March 18: St. Catharines Horticultural Society

March 19: Milne House Garden Club

April 9: Orangeville Horticultural Society

April 13: Lee Valley Tools Burlington (free in-store talk and book signing)

April 16: East Gwillimbury Garden & Horticultural Society

April 23: Alliston & District Horticultural Society

April 24: Brooklin Horticultural Society

And I’ve already booked some talks for 2020…

Richmond Hill Horticultural Society: March 3

Brantford Waterwise Gardening Seminar: March 9

Canada Blooms: March 13

Trenton Horticultural Society: June 18

My main topic is about raised beds (I’ve included a synopsis below). I also run longer workshops.

Raised Bed Revolution: Why raised beds rule
Whether you have a teeny tiny patio or a big yard, raised beds are a great gardening solution that allow you to garden almost anywhere. There are also multiple benefits to building raised bed gardens, from covering up poor soil and providing better accessibility to extending the growing season. Learn about the benefits, and come away inspired by ideas that you can use to create your own raised bed. Not handy? No problem! There are lots of premade kits available to let you get started right away. You’ll also learn where to put your new garden, what soil to use and what to plant—edibles, as well as ornamentals for the pollinators!

Please email me at taranolan00[at]gmail.com if you are interested in booking me for a talk. Besides my expertise in raised beds, I also can provide a presentation about Garden BFFs: Why you should plant ornamentals in your edible garden and vice versa. My partners and I have written about this topic on Savvy Gardening. I can also adapt my talks to suit the audience.

Here is where I’m booked in 2018.

January 11: Brantford Garden Club
March 5: City of Brantford
March 9: Canada Blooms
March 14: Scarborough Horticultural Society
March 17: Wilmot Horticultural Society
April 9: Oro-Medonte Horticultural Society
April 10: Royal Botanical Garden
April 19: Westdale Library
April 21: Lee Valley Tools
April 23: Markham Horticultural Society
May 2: Etobicoke Horticultural Society
May 7: Glen Morris Horticultural Society
September 13: Niagara Master Gardeners
October 10: Uxbridge Garden Club
October 20: Lincoln Garden Club
October 23: Guelph Horticultural Society

In French, it’s called Les Potagers Surélevés: De la construction à la plantation – jardinez n’importe où! and in German it’s called Alles über Hochbeete: Geniale Ideen vom Bau bis zur Bepflanzung.

If you are interested in a review copy, I can obtain one from my publisher.

Please email me at taranolan00[at]gmail.com if you are interested in booking me for a talk. Besides my expertise in raised beds, I also have a talk about Garden BFFs: Why you should plant ornamentals in your edible garden and vice versa. My partners and I have written about this topic on Savvy Gardening. I can also adapt my talks to suit the audience.

2017 speaking engagements

* March 10, 2017: Canada Blooms
* April 8, 2017: Barrie Garden Club
* April 10, 2017: Author event at Hamilton Public Library’s Central Branch
* April 11, 2017: Beeton Horticultural Society
* April 13, 2017: Terryberry branch of Hamilton Public Library
* April 18, 2017: Ancaster Horticultural Society
* April 20, 2017: Kenilworth branch of Hamilton Public Library
* April 21, 2017: Mount Hamilton Horticultural Society
* April 22, 2017: Aylmer & District Horticultural Society
* April 23, 2017: Plant World
* April 24, 2017: Ayr Horticultural Society
* May 1, 2017: Waterdown branch of Hamilton Public Library
* May 3, 2017: Toronto Botanical Garden
* May 6: Lee Valley Tools, Burlington
* June 6: Lee Valley Tools, Vaughan
* June 12, 2017: Georgina-Brock Garden Club
* June 15, 2017: East York Garden Club
* September 25, 2017: Midland Horticultural Society

For my first article, I interviewed paint legend Annie Sloan Q&A style. For the second piece, I featured a beach-inspired bathroom renovation created by Rebecca Hay of Rebecca Hay Designs, whose work has appeared on HGTV’s Income Property, among others. I’ll post a link to the PDFs as soon as I get them.

My  next articles appeared in a Restyle Your Home section that was published Thursday, October 13. My articles for that section included:

* A Q&A with Michelle Slatalla, editor of Gardenista.com and author of the new book by the same name. I met Slatalla who was the keynote speaker at an influencer summit I attended earlier this year at P. Allen Smith’s Moss Mountain Farm.

* A product roundup, featuring décor items that will keep you cosy in the fall, both indoors and out.

* An article about extending your growing season with a cold frame. It featured a photo of the cold frame I designed using an old window for my book Raised Bed Revolution.

Raised Bed Revolution excerpts

* HGTV’s MADE + remade blog on the DIY network (wrote a fresh piece about my salad table): Elevate Your Salad: Make a Raised Bed Lettuce Table

* Canadian Living magazine: Excerpt appeared in July 2016 issue + online as Enjoy a longer veggie-growing season with raised bed gardens

* Zoomer magazine: Excerpt appeared in June 2016 print issue + online

* Garden Making magazine: Excerpt appeared in Summer 2016 issue + online giveaway

Articles about Raised Bed Revolution

* March 24, 2017: “Jardin: comment fabriquer soi-même un potager surélevé” by Marc Mennessier for Le Figaro, one of France’s biggest daily newspapers. Raised Bed Revolution is Les Potagers Surélevés in French.

* December 10, 2016: “Up We Grow: Raised beds let gardens flourish in even the most impractical spaces” by Colleen Zacharias for her Winnipeg Free Press column. This article appeared as a two-page spread in the newspaper and online.

* September 10, 2016: “Reasons to build a raised garden bed” by Mark Cullen for his Toronto Star column. This article was also syndicated in 12 other daily newspapers across Canada, including Yarmouth County Vanguard, The Londoner, and Hants Journal.

* Summer 2016: Article on Toronto Botanical Garden website called “Everything you ever wanted to know about raised beds.”

* July 22, 2016: “Discover the joys of Raised Bed Gardening” by Sonia Day for her Toronto Star column, The Real Dirt

* May 31, 2016: Article about raised beds and the book called “Raised Beds Make Gardening Easy Anywhere You Have Space” by Rob Howard. Appeared in The Hamilton Spectator and was syndicated in The Guelph Mercury Tribune

* May 23, 2016: “Meet Tara Nolan, Raised Bed Revolutionary” by Jodi Torpey for Vegetable Gardener, a blog published by The Taunton Press.

My articles about raised beds and Raised Bed Revolution

* June 20 2016: “How to make a lettuce table from cast-off furniture” for Creative Green Living

* June 14, 2016: “Garden BFFs: 4 reasons to plant ornamental bloom in your raised beds” for Ourhomes.ca

* April 21, 2016: “Have a small space? Consider a raised bed” in the Toronto Star (print + online) and in Metro newspapers across Canada.

Raised Bed Revolution mentions

* July 22, 2016: “Discover the joys of raised-bed gardening” by Sonia Day for The Toronto Star

* June 17, 2016: Mentioned in “Raise your garden beds: Process yields benefits over ground-level plots, fans say” by Suzanne Sproul for California’s Monterey Herald

* May 20, 2016: Mentioned in “Ideas for Raised Bed Gardening” by Cathie Draine in South Dakota’s Rapid City Journal

* Spring 2016: Mentioned in “Spring has sprung: Plant Away!” by Katharine Fletcher in Gatineau, Quebec’s Bulletin d’Aylmer

Raised Bed Revolution reviews

* November 25, 2016: “Raised Bed Revolution | Smart ideas for your garden” by Melissa J. Will for her Empress of Dirt website

* August, 2016: “Garden Book of the Month” in the UK-based Four Shires magazine

* August 1, 2016: “#RaisedBedRevolution Book Review” by Vialii Garden Design in the U.K.

* July 15, 2016: “Charlotte’s Top 5 Must Reads for July” by Charlotte Empey for DobbernationLOVES

* Summer 2016: Brief review in Hamilton magazine’s books section by Jessica Rose

* June 12, 2016: “Book Review & Giveaway: Raised Bed Revolution” by Jennifer Connell for her blog Three Dogs in a Garden

* June 3, 2016: “5 Stars For Raised Bed Revolution” on Amie’s Book Review Blog

September 25, 2016: The Weekend Gardener with Niki Jabbour
Appeared as a guest on Niki’s show on Halifax’s News 95.7 to talk about raised beds and winter options, like cold frames. The link is to the podcast version.

Week of September 19, 2016: Vegetable Gardening Podcast with Mike the Gardener
Talked about raised beds with the host of this weekly podcast.

Week of July 24, 2016: Still Growing Gardening podcast
Talked about all things gardening, as well as raised beds and the book with Jennifer Ebeling of the 6ft Mama blog.

May 8, 2016: The Weekend Gardener with Niki Jabbour
Appeared as a guest to talk about raised beds.

April 20 and May 1, 2016: CBC Radio
Interviewed with the hosts of CBC weekend morning shows across Canada

* CBC Manitoba’s Weekend Morning with Terry MacLeod
* CBC Montreal’s All in a Weekend with Sonali Karnick
* CBC Newfoundland and Labrador’s Weekend AM with Angela Antle
* CBC Saskatchewan’s Saskatchewan Weekend with Shauna Powers
* CBC Calgary / CBC Edmonton’s Daybreak Alberta with Russell Bowers
* CBC North’s (NWT, Yukon, Nunavut) The Weekender with Mardy Derby
* CBC Ottawa’s In Town and Out with Giacomo Panico
* CBC British Columbia’s North X Northwest with Sheryl MacKay

March 11, 2016: CBC Radio Canada
Interview in French with Annie Poulin about raised beds and what to grow as part of her Canada Blooms reporting. A link to the radio clip is at the bottom of the page.

Earlier in April, for Buying and Selling Your Home section, I pitched a product story that would help readers to find items to stage their home.

Metro Special Report: Home Renovations
Thursday, May 5, 2016

* These plants have personality: This year’s garden picks are breeds of their own
* Have a small outdoor space? Consider a raised bed

Toronto Star: Restyle Your Home
Thursday, April 21, 2016

* Plants with purpose and personality
* Have a small outdoor space? Consider a raised bed

Toronto Star: Buying and selling a home
Thursday, April 7, 2016

* Do-It-Yourself-Staging

We shot my segments in just over half a day in front of a few of the projects that were built for the book, including a lettuce table and an herb planter. I discuss growing edibles, the importance of your soil, preserving herbs, etc.

The show is called Garden Wisdom (you can see a preview from the link) and aired March 9, 2016. I was live in the studio that evening and appeared on-air during a couple of the breaks. My book was one of the incentive gifts for prospective donors. I also contributed some content to a gardening booklet the station gave away to donors, as well.

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I wrote the book for Cool Springs Press, a Minneapolis-based publishing company that is now a part of The Quarto Group. The subject of this book appealed to both my creative side that likes to make things and to my gardening side, so it was so fun to write and organize.

Raised Bed Revolution features several DIY projects with step-by-step photography, tons of inspirational images from generous gardeners and gardening companies, and lots of helpful tips on building and planting. There’s even a chapter called Not Handy? No Problem! for those who want raised beds in their yard, but who don’t have the woodworking know-how or tools to build them.

Most of the projects that have DIY steps were photographed by Donna Griffith, built by Scott McKinnon (in my yard and in my family’s yards) and illustrated by Len Churchill. I’m honoured to have worked with all of them and to feature their talents in my book.

I already have several speaking gigs lined up for 2016 to talk about the book, including Canada Blooms.

I will also be presenting to The Halton Master Gardeners in March and at the Peterborough Garden Show and to the Cloverleaf Garden Club in April.

The book can be preordered by following this link.