Times are A’Changin’ at Perennially Yours
The Mendez family has gone through quite a faith ride since last August when my husband broke his neck the night of Hurricane Irene.
Seeing the ugly writing on the wall earlier this year, I began seeking a full time job with benefits for my family. I was ecstatic when I was offered a position with 
Faddegon’s Nursery in Latham (NY). I will be wearing many gardening hats from sales and marketing, event planning, blogging, writing e-newsletters and working the ‘floor’. I am so excited! I will be joining this premier nursery’s staff on April 23.
So what does this mean for Perennially Yours? My wonderful husband has ‘formally’ joined me as the Office Manager. Phew! He will manage the day to day operations including booking my speaking engagements, shipping books, data entry, and overseeing logistical details for my events, including the Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium.
I will continue to do speaking engagements around the country, teach some classes and garden institutes, host the annual Great Gardens and Landscaping Symposium, sell my gardening books and write freelance articles. I will also continue to write my gardening newsletters BUT these will now be BI-MONTHLY. Please check my garden blog on Faddegon’s web site (http://www.faddegons.com/) for lots of gardening tips! Plus, I will no longer be offering home garden and landscape consultations via Perennially Yours BUT we are looking to add this service at Faddegon’s in the near future. I will keep you updated about this in my newsletters.
As I will be now working a 45+ hour week job, with a one hour round trip commute, I will no longer be an online resource for gardening questions. I know many of you have asked me a quick question over the years that I’ve gladly answered. I simply cannot do this anymore given the change in positions. I hope you will understand and respect this. I encourage you to call your local extension office with questions. Master Gardeners are a wealth of information!
Finally, regarding open houses, these too will go by the wayside as my new job begins. Actually, I had already decided to cancel 2012 open houses after
receiving some complaints last year. And these complaints are well founded. As Perennially Yours is now in its 18th season, the number of our wonderful patrons has swelled. The cars arriving for open houses on my little side street has caused difficulty parking for many in my neighborhood. This simply is not fair to them. I do plan to have one big sale this year as I have dig up the island garden on the west side of my house for a driveway to be installed (it only took 25 years to do this!) I promise to give you a timely heads-up with this date(s) once it’s set. As a substitute for the open gardens, I hope to do periodic video strolls through the gardens with talking points and then post these on my web site.
Yes, times are a’changin but I chose to embrace it, not fight it! Please join me in doing the same.