop, local pub, and a few small retail businesses. The corners are dotted with churches. The elementary school is one block over, with the police station across the street.
It's a traditional town, that- almost lost in the past kind of feel. Not as small as the one stoplight type of place, but a sleepy, dated feel nonetheless. It all appeals to me, it always has. My shop won't take away from what makes it quaint, but will waken up a bit of the sleepy atmosphere with a fresh shot of caffeinated, mingle-friendly atmosphere. The Gathering Grounds Coffee Shop. A place to mingle and linger over a quality coffee with genuine neighbors. A really good cookie. A counter overlooking Main Street. A newspaper in a fireside chair. Gather over a good mug.
I have no idea who you are, reader; and to be honest, this blog is just a motivation to keep my dreams on track. My posts go anywhere from 5 to 55 readers- yet I know not a one of you- you never comment, and friends never mention my posts. That's fine by me, as this is just an exercise in personal growth, but I am curious what you think of this new leap. Maybe you think nothing at all; a valid stance on another person's dreams. For truly, no one's opinion affects this decision. Come down on Veteran's Day and enjoy a cup of coffee at my Gathering Grounds- if you're a veteran, enjoy a free cup on me, your sister in arms, and see more than these words- see my dreams bloom. 285 Main Street, Arcade, NY 14009

Life's Daily Wealth

Another month has come and gone, and I return from a trip visiting family to see my gardens browning in the increasing cold. While I am a lover of autumn, a deep melancholy has always set in at this time of year as I watch my plants die back with the changing seasons. This year, it means more than my all-consuming hobby being affected. My gardening jobs will lessen with the weather, and I will have to focus on another area for the cold months.  Change I cannot stop fuels changes I alone must make with the business. I'll essentially have to straddle two professions for a time period. I may even take a part time job to bridge the season gap. As a first year business owner, this transition is daunting, if only for the fact that it is a change I devise and carry out completely on my own.

I am a woman of routine. I like a steady, mostly predictable lifestyle. Owning my own business, especially one where my office is whatever garden I am working in, is anything but a predictable routine. Some days I have six clients that all want immediate design feedback while I'm physically exerting myself on an install. Other days, my one job is cut short by torrential rain. But sufficient for the day is the work therein. I am learning to be content day by day, and moment by moment. This is where I capture my routine; by letting every day be a day focused on living for that day, and every moment that's given to me.

I read a poignant quote last night, that's too long to repeat here, but in essence the writer was penning his disdain for humans' obsession with the term work, and the need to be more and better, as if success were a continual stockpile. If only we took our cue from animals, it continued, and just lived each day to gather the things of immediate need, and leave all else to the next day's needs. Looking through the lens of today's society, this lifestyle would seem impossible at worst, reckless at best. No retirement? What about savings for that unexpected hospital visit? But to me, it is the picture of a life of contentment. I don't want to get into philosophy or deep thinking of materialistic versus whatever the hell the opposite of that would be, but I must say the mainstream race to security against what might be, at the expense of enjoying today's beauty, seems a miserable existence.

I refuse to live driven by bank backed pieces of paper that exchange hands so often, they can hardly be called my wealth. The only hard rule I have with money is owe no man. Is my way of life risky? Is it any less than the business man who puts his faith in a corporation that today rules the market and tomorrow is crushed, dragging his years of pension with them? Is risk really a tool sufficient to weigh how we live our life? If we did, I'd hardly think driving a car or walking across the street would be worth it. Risk is inherent to living, so I refuse to use it as my measuring tool to traverse this one life we are given.

The phrase "failure is not an option" is an overly simplistic view- failure is an option every day, and an acceptable end to that day, if a better way is what I am meant to take tomorrow. If I fail, it is but today's failure, that will be left at the evening's feet and discarded at morning light for a new inspiration. Wealth is an empty concept we have dressed up in fine robes to call our master, when, in reality, it gives us nothing but shackles. I am the richest woman alive- I am rich with love, with growth, with moments of life in which I can bring joy to others. This is true wealth. It feeds my soul with the security that I am alive today, and sufficient for TODAY is the life I live.

An August to Remember!

August has been a busy month, both personally and professionally. Bonnie's Barefoot Gardening Service, LLC officially opened for business the last week of July, and I have been busy scheduling design consults, setting up maintenance schedules, and organizing the structure of my business, which seems to have taken on a life of its own.

My vision for this business is to provide knowledgeable and meticulous horticultural services to clients who are passionate about gardening. Some of my clients work with me, sharing their vision as we tend their gardens together. Some clients passion hasn't quite reached their fingertips, and they prefer to watch or come home to a well cared for and loved landscape. The one aspect that ties all my clients together is a love for growth. Whether participating, watching, or doing it all on their own with just my coaching, my clients have passion for their plants, and a desire to know and love their gardens.

There's a lot to do as a business owner, all of it new territory for me, but interestingly enough, none of it overwhelming. This business is a creature of my own design, and learning to encourage one aspect of growth while slowing down another is a fascinating process that I am fully enjoying.

August was also full of personal growth and travel. Mid-month, I participated in an Outward Bound

course for veterans; the course was sea kayaking in the Outer Banks of North Carolina for five days. I was privileged to meet fellow veterans from all different walks of life, time of service and military branch. Of course, I was the token Coastie on the team, and for some of my team mates, the first Coastie they'd ever met. I hope I did my branch proud.

Next, it was off to Texas with my son to see a dear friend and her family for my and my son's birthday. Texas, you surprised me and are now in the running for future places to live. As I write this, I am mentally going over my packing list for one last trip for the year. I am heading to Las Vegas for five days- a late birthday present to myself- to stay with a friend. While there we have a marvelously packed itinerary including Bryce Canyon, the Northern Rim of the Grand Canyon, Hoover Dam, and of course, all things Las Vegas.

This summer has been a wonderful time of change and growth, a trend I plan on continuing for life. I cannot adequately express the joy I have in my heart as I take these steps in life- and I am thankful for all the love and support I have received along the way. To continued growth!

Slow and Small: Sweet Success

Life is big right now. My calendar is filling up with consults and site visits, but as I jot each entry in three different calendars to combat my forgetfulness, I am filled with a large feeling of smallness. I spent this past weekend walking the glorious Buffalo Garden Walk, connecting with future clients, and rubbing elbows with industry professionals who praised my bold move to pursue my dream career in horticulture. It was a euphoric few days, but now as I sit alone at my desk checking and double checking my calendar and email for anything I may have forgotten, I feel suddenly so small for this journey. Don't worry, by the end of this post I pledge to have worked myself out of this funk- but for now, I need to explore it.

I had no clients booked for today, something my aching post-Garden Walk feet reveled in, but I felt anxious that I should be doing something- anything- and that to waste today was the beginning of the end of my business. Logically, that's ridiculous, as I have two design/install jobs to write proposals for this week, two weekly maintenance jobs scheduled, and two site visits, along with some odd jobs for existing clients. I needed today as a home base day. There's still domestic chores, my home gardens, and most importantly myself  to which I must tend. Sitting at my counter eating lunch and writing a blog is not detrimental to the business; on the contrary, it's monumental to my business's success to take care of me.

These beginning times of running my business I am starting to recognize my need to set a pace, and remind myself that my biggest asset is a well-balanced, healthy Bonnie to run the business. Yes, I'm proverbially sitting on my own therapeutic couch and telling myself to breathe- and convincing myself that down time does not spell doom. I have this mental picture of self-employed people, always pressed for time, always on the go- and up until now mistook this whirlwind of busy to be in equal proportion to their success. I know from the outset that if that is the key to my success, I may as well leave the door to entrepreneurship tightly bolted shut. This business is more than a job that I must make money from, it is the gateway to a lifestyle that I am designing to sustain me as my best self from here until the end.

Quality of life is now intertwined with my business- because my business is life! To rush myself into activity is to contradict the very reason for leaving the rat race to walk barefoot among the gardens- to enjoy every moment of life- and to make even the act of "working" the fabric of life that defines me. Otherwise, I may as well go back to the grey cubicle and the dictates of a supervisor for a living.

August is almost exclusively a month of me- I am going on a sea kayaking trip with the Outward Bound Veterans program in the Outer Banks for six days, then at the end of the month I am headed to Texas with my son to see our dear friends for his birthday, and then it's off to Las Vegas to celebrate my half way to 70 birthday (doesn't everybody celebrate this milestone?) by visiting the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon. OK, and the Strip- secondary to National Parks in my book.

Point being- as a business woman- my methods only have to work and make sense to one person, and satisfy one person's goals- The Bonnie of Bonnie's Barefoot Gardening Service. The rest is all incidental. My goal is not to work for a living but to live for a living. At times, without the tight confines of traditional punch clocks and dollar goals, I may feel small in this vast opportunity that is now my way of life. Of course I am small in comparison! I have the world of gardens at my bare feet, and a lifetime in which to tend them.

Forever Focusing

As a new business owner, it seems there are thousand different aspects of the business on which I should be focusing my time, and still only the same 24 hours that were in the days when I worked set hours and had defined roles and expectations from a boss. Now, I'm the boss. But I'm also the creative designer, the planner, the administrative professional, the laborer, and also still just lil ol' me.

I have long range growth plans for this business that keep crowding in on the simple tasks that should command my immediate attention. For this year, my set concentration is garden maintenance for residential homes. Future plans include a log mushroom farm, seedling CSA, and bakery. I have faith I will incorporate most of those pieces- eventually. When I talk about my plans- all of those endeavors sound way more interesting than pulling weeds (ironically enough- pulling weeds is one of my favorite things to do). However, they are also all more risky and require more knowledge and skill than the gardening aspect of my business. Gardening comes easy to me. There is hardly any overhead. No kitchen inspections and no temperature and humidity concerns to cleaning out beds. Gardening is the backbone of my business plan- and it needs to be my central focus in these coming months. Even design/installs need to take a back seat to the steady maintenance jobs until my feet are solidly wet in all things business operations.

Cranberry Orange Pecan Scones

I'm a passionate, ambitious person, and I have to remind myself that all good things are best in moderation. I had made so many lofty plans for this week- log drilling, designing a website, paperwork organization, along with scheduled maintenance jobs and three baking orders. It's only Monday night and the ambitious plan has my shoulders aching. So the log drilling is getting pushed to next week, and the website is on hold for now. The paperwork was completed today. Berries were prepared for pie baking tomorrow morning. I can breathe a sigh of relief that all my documentation has been filed at both the state and county level for the business. Fungus will grow another day.

I can see that without a routine re-setting of my focus, it could be easy for me to be overwhelmed by this business endeavor. I also need to remind myself that small, steady, strong growth is better than a spontaneous burst of spindly growth that could extend me higher than I have roots for just yet. There will always be a bigger goal to set on the horizon, but for now the dozens of little, simple goals are altogether my monumental, and continual, central focus.

Oh, and readers, if that seemed like the biggest snooze fest entry ever to slog through, I'm just getting back in the swing of writing once a week, and although I dazzle your eyes with pictures on a regular basis on my page, sometimes my life is drab to the point of my biggest highlight being a self-induced "Focus Woman!" pep talk. Reward yourself by staring at the delicious scone for a moment. I'm going to do the same, and then eat one as well.

Service with a Smile

I apologize for the long absence, tomatoes and eggplant are fruiting and I missed three solid months of updates on what's happening with 3BsWithB. If you've been following my story you've read a lot of talk of taking steps, thinking about taking steps, and thinking about thoughts of taking steps into a homestead-based business. 

Two weeks ago I took a giant leap: I left my secure job as a federal Regulatory Biologist and filed for my LLC, as Bonnie's Barefoot Gardening Service. I am now officially living the dream of gardener, baker, and all around farm girl. I had many friends and family supporting this move, knowing that I have desired for years to run my own horticultural-based business. Still others could not believe it.  Why leave a secure, well paying job with a solid retirement package a month before I was due to get a $10,000 raise to venture into the risky land of entrepreneurship? I can't adequately explain it in this one post- but as a co-worker noted a week before I left- the passion for this career move shone from my face- and how could anyone hold that back?

Yesterday I spent eight hours cleaning out shade garden beds, chatting with my client and dear gardener friend about plans and plants, repairing a rock wall, and singing my heart out as I went. Growing up, I was given the advice to find out what I was created to do in this life- to pursue the work for which my hands naturally reached. Discovering this was the biggest step- not just, what makes me happy, or what am I good at, but what work calls to me? Growing plants and baking things have always been my passion- and the handing of those goods and watching anyone smile as a result of my service makes my heart sing.

This is what I have found in my business- the work that makes my heart sing. It's a service that I can provide to others while also feeding myself, literally and spiritually. I often think about where my son will go in this world, what will call to him as a career, and I hope I can adequately show him there's more to choosing your path than finding out what you're good at, or what makes you happy. I was good at my other job. While it did affect my happiness, I did not leave because I was unhappy. I left because I was drawn towards what I was created to do- what came naturally to me, and what makes my heart sing. 

Will there be times of uncertainty? Times of hard work and other times of little work?  Isn't there that anywhere we go? Life is uncertain and ever changing, that's a given. Doubts will arise no matter where we stand. As for me, I will stand through all these times barefoot  in my gardens, providing the services that make both my clients and my heart smile. 

Tomato Talk... Mostly

Can we accurately call today mid-April? Alright, so I'm off by a couple of days, but fairly close. For me that means two things: one, I haven't posted on my blog in over a month, and two, I'm trailing a week behind on my seed starting schedule. Neither are very severe and the latter far more important than the former. March was a tumultuous month. My progress imitated the weather, with a warm sunshiny day spurring bud growth, followed by a solid dumping of snow to hide all signs of spring.

But it's April now, and a lovely 60-something out today. Yesterday I started four varieties of tomato: San Marzano, Tigerella, Purple Cherokee, and Brandywine. My goal with tomatoes this year is to lean more towards canning-friendly varieties, as well as several unique and flavorful heirloom table varieties. Last year I planted ten plants each of only three different varieties, and one was a terrible let down. That was the yellow pear tomato, ironically also the most abundant. It was dull, lacking in both sweetness and acidity. The Chocolate Cherry was the second variety from last year, and it was alright as far as cherry tomatoes go, but I wasn't overly impressed.



Speckled Roman from 2016

My only table tomato from last year was the Glacier, which produced a good yield, tasty enough to eat right off the vine. The Glacier is on the smaller side, so not the best for sandwich slices, but perfect quartered in a salad. My favorite tomato from last year was the Speckled Roman, which I planted later than the above three, and only grew four plants. It is such a lovely tomato, a cross between Banana Legs and Antique Roman, a bright red with orange and yellow zebra-like stripes. Sadly, most of this variety was affected by blossom end rot. So, the point of all that tomato talk is that this year's crop is going to have much more variety, with only one to two plants each, and no blasé yellow pear tomatoes. I have over two hundred vegetable and herb seed packets, and I am having a very hard time narrowing down what I can (and simply cannot!) include in this year's garden.

Last year was my first vegetable garden on the farm and I got a bit eccentric with my choices, growing quinoa and broom corn, neither of which did anything but look majestic on the stalk. Corn was another frivolous crop of 2016 that, thanks to the drought, produced only Halloween decorations and compost fodder. This year is about growing vegetables and herbs so I buy little to no produce this summer, and have a decent amount to can and freeze for the winter. I also have plans to raise my own annuals for the farm window boxes. I have heliotrope sprouting in the seed room now, and plan on starting alyssum, nasturtium, marigold, and calendula, with a smattering of others for a bright cheery pop against the light yellow of the farmhouse.

This year will also be my first time using heat mats for germination. I have been using them on those native seedlings from my cold stratification post a few weeks back. The seedlings in cells are quite touchy, with only around 50 percent survival. The seedlings in my Gatorade jugs are doing considerably better, and are not on heat mats. I am attributing this to the tendency of the cells to dry out much faster, and the jugs to stay more evenly moist with little watering.

Tomatoes in Jugs

This week I started the above four tomato varieties in jugs, and four pepper varieties in cells, and two varieties of eggplant. Today's seed starting plan is to make a definitive list of what I will be starting and map out my beds to ensure I have the space.


I have a little beekeeping update as well. I brought up my hives a few weeks ago with plans to harvest the honey and clean out the hives to take a year hiatus from beekeeping. But a farmer friend of mine a few towns over has offered to purchase bees if I keep them on his farm to pollinate his crops this year. I'm quite excited about that, as I was sad to skip a year of beekeeping, but I couldn't handle the cost of bees after losing two hives that were only a year old. The old hives will be left with honey intact for the 2017 installation, and it was even recommended not to clean out any of the comb and let the bees housekeep and re-use as much as they could from the previous colonies. My son and I did collect a few jars before we received this recommendation, but the rest is being left for the new residents!


A quick touch on the last B of this blog, I have a special order for a fancy Danish for Easter, and I am looking to try a few traditional Easter baked goods, so check back for pictures of those creations next week!

Danish Almond Ring I made last month