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June 4th, 2010
The biggest trade show of the year is always The National Hardware Show in Las Vegas. Thousands of people in the hardware and lawn and garden industries descend on the glitzy Las Vegas strip for 3 show days at the Convention Center.
 Womanswork Booth at the National Hardware Show The Womanswork booth looked very inviting with its company branded directors chairs, its displays brimming with garden gloves, sun hats and Garden Wheels, and our famous video playing in the background (our video was produced and shot by an emmy-nominated director Joe Locarro).
We stayed at The Marriott Grand Chateau which was a nice, smallish non-casino hotel. Just our style. We got around the city on the Monorail, which gives you a birds eye view of the city as you glide from one casino hotel stop to the next.
 Monorail in Las Vegas Las Vegas grows on me a little each time I go, but I am always glad to leave the clanging sound of slot machines behind and come back home.
Posted in 25th Anniversary of Womanswork | No Comments »
April 22nd, 2010
Children and gardening go together naturally, but too few kids experience the fun of getting down into the dirt. Try these projects to get them interested and don’t forget kids garden gloves to protect their hands.
What sounds like more fun to a child than growing garbage on a windowsill? For a “Garbage Garden” start with carrots and pineapples, potatoes, and other vegetable waste bound for the garbage pail. It’s educational and cheap too. There’s no need for pots either. You just recycle cottage cheese or yogurt containers (poke drainage holes in the bottom).
To start your garden cut ¾” or so off the top of the round end of a carrot. Press the cut end into a container of damp potting soil, and put it on a sunny windowsill. Keep the soil moist, and a green forest will soon start to sprout. Cut leafy pineapple tops (wear gardening gloves to protect from prickles) with only ¼” of the pineapple left on. Clean away any flesh and let it dry overnight. Firm the top into a few inches of damp potting soil. Keep it moist and in several weeks— voila! Roots.
 Garbage Gardening with a Potato White potatoes grow quickly. Look for old ones with nubbins of developing shoots (called eyes). Cut a potato in half, each with 1 or 2 eyes, let it dry overnight, then plant it cut side down. Keep moist and you’ll have an indoor garden in no time.
A good way to introduce older children to vegetables is with the Vegetable Garden Wheel. It helps them identify different popular vegetables and gives them the information they need to plan out a complete garden. The information is presented in a fun to use spinning format with lots of color.
 Vegetable Garden Wheel  Potato after just 3 weeks
Tags: gardening with kids, kids garden gloves, vegetable gardening
Posted in Ruth Rogers Clausen Tells All | No Comments »
April 12th, 2010
 Mom's Greenhouse Our greenhouse is moving along slowly, thank you very much. In the meantime, I have noticed that greenhouses come in all shapes and sizes. For instance, my mother has a “greenhouse” of the type I would put in quotation marks. She lives 35 miles north of me in Sharon, CT. This morning we visited a couple of garden centers in her neighborhood and presented the Womanswork line of garden gloves, then we went to her house for lunch. This is her “greenhouse.” It was purchased by mail through one of my favorite gardening companies, Lee Valley, and it consists of a lightweight metal frame with 2 shelves, covered in clear plastic with a zippered window for entry. She puts her seedlings in there during the day, while the sun is shining , but she brings in her trays at night since temperatures are still low in northwestern Connecticut. In fact tonight they are predicting a frost in her area.
Another type of “greenhouse” is the window extension. You can have this built onto an existing window. It offers sun from the top and 3 sides and is very useful for a few seedlings and potted houseplants.
The next level up in greenhouses is the free standing greenhouse kit such as the one shown below. These greenhouses are often sold as “do-it-yourselfers” and are situated in an area of the yard where they can get full sun.
Finally, there is the type that is part greenhouse and part sunroom. Although our greenhouse will not be ornate like the ones shown here, it is more along the lines of these greenhouses because it is being designed to fit the architecture of the house. In winter it will get full sun but in summer a large oak tree will shade it so it won’t need as much ventilation and cooling as most free standing greenhouses do.
 The Conservatory Greenhouse  Free Standing Greenhouse from a Kit  Window ExtensionGreenhouse and Sunroom
 Greenhouse and Sunroom
Tags: Building A Greenhouse, garden gloves, How to build a greenhouse
Posted in Building A Greenhouse | No Comments »
April 11th, 2010
 Garden Mystery Give Away We have two paperback copies of Rosemary Harris’ Pushing Up Daisies to give away, along with a pair of Womanswork nitrile weeding gloves. Pushing Up Daisies is Rosemary’s first novel, and it won her the “Anthony and Agatha” nomination for best first novel. This week she launches her third book, Dead Head, published by St. Martin’s Minotaur imprint. I read it this weekend and it is as much fun as the first two were. Her books fit into the category of cozy mysteries. I found this definition at suite101.com. “Cozies are the kind of stories one might read while curled up on the couch with a cup of tea.” There’s no gore or gratuitous violence.
The main character in Rosemary Harris’ ”Dirty Business” series is Paula Holliday, a cheeky 40-something woman, newly single and launching a landscaping business in a small town in Connecticut after being downsized from her big city career in video production. It turns out she has a knack for getting to the bottom of things, and finds herself at the center of a whodunnit in every plotline. Her landscaping business figures in her stories, which makes it a bonus for gardeners to read.
 Rosemary Harris' Third Garden Mystery I met Rosemary Harris for coffee at The Lakeside Diner (aka Paradise Diner). Read her books to find out the significance of that! I was impressed by the fact that she wears two hats. She is not only a writer, which is impressive enough, but she is a businesswoman. These days, you have to be willing and able to think like a marketing person because most publishers have limited resources for that. I commented that her lead character reminds me of a Womanswork woman. She’s independent minded, a hard worker and likes to garden. That’s why we decided to cross promote Rosemary’s books with Womanswork gloves. We hope to work with the publisher in the future to do more.
Write a comment and we will do a random drawing for the books and gloves around this time next week. Let us know your glove size (size chart is here)
Posted in Books We Like | 3 Comments »
April 1st, 2010
So spring is here and the summer and fall-blooming shrubs need to be pruned—right? Well, yes and no. Don’t be in a rush. Beware of pruning too early, especially those silver-leaved beauties that have only just started into growth.
 Perovskia atriplicifoia Through bitter experience, I have found that it is better to wait a couple of weeks until at least 1″ of new young growth is showing. You can always cut back later, but too early pruning may indeed toll the bell for butterfly bush (Buddleia, shown here), common sage (Salvia officinalis), Russian sage (Perovskia), bluebeard (Caryopteris), lavender, etc. A friend of mine living in the Delaware Valley had a crescent-shaped bed with a row of tall butterfly bushes running down the spine. One spring, they were pruned hard just as the sap was rising and the buds were beginning to break. The following week there was an extended cold snap and every last butterfly bush was killed! It was a disaster and very hard lesson for her.
When I decide to prune these shrubs, I always wear sturdy and comfortable garden gloves to protect my hands, and am sure to use sharp hand pruners and loppers (www.felcostore.com). To encourage vigorous new growth, prune hard towards the base where new shoots are emerging. Cut above a bud on a slant so rain runs off the top of the cut. The harder you cut, the more vigorous the plants will grow. Every few years take the whole plant down to about a foot from ground level to increase vigor and control size.
 Salvia officinalis
Tags: garden gloves, pruning silvery leaved shrubs, spring pruning
Posted in Ruth Rogers Clausen Tells All | No Comments »
March 22nd, 2010
 Ruth's Greenhouse Welcome to my 10′ x 9′ greenhouse. It faces south with a sliding door from the living room. When spring comes I can walk through it onto the deck where I pot up lots of fun combinations in planters. Many of the plants I use have been overwintered and propagated in my greenhouse. My nitrile garden gloves live there too where they are close to hand. At the moment several varieties of velvety-leaved aromatic Cuban oregano (Plectranthus), a current favorite of mine, are being propagated through cuttings. Coleus and Streptocarpella do well, the latter in full bloom along with mini-fuchsia (Fuchsia cana). I keep geraniums, especially scented ones, growing and blooming through the winter. Chives, parsley and mint are residents too, of course. I’ll be starting seeds any day now—sweet peas in cardboard egg cartons, sweet alyssum (8 weeks to bloom), and spinach.
 Plants are Propagated with Cuttings Propagating plants with cuttings is an easy task. Clip a 1 ½” to 3″ long piece of a young shoot from the mother plant, recut where leaves emerge, remove the lower leaves, and insert the cutting into damp rooting mix: perlite or vermiculite. Water gently. I enclose the whole thing in a plastic vegetable bag, blow it up, and secure tightly with a twistie. This balloon-like cocoon prevents the cuttings from drying out. Keep them away from direct sun or they will cook.
Tags: garden gloves, greenhouse, Ruth Rogers Clausen
Posted in Building A Greenhouse, Ruth Rogers Clausen Tells All | No Comments »
March 18th, 2010
 Tom stirring tomato sauce for ziti Womanswork hosted another evening meal at The Lunch Box in Poughkeepsie last week. On a typical evening The Lunch Box serves 150 people who need a hot meal. They also serve lunch on week days but this has expanded to include dinners whenever they can get volunteers like us to do it. The numbers of people in need of services like this have been growing here in Dutchess County, NY, like everywhere else.
Nora Madonick, a new friend in town, has volunteered to help us whenever we do these evenings. She recommends that we recruit others to help us in the future and that we split the responsibilities of cooking the meal. I agree! I wanted to see what it felt like to cook for such a big group and now I know!
There is a strong connection between gardening and food, and Womanswork has made a commitment as a company to help fight hunger, starting locally. We will keep building our network of friends who want to volunteer with us so we can continue to volunteer at The Lunch Box. We are more than a garden glove company.
Time allowing, there is a dynamic group called The Poughkeepsie Food Project, that I want us to get involved with also. PFP has a community garden and farmers market, and has programs aimed at teaching the value of “growing your own” to teens and others. They make large food contributions to people in need as well. Tom and I spent a recent Saturday brainstorming with them on ideas for the coming season.
Tags: connection between gardening and food, garden glove company, gardening and food
Posted in Cooking With Eve, Fighting Hunger | No Comments »
February 13th, 2010
 Early Catalog Cover for Womanswork This year marks Womanswork’s 25th year in business. We thought, what better time than now to say thanks to our garden glove fans with a little give away contest?
The Womanswork Story.
But first some background on us. Womanswork was started in Maine in 1985 because there were no good work gloves designed to fit women’s hands. A little black and white (and sepia) catalog was sent to a growing list of women who needed a good work and garden glove. The logo “Strong Women Building A Gentle World” was written and became the rallying cry stamped on the back of each pair of gloves.
What’s different about Womanswork gloves is that they are all designed by women, so the fit, the features (such as machine washability), and the designs and colors are all geared to what women like.
 Dorian Winslow, Womanswork owner  High-Performance-Garden-Glove I’m the owner of Womanswork and I like to stay in touch with our customers through email, phone calls, face-to-face at trade shows, and now Facebook and this blog. The feedback we get helps us make our garden gloves and other products better all the time.
Thanks for 25 Years!
 Thank you gift--Chocolate hearts The other day we were putting together little packages of gourmet chocolate hearts in a Womanswork mug and sending them to a handful of our favorite wholesale clients, mostly garden center owners and managers. It occurred to us that, while we can’t possibly say “thanks” to all of our customers in this way, maybe we could say ‘thank you for 25 years’ to our wider audience of fans in a different way. So that’s what we’ll do. Stay tuned for garden glove contest details.
 Our production line of thank you gifts
Tags: 25th anniversary, garden gloves
Posted in 25th Anniversary of Womanswork | 2 Comments »
February 7th, 2010
We spent the last 6 days in New York at the Jacob Javits Center, along with thousands of other people (perhaps tens of thousands). We stayed at the W Hotel on Lexington Ave and 50th Street. How appropriate.
 "W" is for W Hotel and for Womanswork Eve was with me as we met with owners and representatives of retail stores across the country. They were all looking for new items and many of them seemed pleased to see us there with our colorful, well made garden gloves, sun hats and Garden Wheels. We also saw some media people including editors from Better Homes & Gardens magazine and our friend Madaline Sparks from Real Simple.
 Dorian and Eve at the New York Gift Fair Down the row from our booth was a fun collection of indoor/ outdoor containers and baskets. I purchased some of them at the end of the show, which I will use for planting bulbs next winter. One of the fringe benefits of these shows is you get to pick up items from other exhibitors who are happy to sell their samples. We sold a lot of our own gloves to other exhibitors in this way.
 Pots being sold at another booth
Tags: garden gloves, Garden Wheels, sun hats
Posted in Winter Topics | No Comments »
January 24th, 2010
When my husband Tom asked me why I wanted a greenhouse I said that I wanted to be able to can and pickle and preserve vegetables and fruits. He replied that those are not exactly things you do in a greenhouse. He has a point.
I realized at that moment that I had constructed in my mind an elaborate fantasy that involved growing things from seed to transplant to harvest to preserving. I pictured a factory production line in my kitchen, with canning jars being boiled and cute little labels being printed off the computer. I would give away my homegrown preserves as gifts or someday sell them on my Womanswork garden glove website.
 cute little jam jars I am not the kind of person who lets fantasies go to waste. First thing we did was punch a big hole in the back of our house and put in a doorway that will lead to the future greenhouse. At that point I knew there would be no turning back. We call it ‘the door to nowhere.’
 Door to Nowhere with Foundation in Progress Then in October we built a full foundation ‘to code’. We completed it just before the first snowfall. (read about that in my October blog entry)
 Poured Slab With Snow Cozying up to Green house Catalogs and How To Books
There are many things to think about when planning a greenhouse. I got three books on building a greenhouse for Christmas and on cold days I can be found reading in front of the fire, sipping hot tea and hibernating under a fluffy throw, thinking about the fun I will have. In my next post I will review some of my reading material. I have also learned of websites for canning supplies, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
 How-To Greenhouse Books
Tags: Building A Greenhouse, garden gloves, How to build a greenhouse
Posted in Building A Greenhouse, Winter Topics | No Comments »
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