Today is our Tin Punch Workshop with Betsy Aufdenkamp and Monica. Its our first workshop in out new events tent. While Tin Punch really has nothing to do with gardening, so what. People are signed up, coffee and snacks will be served, and tin will be punched.

We are going to try and have a workshop at least every two weeks. This year we are going to try and get more help putting these on. While Monica and I enjoy teaching these classes it will be helpful to have experts like Betsy, to help hold some of these. In addition these workshops do not have to be about gardening. Tin punch, BBQ cooking class, home wine making, etc. as well as fruit tree pruning and other garden related subjects will all be part of the plan.

When your business deals with gardening you tend to group activities around that subject since we assume thats the reason people come to us. I think a lot of people come to the garden center looking for inspiration, not necessarily a certain plant or fertilizer. I think we need to think beyond the conventional and do the things that we find fun, since it would appear that our tastes are not that much different than many others.. I think a sense of discovery and fun is the key to keeping things lively and fresh at the nursery.

Of course this all dovetails with my goal of building a really cool BBQ and smoker so I can retire the Weber. I love cooking BBQ and sharing it with our friends (customers). Why not have a regular Friday after work BBQ and wine tasting featuring one of the local wineries? As a matter of fact we want it to be a local only produced event. Meat, vegetables, and drink can all be local. Why shouldn't our garden center be the place to discover and enjoy all the things that brought us to the foothills in the first place?

I know this sounds crazy as just running a garden center can be taxing, but this stuff is fun. It seems like when we are having fun the business just flows. My goal is to create a place that is fun for Monica and I to work at since we are here so much. When we are having fun the people around us tend to also have fun. Its weird, but when we focus on trying to make money we don't, but when we focus on having fun the money seem to flow better. The secret is to get beyond the fear of failure, which raises its head now and then. Since we are going on our fourth year now the fear of failure is a little less menacing. Now its time to focus on whats important, enjoying life and spreading that joy to our friends (customers)!