Ready, Set, GARDEN

Whether you are ready or not, spring is around the corner and gardening gurus are already digging, pruning, shaping and watching as buds, birds, bulbs and bees debut their 2010 ballet. Such an inspirational time of year!

Gig Harbor is a gardeners paradise; full of gardens and gardeners alike. There is also a real sense of community when it comes to gardening in this area, and so many gardeners are turning now to water wise gardening and sustainable gardening.

To keep this new gardening interest going, several local classes are in the works. Check out this list;

1. Since the City of Gig Harbor is creating a new RAIN GARDEN at the Gig Harbor Visitor Information Center I am now learning a lot more about Rain Gardens and how they are the key to managing stormwater and protecting Puget Sound. The city project is a partnership with the city and Pierce County Stream Team, and stewardshippartners.org. A Rain Garden is a shallow depression in a yard planted with a variety of flowers, shrubs and grasses that 'don't mind getting their feet wet." You can learn how rain gardens help soak up rainwater from downspouts, driveways and sidewalks while protecting our local waterways at a free Rain Garden Workshop on Tuesday April 20th 6-8PM. Registration is required so contact streamteam@piercecountycd.org or (253) 845-2973.

2. The City of Gig Harbor and Tacoma Pierce County Health Department are presenting a fun, free and informative NATURAL YARD CARE workshop series. Learn how to design and maintain a beautiful landscape the Natural Yard Care way! These workshops will address a variety of yard maintenance issues. Space is limited so you must reserve. Here are the classes being offered;
Tuesday April 13th "Right Plant, Right Place" Garden Design Smart Landscape Watering
Tuesday April 21st Building Healthy Soil, Backyard Composting
Tuesday April 27th Natural Lawn Care, Garden Pest Management
All classes will be held at Gig Harbor Civic Center, 3510 Grandview Street from 6:30-8:30pm. SPACE IS LIMITED. To reserve call (253) 798-4587 or grinehart@tpchd.org

3. Gig Harbor's Community Garden is back this year at Wilkinson Farm and it's bigger and better than ever. Managed by the non-profit group Healthy Communities of Pierce County, this effort offers both plots for locals and a demonstration garden with produce being donated to the food bank. Applications are now being taken for plots. Volunteers and supplies are needed as well. Want to get involved and learn about healthy gardening and eating as well as exercise and give back to your community? Contact Barb Carr at (253)228-0538 or ghcommunitygardens@gmail.com

4. Adopt-a-Planter Program helps keep historic Gig Harbor green. The Gig Harbor Historic Waterfront Association is once again working with the city of Gig Harbor on the downtown planters and hanging basket program. The program will create 87 hanging baskets and 20 planter boxes that will line Harborview and North Harborview. Volunteers will work with the city on design of baskets and planters and will plant and maintain them through out the summer. Currently cash donations are needed to help fund the program. The GHHWA is looking for the following assistance;
Adopt your own hanging basket or planter $75
Green Thumb $50
Green Acres $100
Green Gardener $200
Sign up to volunteer on the watering crew
Contact Mary DesMarais with the Gig Harbor Historic Waterfront Association to learn more at (253) 514-0071 info@ghhwa.org

5. The Gig Harbor Farmers Market is back, opening Saturday April 3rd at their new permanent location at the Kimball Park and Ride. We love the market! Watch for the Wednesday Green Market returning to Skansie Brothers Park in June. Learn more at www.gigharborfarmersmarket.org

6. May 15th Plant Sale at Donkey Creek Park, sponsored by 8 local garden clubs and benefiting the Washington State Federation of Garden Clubs. This first time event will include plants and yard art. Learn more by calling (253) 569-1381.

7. And it's not to early to mark your calendar for the Gig Harbor Garden Tour June 26th and 27th.

Learn more about all these events on our website calendar at www.gigharborguide.com

Get Gardening Gig Harbor!

Healing Through Furniture

Bill and Joelene Lemke are amazing people. Despite enduring the loss of their only child Brian two years ago when he was only 17, Bill and Joelene have turned that tragedy into a unique non-profit service for Pierce County residents.
When Brian, a Junior at Peninsula High School in Gig Harbor, passed away from Leukemia in November of 2007 the entire community embraced this wonderful couple and rallied around them in their loss. Brian was an outstanding young man, so full of life and love. It seemed incomprehensible that he was gone.
But so quickly did the Lemkes turn their grief into something positive in Brian's memory. A unique non-profit to "furnish hope to those in need".
Bill Lemke had spent 30 years in the home furnishing industry, working with stores in the Pacific Northwest. The idea was his to match furniture donations, new and used, with victims of domestic abuse, people suffering loss from fire and natural disasters, foster home and especially families coming from transitional housing who are trying to rebuild their lives.
The Northwest Furniture Bank was born (www.nwfurniturebank.org)
This organization believes that no person should have to sleep on the floor in a country as wealthy as the USA. And their goal has been embraced by thousands of people who are donating and volunteering including many local sponsors such as IKEA, Old Cannery, Sleep Country USA, Harkness Furniture, ReclinerLand, Selden's Home Furnishings, Emerald Home Furnishings, KMPS, Cole Sreen Printing.
As the organization grows so does the need. Now the Northwest Furniture Bank is embarking on a unique fund raising event idea. CHAIR AFFAIR is a unique event featuring local artists who have created artistic chairs and other pieces of furniture to be auctioned off to raise funds for the NW Furniture Bank. On March 4th at the Tacoma Art Museum, CHAIR AFFAIR will be a party all about chairs!
Several Gig Harbor artists are involved including Maggie Walters whose chair is pictured here (additonal photos here are artist Judy Gilbert and artist Sanne Beavin). Maggie has created a beautiful chair inspired by Mt. Rainier, one of her favorite spots on earth.
Maggie's husband Dan and Bill Lemke, along with Brian, were hiking and climbing buddies for many years. Maggie's nephew Matt Van den Heuvel is also the operations manager of the NW Furniture Bank, so the family ties are strong. Because Maggie is an artist, its seemed a perfect fit for Maggie to become involved in the NW Furniture Banks first annual CHAIR AFFAIR. If the chair fits...and it did!
CHAIR AFFAIR still has tickets available for the March 4th event. Want to join the fun? It's a great cause and a special event for a special organization, family and community/faith based organization, filling many needs for many people.
Learn more and get tickets at www.chairaffair.org
I'll see you there!

New Gig Harbor Logo Wear Now In Just in Time for Spring

The Gig Harbor Visitor Information Center, located at 3125 Judson Street, now has available new items in our line of Gig Harbor clothing. Great new colors and styles for men and women just in time for spring including jackets, fleece, sweatshirts, t-shirts (several styles), baseball caps and scull caps as well as the popular burgee. We also have the Puget Sound Wildside Book and the Gig Harbor Video. While supplies last, you will receive a environmentally friendly, reusable cloth bag with your purchase.
Come visit us and see the new stock. We are open every day EXCEPT Tuesday and Sunday.
www.gigharborguide.com

AND HERE IT IS - THE 2010 SUMMER CONCERT AND MOVIE LINEUP

The City of Gig Harbor is thrilled to bring to you once again, the hottest ticket in town, the Summer Sounds at Skansie, Tuesday evening outdoor concert series and the CinemaGig outdoor movie series for 2010.

In partnership with our wonderful sponsors - CenturytLink, St. Anthony Hospital and MultiCare Gig Harbor Medical Park we have spent the last two months reviewing and booking bands and movies and think we have the best line up EVER! Here it is, mark your calendar now so you don't miss a thing, because after all IT'S FREE!!

SUMMER SOUNDS AT SKANSIE

June 22nd The Rauccous Band www.RaucousBand.com
June 29th Soulstice (Fleetwood Mac Tribute Band) www.thesoulsticeband.com
July 6th the 133rd Army National Guard Band
July 13th Blackberry Bushes Stringband www.theblackberrybushesstringband.com
July 20th THE BEATNIKS www.thebeatniks.com
July 27th Freckles Brown Band www.frecklesbrown.com
August 3rd Danny Vernon (Elvis) www.dannyvernon.com
August 10th My Fathers Manouche www.yourfathersmanouche.blogspot.com
August 17th The Coats www.thecoats.net
August 24th Island Jamz www.islandjamzinc.com

CINEMAGIG OUTDOORS

Friday July 9th, Donkey Creek Park Date Night AIRPLANE
Saturday July 10th Skansie Brothers Park Family Night WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
Friday July 23rd, Donkey Creek Park Date Night MAMA MIA
Saturday July 24th, Skansie Brothers Park Family Night, GOONIES
Friday August 6th, Donkey Creek Park Date Night, THE PINK PANTHER (ORIGINAL)
Saturday August 7th, Skansie Brothrs Park Family Night, CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS
Friday August 20th, Donkey Creek Park Date Night, BLINDSIDE
Saturday August 21st, Skansie Brothers Park Family Night, FINDING NEMO

More details on this and other summer events coming soon. Stay tuned!!

Another Business Lost in Gig Harbor

Farewell to Le Bistro. A Gig Harbor Favorite. Read More.

If you really love somebody, help them get in shape!

The perfect Valentines gift for the one you love is health. Be inspirational to your spouse, significant other, kids, friends...anyone! Commit to being healthy for a long life of happiness and love. And start with a Valentines Day Run "You Knock My Socks Off" in Gig Harbor on the beautiful new Cushman Trail.

This four mile race begins and ends at Route 16 Running, located at 6565 Kimball Drive and goes North on Kimball and then onto the new portion of the Cushman Trail. Four mile begins at 8:30am and the kids dash starts at 8am.

Great prizes are in store, and all the proceeds go to benefit Healthy Communities of Gig Harbor and Pierce County, the organizer of the Gig Harbor Community Garden. Additional benefits go to the Gig Harbor FISH Food Bank.

Register ahead of time at Route 16 Running, or on line at http://www.route16runwalk.com/.

See you there! Happy Valentines Day!

Do You Want to Join Our Blogging Family?

The City of Gig Harbor Tourism Marketing office, along with our Gig Harbor Visitor Information Center, are the lead organization for the greater Gig Harbor area for promotion and marketing for the community. Our website http://www.gigharborguide.com/ is the most viewed site for Gig Harbor area information. And starting mid-March, our website will have a fresh, more colorful and much more user friendly layout! We can't wait to share it with you!

At the same time, our Gig Harbor Guide Blog will also change. No longer will the blog be hosted at Blogspot. It will be hosted on our website and be much easier to access, comment and use as tool for the community. This is another great development for Gig Harbor.

As part of these changes, we are recruiting "guest bloggers" to join our team. The new blog will provide a great opportunity to bring community members into the conversation with insight, ideas, suggestions and tips about our community.

We've been thinking about some topics we would like to have community bloggers focus on; environment, heritage, recreation, food, kids and family. We are open to other ideas as well.

So here's what we need - if you are as passionate about Gig Harbor as we are, are a descent writer, not a politician or community hot shot, just an average Gig Harbor guy or gal, we'd love to hear from you.

Of course, the blog is the property of The City of Gig Harbor Marketing Department, and so we will have some rules; all blogs must be positive. Period. No slamming businesses, or people in the community. No political statements or candidate endorsements. If you can't be positive then this is not the place for you.

All blogs will be edited and reviewed by me (Laureen) prior to posting, so if you object to editing, then this is not the place for you.

We would love to expand our blog to have a greater voice for the community. Interested? Send me an email to apply. We will be taking applications over the next couple of weeks and will let you know who we have chosen by the middle of March.

We'd love to have you on the team!

lundl@cityofgigharbor.net

TOLL INCREASE IN OUR FUTURE?

IMPORTANT! Gig Harbor and Kitsap friends! Toll increases are in our future! Do you want a voice? Speak up to the WA Citizens Advisory Committee on Tolls, tomorrow, Tuesday Feb 9th 5-7pm at the Gig Harbor Civic Center, 3510 Grandview Street Gig Harbor WA 98335.
We need to fill the room and have a voice regarding this issue. Increased tolls will only decrease our ability to attract new business and visitors to our community at a time when our local business and local economy need it the most. toll increase will negatively impact our community and our ability to rebound from the hits we have taken this past year. We need to say no! Please come to the meeting and let your voice be heard.

Chocolate Covered Gig Harbor this Saturday

If I were you, I would watch your diet all week...just so you can splurge with out guilt this Saturday at THE ART OF CHOCOLATE, in historic downtown Gig Harbor. This new even is a great way to shake of the winter and enjoy the sweet taste of chocolate, all while enjoying beautiful Gig Harbor and the monthly Gig Harbor Art Walk.

Beginning at noon, pick up a passport at participating businesses to be eligible to win some wonderful prizes, including an overnight Gig Harbor get-away. Take advantage of discounts and store specials all while delighting in the arts and shopping for that special Valentine.

Here's a list of some of the special things being planned by downtown merchants;

• Gig Harbor's very own 7 Seas Brewery will be at Vanilla Bean on sharing samples of their beers during The Art of Chocolate.


• Mostly Books will feature a variety of Chocolate themed cookbooks


• In store raffles at Vanilla Bean, Simply Charmed and Sea Glass Interiors


• Water to Wine will host local chocolatier Matt Carter from 1-4pm for chocolate samples as well as wine.


• SeaGlass will have sample of gourmet chocolates, including novelty NW chocolates; halibut, slugs, Space Needle, ferry, orcas and shells.


• Bring your broken down feeder to Wild Birds Unlimited during the Art of Chocolate and receive 25% off a new one.


• Gig Harbor Gift Mall will be raffling a Valentine Gift Basket with lots of lovely gifts and of course, Chocolate


• Imagine Great Things also has a give-away basket and is serving chocolate truffles


• The Beach Basket will feature 50% off their winter clothing and 25% non-sale merchandise


• McBeckland's has a great sale on all day and will offer in store drawing.


• Continue the celebration a little later into the evening at The Keeping Room with an evening of love songs and chocolate treats from 5-8pm.

All this week the Gig Harbor Visitor Information Center, located at 3125 Judson Street will be giving away candy "Kisses" to our visitors. Stop in and say hi, and be sure to join all of the merchants in historic downtown Gig Harbor for THE ART OF CHOCOLATE, Saturday February 6th noon - 6pm.

http://www.gigharborguide.com/