Park Seed Memories

Information Overload Day: Another Great Excuse to Escape into the Garden!

I began my business career in Information Technology (or Data Processing, as it was called then). So I still water my techie roots by reading a variety of sources, including some online newsletters. Well, I recently received a newsletter talking about information overload, with these ominous words:

"By 2012, the typical knowledge worker will be drowning in a sea of email communications, text and instant messages, various forms of content, tweets, RSS feeds, and more. Today knowledge workers lose on average 25% of the workday to Information Overload."

Interestingly, the technology company behind the newsletter proposes to fight information overload by celebrating August 12th as Information Overload Awareness Day and having a conference. With twelve speakers. A vendor panel. A website.

Excuse me, but that sounds like it would add to my information overload!

How about you? Knowing now that August 12 is Information Overload Awareness Day, how will you celebrate it? Or are you too busy to do so? If you think you simply have too much to do, too many emails to get through, too many bills to pay, too many calls to answer, than I would say you need to observe this day!

We all have our limits, and we all need moments of calm and quiet. Here are a few suggestions on how you can celebrate this day, even during your hectic, burning-the-candle-at-both-ends daily routine:

* First and foremost, grab your gardening gloves and spend some time tending your favorite flowers or adding something new to your beds and borders. And if you don't have a garden yet, today's a great time to start! It doesn't have to be big to be beautiful!

* Turn off your cell phone, computer, PDA, etc. for an hour (longer if you can).

* Go to a park or favorite spot at a lake or river and just sit – listen to the birds, squirrels, water, and other sounds of nature.  (Personally, I prefer to get my tweets from actual birds, not Blackberries.)

* Get a glass of your favorite cool beverage, grab a book, and go spend an hour relaxing in your backyard hammock.

• * Turn off the TV and get outside to play on the swing set with your kids.
• * Do anything else that simply relaxes you and reduces the amount of information being forced into your head!

As for me, I think I'll make time during that day to take a stroll in Park Seed's 9-acre trial garden. It's a beautiful, quiet place and best of all, my boss will think I'm working out there!

Let us know how you celebrated Information Overload Awareness Day, or just how you escape the hurley burley anytime! we always love to hear from our customers, whether or not what you want to talk to us about has anything to do with gardening. So, go relax! And when you get back, email me at ckuhl@parkseed.com with your pictures and stories!

Vintage Photographs Show the Wayside Gardens of the 1950s

I've been lucky this summer to have access to an eager young intern named D'Amishia (below right). She's spending part of her summer here, honing her work skills and helping us out on a variety of tasks. One of her assignments was to help me with the endless--but interesting!--project of archiving the many artifacts we have representing the history of our brands. D'Amishia rather literally dug right in and explored the boxes and boxes of Wayside Gardens materials stashed in the Library.

The Park Seed Company purchased Wayside Gardens in 1975, and I believe these boxes probably date from around that time. D'Amishia first created an inventory list of all the catalogs and materials they contained. I've already shared that list with my virtual friend Josh, the historian in Ohio who is documenting the saga of nursery businesses that grew up in the Lake County area of Ohio. I'm hoping it will help in his research.

The real treasure, though, was a manilla folder she found that was stuffed with dozens of black & white photographs of the Wayside Gardens nursery campus in Mentor, Ohio, where J. J. Grullemans and Elmer Schultz originally founded the business. It appears that all these photos are from the late 1950s. D'Amishia faithfully scanned all of those pictures into an electronic file, so that we can share them and preserve them. To give you a flavor of the 1959 Wayside Gardens, the place and the people, check out the photo album at left.

As you will see in the photo album, I have lots of questions about the pictures. Who are those people? What are they doing? Why are they doing that?!? If you have any answers, and especially if YOU or someone you know is in these pictures, please contact me at ckuhl@parkseed.com and tell me your story. You can bring history to life for us by sharing your information!

WRG2: David and Goliath (the Giant Zucchini!)

Here at Park Seed, we not only do we work in the horticulture industry to serve gardeners, but also we are gardeners, too! (WRG2) Now, frankly, after the recent hip replacement, I personally didn't get to do any outdoor gardening this year. Happily for me, though, a fine gentleman in our Search department has had a terrific vegetable garden this year, and he has been kind enough to share the fruits of his labor! My family has feasted several times on summer squash and zucchini from David Wilson (left).

As you can imagine, I was tickled to see David outside my office door today, bearing yet another plump bag brimming with two kinds of squash and a couple of lovely tomatoes! I confess, however, I was rather startled when he whipped a giant green bat from behind his back. No, wait...it's not a baseball bat! It's a giant zucchini!

Apparently, while David was gone for a few days, the rain and the sun blessed his garden rather significantly, and a few of his zucchini got carried away! He brought in this Goliath of a zuke just for fun. We agreed that it might not be the tastiest veg in on the plate at this stage. We had a good laugh, and I suggested that he might try carving it into a Jack O'Lantern. (Hey, it's never too early to prepare for Halloween!) I'll keep you posted on any scary creations that emerge.

I asked David if I could share his biography here, but he's a very modest gentleman, and allowed as how he'd rather just share his picture. But I insist on telling you that in my observation, he's a polite, hard-working man. Certainly generous, as my dinner table will attest! And clearly, he comes from good stock. His Dad came to visit on Flower Day, and I had a chance to meet him. So thank you, David, for good fun, good food, and good fellowship!

Did you grow something large or scary in your garden this season? Email your pictures and stories to me (ckuhl@parkseed.com) and I'll post them here!