The headset turned out to be pretty handy for other things as well. Bluetooth support meant that I could pair the headset with my phone. I started listening to classical music when working on my computer. I listened to podcasts while I tidied up the kitchen, watered the garden, or went for a long walk.

The headset charges using a micro-USB cable, and can be charged while in use. This is great, because I always forgot to charge my previous headset in time for me to use it. We use micro-USBs for so many other devices, so we always have cables handy. The downside? Between listening to music over Bluetooth and using my phone’s GPS to track exercise, I need to remember to charge my phone at every opportunity I get.

The Logitech H800 headset comes with a mini receiver that’s small enough to stay plugged into a laptop all the time. Unfortunately, it’s not a Logitech unifying receiver. Now I have two of those slim-profile Logitech receivers plugged into my laptop (mouse and headset). That leaves one USB port for flash drives, charging, and other things I want to plug in. I haven’t gotten into the habit of carrying around a powered USB hub, but I’m close to it!

Decision: Better than I expected, although FutureShop sold the headset for quite a bit more than the Amazon US price. I picked it up at FutureShop because I wanted to test the fit before getting it, and it worked out fine.

Read the original or check out the comments on: Decision review: Logitech H800 wireless headset (Sacha Chua's blog)

This is part of my Visual Metaphors series. I’m drawing these to help expand my visual vocabulary for drawing sketchnotes. It’s a good way to exercise. Any suggestions?

Read the original or check out the comments on: Visual metaphors: Success (Sacha Chua's blog)

Click on the image for a larger version or contact me for a high-res version (2608x1600px). Feel free to share this under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence.

Lots of great research released under Creative Commons. Yay Jeremiah Owyang and Altimeter!

Quick notes for searching, more later: Social business hierarchy of needs: Foundation –> Safety –> Formation –> Enablement –> Enlightenment

If you like this, you might also like:

• my notes from the previous Third Tuesday Toronto talk (Engagio)
• more sketchnotes from meetups and books
• the Third Tuesday Toronto meetup group
• other cool sketchnotes around the Web

Enjoy!

Here’s the text from the image to make it easier to search for:

Jeremiah Owyang
Third Tuesday Toronto: May 14, 2012
Sketchnotes: Sacha Chua (@sachac): LivingAnAwesomeLife.com

untrained employees
advanced companies prepare internally first

~180 accounts for average enterprise
-only 25% active
Social media mostly separate from rest of site/db

Frequency of social media crises
-exposure to poor customer experience
-poor influencer relations
-violation of ethical guidelines rogue employees

Social sanitation
Reinforcing bad behavior
We’re teaching them to yell at their friends.

Constantly getting ahead of themselves.

Advanced companies
Social business hierarchy of needs

5 Englightenment
4 Enablement Empowerment scaling
3 Formation asset inventory Center of Excellence
2 Safety Team workflow Crisis prep
1 Foundation Policy
Education required
social media & communities

Holistic
Real-time
Predictive
Predict what customers are going to do
Integrate into databases, etc.
Build better products
Tap employees

self-serve hubs Chatteratti (EZE help, compensation) bit.ly/Altimeter Social

strategic internal communications tactic
Governance
Policy
Guidelines
Training
important for scaling

10.8%
Decentralized centralized

41% Hub and spoke
sometimes on their behalf

18%
Dandelion
COE empowers business units

1.4%
Holistic
Safe & consistent
(Best Buy, Zappos)
I do customer support

Team Aug. 11
1.5 social strategist 3 comm manager soc media manager 1 analyst 1.5 dev

content strategist, emerging role
-editorials, ex. journalists, comm agencies…

Education
-Executives
-Strategists/Business units
-all employees

Access
-Tools
-Everyone has access & must be trained

Listening centre
some involving business unit centres
triage
-good
-bad
-ugly

FireBell simulation of social media crisis

Most crises: Friday afternoon

Q&A: #3TYYZ
-Analysis? CRM, Omniture (Adobe), SAS, Eloqua… A number of different directions. System integrators.
-Adobe Social. Very bullish, if they can act like a small company. Paid, earned, owned media
Also watch Lithium Technologies & bazaarvoice (300% ROI for ratings). New ad units, IBM social metrics.
-Soc media correlations? Social loyalty (people are loyal to each other), gamifications.
C-suite: Novelty, fear, potential for new business models.
any data company stands to gain early in the space, lots of experimentations
-Social software: Combrian explosion. Lots of duplicate companies, VCs investing in clones
Best-in-class will probably connect with each other.
-Startup? Yes, but you can go through steps faster. Our research focuses on enterprise, but can still help.
-Soc media agencies? Ads right now. May need to restructure. Everything starts with earned.
-Disclosure? Vendors unlikely. Agencies making tech-agnostic methodologies.
-Facebook fans? Loose affinity. Facebook wants people to pay.
-Product is info? Utility, etc. Go up a level: Lifestyle, workstyle. G8, IBM.
Get clients to tell stories. See banks for examples. Orsten in.

Read the original or check out the comments on: Sketchnotes: Jeremiah Owyang @ Third Tuesday Toronto (#3TYYZ) on the Social Business Hierarchy of Needs (Sacha Chua's blog)

Read the original or check out the comments on: Sketchnotes: The $100 Startup: Reinvent the Way You Make a Living, Do What You Love, and Create a New Future (Sacha Chua's blog)

Click on the image for a large version. Want an even better version for printing out? Contact me. Feel free to reuse or share this image under the Creative Commons Attribution license.

We heard from Pamela MacDonald, Liako Dertilis, and Billy Dertilis of Red Rocket Coffee at today’s Small Business Network meetup at the Toronto Reference Library. They shared hard-won lessons from building a coffee shop business that now has three locations.

The small business network meetup at the Toronto Reference Library happens on the second Tuesday of every month. You can view my sketchnotes from past meetups:

• The Shy Entrepreneur (me) – April 2012
• Sal Sloan of Fetching! – March 2012
• Kristina Chau of notyouraverageparty – February 2012

View more sketchnotes, read my notes about business, or browse around my blog!

Here’s the text from the image to make it easier to search for:

redrocketcoffee.com
RED ROCKET COFFEE
Pamela MacDonald Liako Dertilis Billy Dertilis

Small Business Network Meetup
Toronto Reference Library
May 8, 2012
Notes by Sacha Chua, @sachac, LivingAnAwesomeLife.com

Make sure you have enough money to live for a year.

You always have to be “on”, even at the grocery store.

Be adaptable, but watch out for over-adapting. You can’t please everybody.

Book recommendations:
-Setting the table: the transforming power of hospitality in business
-The little black book of entrepreneurship

Be prepared to wear a lot of hats.

Take care of yourself. Give yourself time to recharge.

Soft opening: work out kinks

The smartest thing an entrepreneur can do is learn when to let go.

#1: Good relationships
clients suppliers neighbours…

Hire a Lawyer. Any kind of contract, any kind of lease

Organization is important!
Suppliers etc. make mistakes, bill you twice…

Reassess success.
Had to buy out partner. Have partnership agreement!

Dedicate time to schmooze.
Customers can become suppliers!
Building relationships with people who understand

Trust your instincts.
Build a team you can delegate to.

Knowing WHO to ask & WHEN
Made up recipes
Passion!

We don’t micromanage. We’re very very careful about hiring, and we let them run the show. We let the store develop its own personality.
self-employment benefits

Read the original or check out the comments on: Sketchnotes: Red Rocket Coffee, Toronto Public Library Small Business Network meetup (Sacha Chua's blog)

Carl Friesen, Global Reach Communications

Like these? Check out my other sketchnotes, visual book notes/reviews, and visual metaphors.

Here’s the text from the sketchnotes to improve people’s ability to search for it:

Designing content so that it works

Designing content so that it works
Carl Friesen, Global Reach Communications

Website for e-book on content design showyourexpertise.com

1 2 3 4 5

stories

The Trend
Client wants customized solution
Show that you understand their world

1. Trend & historic causes
2. current situation
3. Thoughts on developments, reasons
4. Recommendations

The How-To
1.
2.
3.

Example: trustees, communication process

must be:
Relevant + Realistic
not necessarily what you do, but what clients will find helpful

Helpful!
- process with steps or
- a list of success factors

1. outcome
2. supplies/equipment
3. steps
4. avoiding pitfalls/problems

The How-to-Work-With
How to get good results from working with you

cannot be self-serving
include info on saving money
1. wild success experience
2. factors
3. advice

The Case Study
Leading-edge thought & sound implementation
Trans-Canada highway story
Wildlife protection

Not about showing how clever you are!

Must have learning points THEY can use
Must be a story
Tell with the client credibility

1. Initial situation
2. Steps
3. Problems & solutions
4. Lessons learned

The Survey
Shows that you stay in touch
must be what your audience cares about

More useful with a trend

Distribute appropriately
Level of detail
Consider limited distribution
The Opinion
informed opinion, thought leadership
at no charge

Long form
-situation
-views on good & bad aspects
-recommendations

The Review
-New product/service
-What’s different
-Discuss good/bad

The Comment

Notes by Sacha Chua, @sachac, LivingAnAwesomeLife.com

Read the original or check out the comments on: Sketchnotes: Designing content so that it works – Carl Friesen (#torontob2b) (Sacha Chua's blog)

Building a Social Enterprise
Andrew Jenkins, Volterra

Like these? Check out my other sketchnotes, visual book notes/reviews, and visual metaphors.

Here’s the text from the sketchnotes to improve people’s ability to search for it:

Building a social enterprise

Building a Social Enterprise
Andrew Jenkins, Volterra
#torontob2b May 3, 2012

Historically:
Listen
competitive intelligence
pin points
needs
cocktail party
conversations we couldn’t overhear before

Message
Engage
Individual targeting
Reputation
Culture
Indium example
content contact cash
planking example

External to Internal
Training
examples
policy
-IBM
-Coca Cola
-Dell
social media university

adoption
can’t make me
adoption count me in

How does communication flow?

Influence

Some people: I can’t wait for you, so I’m going to set things up myself…
ragues

Q&A
-Resistors: Use peers, look for the bright spot.
It took 20 years for e-mail to be ubiquitous.

Who can’t gain from greater visibility? question
Social media: 10 years
RBC: 140 years

Notes by Sacha Chua, @sachac, LivingAnAwesomeLife.com

Read the original or check out the comments on: Sketchnotes: Building a Social Enterprise – Andrew Jenkins (#torontob2b) (Sacha Chua's blog)

Like these? Check out my other sketchnotes, visual book notes/reviews, and visual metaphors.

Here’s the text from the sketchnotes to improve people’s ability to search for it:

Marketing automation

Marketing Automation
Jeffrey Yee, Eloqua

leads small
list management
forms
scoring
analytics
events
challenge
-Too expensive
-Not fully used
-Not implemented correctly
-Did not address business needs

1. Focus
one thing! business need!
2. Identify
Look for what your top performers are already doing
3. Start small, then build for mass adoption
-Target the second-tier salespeople!
4. Wait patiently for the lift.
incremental improvement

Best practices from client side
Dun & Bradstreet
credit risk management sales & marketing supply risk management

1. Focus
Example
Retention trigger-based e-mail
one need
40.1% opens
13.4% click through
10% increase in retention rates
2. Identify before you automate
Focus group?
Study top performers
How are we achieving this today?
Can we automate and scale this?

Repurpose

Think linear, it’s easier that way

Get personal and add value
plaint text e-mail from sales, not marketing
3. Mass adoption (but start very small)
advocates get others on board

Look for the people who are close to their quotas:
Tier 2 segmenting your salespeople!

Have reps vet leads before adding to program

3rd party data
4. Wait patiently for the lift. Set expectations.
Ex results
-6 months
pipeline value *19%
# of yes 14%
average upsize 3%
ops won 25%

Budget 12+ months

Like low-hanging fruit
Scaling up what already works
Notes by Sacha Chua, @sachac, LivingAnAwesomeLife.com

Read the original or check out the comments on: Sketchnotes: Marketing Automation, Jeffrey Yee (#torontob2b) (Sacha Chua's blog)

This is part of my Visual Metaphors series. Like it? Suggest other terms you’d like to see!

Read the original or check out the comments on: Visual metaphor: Danger (Sacha Chua's blog)

Click on the image for a larger version.

We show trust by shaking hands, and by looking people in the eyes. Open body language: “Trust me.” Closed: “I don’t trust you.” Blindfold exercises are popular at team-building sessions. Blind trust is dangerous, though. You could get stabbed in the back.

We don’t trust rickety things. We trust solid ones. We used to trust institutions. Now, maybe not so much. Some are more trustworthy than others. No one trusts a used-car salesman… But for some reason, we trust celebrity endorsements, suits, anything printed, charts, and precise numbers (even wrong ones).

We don’t trust poisonous things, or cats around cheeseburgers. We trust puppy-dog eyes and babies.

Contracts are usually a good idea, because you should trust but verify.

Trust is like launching yourself into the air, hoping that your partner will catch you… but you’d better have a safety net too. A good one.

Trust is like a crystal vase that’s hard to fix when it’s broken, like a bone that heals but will never be the same.

This is part of my Visual Metaphors series. Like it? Suggest other terms you’d like to see!

Read the original or check out the comments on: Visual metaphors: Trust (Sacha Chua's blog)

Click on the image for a larger version.

Change is a journey. Sometimes you have a map, or a guide, or signposts, but usually just a long and winding road (if that), with the occasional fork or crossroad.

Change is like scaling a cliff or climbing the stairs.

You can have fun with the idea, too.

Change is also transformation, growth, decline.

You can pun about change.

Graphs are handy, too.

Spirals show iteration… Change can sometimes be like taking three steps forward and two steps back. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

This is part of my Visual Metaphors series. Like it? Suggest other terms you’d like to see!

Read the original or check out the comments on: Visual metaphors: Change (Sacha Chua's blog)

I’m teaching myself how to draw by cheating. For example, while waiting for friends to come join me in seeing the cherry blossoms at High Park, I took pictures. I traced the parts I liked.

I like the way drawing makes photography more fun. Instead of trying to position myself to get a good picture without any distracting elements – or at least to minimize photo-editing – I can take reference pictures of just about any situation. The pictures will come in handy when I need to draw a bicycle, a stroller, kids, whatever.

It’s fun. It may not be as awesome as drawing things from scratch, but I can get the hang of that eventually.

I drew this sketch with ArtRage Studio Pro on my Lenovo X220 tablet. I like the way the paper grain interacts with the pencil tool so that my sketch lines are inexact.

Read the original or check out the comments on: Sketches: People-watching at High Park (Sacha Chua's blog)

After reflecting on it during a few bike rides to and from work, I have a clearer understanding of what I want from these business experiments. A tech startup isn’t for me, at least not for the next few years.

I think of it as minimizing risk by learning only small chunks at the time. Working as an employee was like learning how to ride a tricycle. The company gave me a stable platform so that I could build skills, confidence, experience, and capital. I experimented with intrapreneurship and found that it worked well for me.

When I had reached my savings goals and picked a good time to leave, I started my own business. Two months in, I’m discovering that the path I took is just like graduating from a tricycle to a bicycle with training wheels. By taking advantage of well-established business models, markets, and concepts, I can focus on learning how to run my own business without simultaneously trying to create something new and tremendously risky.

Going from the employee world to the startup world would have been much more of a stretch. I think of startups like riding on a mountain bike down a rocky hill where you’re not quite certain the trail will get you all the way down or whether that promising fork up ahead actually ends up going over a cliff. Actually, it’s like riding a in a pack of mountain bikes where other people might make it easier to spot cool opportunities (ooh! look! waterfall over there!) but they could also crash into you and send you all tumbling down the hill. Too many things to learn at the same time, I think.

Startups might be something I eventually grow into. I want to be more confident in my ability to handle paperwork, manage cashflow, hire and manage other people (or coordinate with contractors, or delegate in some other way), and negotiate with clients and suppliers before I take on trickier challenges. For example, it’s easier to practise negotiating with clients than with partners. You can fire a client, but there are much bigger consequences if you have problems with your business partners. By learning all these business skills with the training wheels of well-tested business, I can get ready for riskier projects and ventures.

Sure, it would’ve been pretty cool to hang out at all these meetups and tell people about my new venture (making sure to use phrases like “minimum viable product” and “pivot”), but it’s okay to learn about business in this somewhat less glamorous but more step-by-step way.

Besides, most tech startups brag about their horrible work-life balance lifestyles. I think that’s partly the self-fulfilling image we have of what it’s like to be in a startup, and partly because people have to scramble so much to learn all these different things at the same time. I don’t mind growing a little more slowly if it means still being happily married. =)

So that’s why even if I’ve got web development skills, contacts, and business/design interests, I’m not working on a tech startup. Small steps first, and that’s all right.

Read the original or check out the comments on: On why I don’t want to work on a tech startup (yet) (Sacha Chua's blog)

I’ll tell stories along the way. =) Looking forward to it! (I may even remember to record it if I don’t get too flustered…)

Read the original or check out the comments on: Getting ready for my “The Shy Entrepreneur” talk at the Toronto Reference Library tomorrow (Apr 10 Tue, 6 PM) (Sacha Chua's blog)

Jay Heinrichs’ Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us about the Art of Persuasion is one of my favourite books. You know how we walk around thinking that rhetoric is evil and arguments are to be avoided? He shows how knowing about persuasive techniques – and using them well – can make life better, and how kids who know how to argue correctly are adorable. Well, he doesn’t explicitly make that last point, but it’s entertaining seeing him get bested by his 5-year-old daughter.

Read this book so that you can get better at detecting and dealing with invisible arguments that surround you. Learn how to combine the elements of ethos, logos, and pathos to argue persuasively. Don’t get stuck in blame games or stereotyping fights; stay focused on the future and help people move forward. Use wordplay to be wittier.

The book is packed with tips, and well worth keeping on your reference shelf. I liked it so much that I bought a paperback copy and a Kindle e-book (which was more expensive than the paperback, pff!)

Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us about the Art of Persuasion
Jay Heinrichs
2007: Three Rivers Press
ISBN: 978-0307341440

For more detailed notes, see my 2010 review of Thank You for Arguing.

See other visual book notes!

Here’s the text from the image to improve people’s ability to search for it:

Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us about the Art of Persuasion
Jay Heinrichs 2007

We are surrounded by
INVISIBLE ARGUMENTS
FIGHTS (Goal: Win)
Learn the difference between
ARGUMENT (Goal: change mind)

Types of argument (can combine!)
Ethos (character, who you are)
Show that you are similar & have shared values
Use strategic reluctance (“I normally hate speaking, but…”)
sense/medium

a b c
Logos (logic, reasoning)
“is”
Make your option the reasonable middle
Control the definitions of terms

Pathos (Emotions)
You can guide people’s emotions by overreacting on their behalf.
“That must have been awful!”

Use the right tense:
PAST
Blaming
“You did it!”
“Did not”
“Did too!”
PRESENT
Stereotyping
“You always…”
“You never…”
FUTURE
Moving forward
“Next time, can we…”

DEFENCE
The book has many tips on how to detect and deal with persuasion.

…and tips for being witty, too!

Notes: SachaChua.com
@sachac 2012

Read the original or check out the comments on: Visual book review: Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, and Homer Simpson Can Teach Us about the Art of Persuasion (Sacha Chua's blog)

(Click on the image to view a larger version.)

Different ways to visualize argument:

• War: conflict, opposition, fight, demolishing a flimsy argument, score, scoring points, targeting the weak link, poking holes
• Logic: building an argument, issue-based information systems, sound/unsound logic, follows/does not follow
• Cooperation: Co-adventurers searching for a creative solution, on the same side, trading, shared journey
• See also: Balance

This is part of my Visual Metaphors series. Like it? Suggest other ways to visually describe “argument”, or tell me about other terms you’d like to see!

Read the original or check out the comments on: Visual metaphors: Argument (Sacha Chua's blog)

One! And there are so many other concepts to play around with… =)

Read the original or check out the comments on: Visual metaphors: Balance (Sacha Chua's blog)

(Click on the image for a larger version)

William Mougayar shared lessons learned from serial entrepreneurship at the Third Tuesday Toronto meetup. He also demoed his recently funded startup, engag.io, which promises to be a social inbox for comments and conversations across different websites.

My thoughts after the talk:

• Blog comments and online interactions are great ways to build trust relationships. (Hear that? Comment more! )
• It would be nifty to have a social inbox, particularly one that’s also a relationship management tool
• $500k seed funding can get people pretty darn far
• It’s fun getting speakers to autograph the sketchnotes =)

Were you there or have you attended other talks by William Mougayar? Have you used Engagio? (Seems to be down at the moment, pity.)

One nifty thing about Third Tuesday Toronto is that they fly speakers in and they coordinate with meetups in other cities to get the maximum coverage. Join the meetup to find out about upcoming events.

Related links:

• William Mougayar
• Engagio
• Third Tuesday Toronto

If you like this, you might also like my other sketches. I like turning presentations and books into quick, easy-to-review images. Enjoy!

Here’s the text from the image to improve people’s ability to search for it:

William Mougayar @ Third Tuesday Toronto
@wmougayar @engagio
See also Paul Graham’s chart

Stages of a startup
Clear vision or Blurry vision (more realistic)

When Christopher Columbus set sail, he didn’t Google America.

Social Capital
Got to know people through blogs
I’ve made 3,000 comments on Fred Wilson’s blog
Got asked to moderate Fred Wilson’s blog
8 weeks to a minimum viable product
Demo of engagio
-inbox
-My contacts
-Person’s profile (one place to follow)
-Sites
Neat, would like to try this out
5 Lessons
1. Be wary of selling enterprise software
Very difficult to sell to a large company when you’re a startup
2. Have an original (but simple) idea
3. Don’t believe your own
4. Relationships don’t matter. Trusted relationships matter
5. Don’t quit trying

Fragmentation of the social web
Commenting is important = Potential relationships
Value in the conversations
Bet a beat story about startups & alcohol from blog conversation

Replying
Sharing/Linking/Liking
Monitoring/Listening
Signal
Noise
Online advocacy is on the rise

Q&A
Platform? Rails, MySQL, Solr, Twitter Bootstrap
Multiple users? Next week
Yelp? Maybe if API
Equentia? Some ideas for discovery. Get to 100K users first.
How did you get away with looking like Gmail? Haven’t gotten a call from Google yet.
Business? Focusing on end-users.
Funding priorities for spending?
Engineering & marketing
product development users
Building more social features into the product
Summarizing comments?
Maybe talk offline after.
Pivot reactions?
Excited. Still had other clients, but could move on.
Personal profile?
Automatically populated, can be edited.
Profile resolution?
Merging profiles with authentication
Mobile app? HTML5
Track other sites? In road map, may have to create plugin.
Business model? Get to look users first also, business intelligence/analytics.

Notes: SachaChua.com
Twitter: @sachac
March 27, 2012

Read the original or check out the comments on: Sketchnotes: William Mougayar (engagio) at Third Tuesday Toronto (Sacha Chua's blog)

Getting To Yes is the kind of book you want to read before you negotiate UN treaties, business contracts, or a special deal on that lovely rug. I read it in September 2010 and promptly started referring to my Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement (BATNA) even in non-negotiation situations such as decision-making.

The idea of not arguing over positions (I want $X as a salary, Y days of vacation, and a pony) and focusing instead on interests (I value fair compensation, flexible schedules, and cute transportation) might help people avoid or break out of negotiation deadlocks. Also useful is the reminder that negotiations don’t have to be the competitive I-win-you-lose head-on collision that people often see it to be, and that a cooperative approach is more likely to get you to where you want to go by getting other people to where they want to go.

Unfortunately, the tips in the book do not work when negotiating with cats, who don’t care if you discuss their dirty tricks with them. Despite that weakness, this is still an excellent book to read whether or not you have a diplomatic passport.

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
Roger Fisher, William Ury, and Bruce Patton, 2nd ed.
1991 New York: Houghton Mifflin Company

See more visual book notes!

Read the original or check out the comments on: Visual book review: Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In (Sacha Chua's blog)

I’ve shifted from baking season to ice cream season. This amuses Canadians, as it’s always ice cream season for many of them. Yes, even in the dead of winter, while I’m wrapped up in a fuzzy bathrobe and bright pink polyester socks, my darling husband and his daughter munch away on frozen treats. Brr.

But now that the sun is shining and the days are warm, I’m up for ice cream as well. My first one this year was a coconut raspberry ice cream from an ice cream parlour on Dundas Street West. For 75c, you can get this tiny cone with a small scoop of ice cream, which is enough to enjoy the taste of it without being overloaded with sugar.

I’ve also started gardening again. Because we’ve set our community-supported agriculture box to bi-weekly instead of weekly, I don’t feel inundated with vegetables, and I can actually contemplate planting more. I planted lettuce, peas, and a few other early-season crops two weeks ago, and they’ve just started germinating. Instead of rigging up the drip irrigation system, I’m watering the garden by hand, carefully dispensing water into the sandy soil. It takes more time, but it’s relaxing work, and it means I pay closer attention to each spot. Mrs. Wong tends a huge and highly productive front-yard garden down the street and she waters by hand. Maybe it will work for me too.

Things I’m looking forward to growing:

Bitter melon (ampalaya): W- loves this, and it rarely shows up in our neighbourhood markets. We managed to grow it the other year, and the two plants that survived gave us plenty of bitter melons for pinakbet and other dishes. Last year, our vegetable plants didn’t really get established. With this year promising to be warm and sunny, maybe we’ll have better luck.

• Blueberries: We had an enjoyable blueberry harvest last year – a few handfuls, but much appreciated. Looking forward to seeing what they’re like this year! I might try covering some of them with a net and leaving the others unprotected.
• Strawberries: Yum yum.
• Basil: We love pesto. Fresh basil makes tomato sauce even more wonderful, too. In addition to Genovese basil, I’m looking forward to trying lime basil. I liked the lemon basil and Thai basil that I grew the other year, too.
• Peas: The sugar-snap peas are always a big hit. J- sometimes goes out to graze on them.
• Carrots: We’ll give them another try this year. We grew them three years ago and they didn’t turn out as well as we’d hoped.
• Nasturtiums: This climbing vine might be nice near the porch and near the back fence. Edible flowers can be a peppery garnish for summer salads.
• Lettuce and spinach: I’m going to keep giving these greens a try.
• Edamame: We just don’t feel like boiling water sometimes, but edamame is worth it.
• Cat grass: I usually grow a small patch of oats at the beginning of the patio-stone path. This makes an excellent cat trap. Leia(cat) likes running out and exploring the garden, but she’s usually distracted by the cat grass patch. This makes it easy for me to put down whatever it is I’m holding, get out, and scoop her up.
• Catnip: I scattered some catnip seeds in one of the front garden boxes. If they grow, great. The catnip will be in the box with the colourful annuals, so I don’t have to worry about it taking over the rest of the garden.

How does your garden grow?

Read the original or check out the comments on: Ice cream season and the first seeds in the garden (Sacha Chua's blog)