Wednesday, April 16, 2008

new herb spiral!



Here is my newly built herb spiral! I got the idea from a workshop at Edible Landscaping nursery in Afton, VA. I had 2.5 tons of rock delivered from a local quarry... I probably only used about 2/3 of that pile. I also used almost 1 cubic yard of mushroom compost (the county where I live calls itself the mushroom capital of the world). I have enough compost left over to put in a couple of large pots for a couple of tomato plants. It's a bit too early to plant herbs yet (we had frost this morning), but I have them growing in my Aerogarden and also under lights in my basement... my strawberry pot will go on the top little platform and maybe you can see my rosemary plant I transplanted already... it's a wee bit scraggly from the winter, but the roots are strong, and I think it will be very happy!

Monday, April 14, 2008

gardening and brand image

My life has been pretty busy the past couple of weeks or so... with really fun stuff... I got to visit my mom in Virginia and she sent me home with 20 some perennials from her garden that had needed dividing... I also bought a couple of cherry trees from Edible Landscaping and have been growing lots of seeds in my basement with my dad's light stand. My mom gave me an Aerogarden for my birthday and I have lots of fresh herbs starting to come up at my desk... I can't wait until they're big enough to harvest! The folks at Edible Landscaping got me interested in an herb spiral... which I had never heard of until I saw it on their website (look up herb spirals on google images for more info). Well, I fell in love with the idea, and a couple of weeks later I had 2.5 tons of rock and a cubic yard of mushroom compost dumped in my yard... and I've been busy building!! It's really coming along, and will probably be finished in the next few days. I will post pics when it's done. So... the herbs from my desk will have a place to go outside and be very happy I hope.

Last week I went to a great workshop in philadelphia with Ann Daly, sponsored by PennPAT (pennsylvania performing arts on tour). The morning was dedicated to brand image for performers, and the afternoon to time management/organizing for touring artists. I got a lot out of the day, and I thought it interesting that she stressed not trying to market to multiple audiences... to drop that idea once and for all... well, I was thinking that really applied to me... trying not to talk about relaxation albums separately from 'european jazz' and other edgier stuff I might play with Jody... but then I see she herself has a couple of different websites, one for her arts consulting and another for her life coaching... with different brand logos ... lol! I'll have to write to her and ask her her thoughts on that.

I also found it interesting that she was talking about trying to define your ideal audience--there was a indian classical musician in the workshop who said his music was for "people of all ages"... and she tried to get him to narrow that down a little... I think as a group we came up with "for seekers of all ages" as an example he might work with. I thought the conversation was interesting, but it didn't really hit home until that night I went to a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert... and saw all the fans with tattoos, monster trucks, heavy boots, and casual dress... and I chuckled to myself and thought, well maybe this isn't my target audience for relaxation music... not to say there wouldn't be plenty of people at the concert who would love the music (hey, I was at a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert in my "artsy-funky" dress and my earplugs--probably not at all the target audience for that band... but I LOVED it!!)... but maybe the indian classical musician and I should focus our efforts on some other target audiences.

I'm playing in Raleigh in less than 2 weeks... and I really haven't kicked into high gear in my practice sessions yet, alas... I've been outside building herb spirals. I'm quite sure that I will get my butt moving, starting today... make that starting right now!