Beauty in the Berkshires

I just got back from a whirlwind vacation in New England with my family. We headed north to Maine, where we dealt with some rain, then made our way south to see friends in New Hampshire and finally ended up in the Berkshires.

During our last day of vacation we spent a beautiful day at Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort in Hancock, MA with some of my good friends. I'd been there during the ski season with my daughter, so I was excited to see what kinds of activities they offered during the summer months.

We all had a blast at their Mountain Adventure Park, which has the only Mountain Coaster on the East Coast as well as an Alpine Slide, Giant Swing and plenty of fun things to keep the kids busy.

Besides being impressed with all their activities, I was excited to see some really creative flower plantings throughout the resort. My friend who works there says they have over 56 flowerbeds and container plantings, which are maintained by gardener and flower extraordinaire Karen Fairs. What a job that must be!

Next time you're heading up to the Berkshires, I highly recommend a stop at Jiminy Peak to get your share of fun and adventure in a truly beautiful setting!

-Stacey

GMG

From Dog Shows to Trade Shows, GMG is Buzzing

It's been a buzzy February. I started out the month speaking about Social Media at the ANLA Management Clinic in Louisville. If you are on the fence about having a Facebook Fan page or Tweeting, take a look at the presentation "Social Media: Do I do or do I don't?".

After ANLA, I flew to Boston to present the Garden Media Group's 2010 Trends Report at New England Grows. It's a huge show. The night I arrived, I went to a Tweetup of garden writers and landscape designers. It was fun to put names to faces.

And last week was another whirlwind. I spent a fabulous three days in New York visiting media with Margie Grace, APLD 2009 International Landscape Designer of the Year. We're pictured here with the publishing group from Tauton Press, going up to visit editors at the Hearst Building and at dinner with the folks from Martha Stewart Living.

Margie's partner, Dawn Close, took us all to the finals of the Westminster Dog Show! It was fabulous. That's Fred and Katie with me looking out on the show ring.

I got home, change suit cases and flew to Berkely CA for the Association of Professional Landscaper's strategic planning meeting and annual APLD Chapter Leadership Symposium. About 70 landscape designers from around the country gathered to share and learn how to grow a stronger organization. The new APLD tag line: We define landscape design. I presented something on branding and Susan Cohan talked about social media as we all tweeted. That's Kathy Rudnyk from Monrovia, one of the sponsors of the event.

This week is The Philadelphia Flower Show and two TV gardening segments on NBC 10, so look for more on that later.

Happy Gardening,

Suzi

Garden Media Group