The Sensational Sow Simple Tour

Sow Simple offers over a hundred fun and eco-friendly gardening projects

Authors Christina Symons and John Gillespie are hitting the road to promote their new book Sow Simple: 100+ Green and Easy Projects to Make Your Garden Awesome

Some gardeners just always leave you inspired. Authors Christina Symons and her partner John Gillespie are two such people. Both leave a trail of beauty wherever they go – John with the amazing landscapes he designs and plants and Christina with all of her beautiful eco-inspired garden and home ideas that she subsequently photographs.

Between the two, they have amassed an incredible body of design, garden-to-kitchen and garden-planting knowledge and inspiration, with the three Rs – reduce, reuse and recycle – as their golden rule. (Check out their recycled flowerpot kitchen pendant and Friday night lights.

Over the next couple of weeks, John and Christina are on a road trip to launch their newly published second book, Sow Simple: 100+ Green and Easy Projects to Make Your Garden Awesome.

I know this book well, having given them a hand with the editing: it’s a generous volume of ecological step-by-step gardening tips and ideas with the gorgeous results photographed by Christina. Literally a decade of inspiration is beautifully collected in both this and their first book, Everyday Eden: 100+ Fun, Green Garden Projects for the Whole Family to Enjoy.

Best of all, though, they are among the nicest people you will come across, so do take the time to go say hello and have a glass of their rhubarb lemonade if you can.

The Sow Simple Tour

• Saturday, April 28. 3:00 to 5:00 pm – Workshop & book signing at Cedar Rim Nursery in at 7024 Glover Road in Langley. As part of Cedar Rim Nursery’s Garden Expert Weekend, Christina Symons and John Gillespie will share some tips and tricks from Sow Simple at a free public event. Learn how to propagate your own plants with simple techniques and magic willow rooting “juice” that you can make at home. They’ll also show you how easy it is to craft cool concrete containers (you’ll need them for all those extra plants!). Plus, enjoy a display of awesome garden projects. For more information phone Cedar Rim Nursery at (604) 888-4491 or visit the Cedar Rim website.
• Thursday, May 3, at 6:30 pm – Workshop & book signing at Dig This in downtown Victoria (Fort Street location)
• Friday, May 4, at 5:30 pm – Workshop & book signing at Dig This at 5283 Rutherford Road Nanaimo

John and Christina’s garden where the
inspiration flows and grows

Join Christina Symons and John Gillespie for an evening full of fun garden tips and tricks and see a variety of sample projects from their new book, Sow Simple, that you can make at home (quirky concrete containers; how to propagate your own plants using magic willow rooting “juice”; a heart-pot trellis).

They will also demonstrate how to turn your garden into an exotic edible oasis and explain how to grow and blend your own healthy green teas. Refreshments will come from the book and workshop. For more information, phone Dig This! at (250) 585-0149 or email digthis.nanaimo@telus.net

• Saturday, May 5, at 2:00 pm – Demonstration & gardening Q & A at Cannor Nursery in Victoria
• Saturday, May 19, from 10:30 am-1:00 pm – Special “May Day” display and book signing at Blue Waters Book. Co. in Madeira Park
• Saturday, June 2, from 12:00-2:00 pm – Special “Local and Sustainable Day” display and book signing at Save On Foods Park & Tilford in North Vancouver