Gardening is an act of love.
This weekend was the test launch of my new company: Dig, Grow, Love
You see, I love gardening, I love garden design, and I especially love infecting others with that same love. What I don’t love is that for the last 12 years that I’ve been doing it professionally, I’ve only been able to work for high-end clients, institutions, and municipalities – the only ones who can budget for a designer fee and an installation crew. There’s something inherently undemocratic about that, but a woman’s gotta eat, right?
I think I may have figured out better way. Meet Dig, Grow, Love, the love-child of a barn raising, a Tupperware party, and the Make Festival, all rolled into one. Imagine you want to renovate that garden or grow your own veggies but have no idea how. You need help, but hiring a designer and crew is too expensive. Instead, HOST A GARDENING PARTY! I will guide you and your friends, gently teaching you what you need to know to get started, using your garden as a lab. At the end of the day you have a new garden, your friends have taken a fun class, and everyone is empowered to go out and dig, grow, and share the love of gardening. You pay for the materials, each of the guests pays a class fee, and all of you have access to an expert garden designer. Better still, part of the proceeds of each party helps fund a garden for a needy school, family, community, or individual.
We tried it out this weekend, renovating the small front entrance garden of an adorable house in the suburbs of NYC. My host, a dear friend, had gathered some friends around her who all wanted to learn more about gardening. I had always thought that working with friends would be fun, since any chore is more manageable with good friends and good conversation. What I had not anticipated was the love. It felt good, really good, to build a garden for my friend. It’s a gift only I could have given her. As I stood there with the party guests, digging and planting, I realized we were all giving her a gift. Every time she walked into her house the plants we nurtured for her would meet her.
There was another gift going around – connection. The guests were all friends or colleagues of the hostess, but after this shared experience, they all had one more point of connection, strengthening whatever bond may have already existed.
Socially, it was great. As a business, I was able to experiment with some teaching techniques and work out a couple of kinks in my class design. Everyone seemed to have gone home happy and, most importantly, empowered to go dig in their own gardens. I learned so much. All along I was a little hesitant about using the Gardening Party as a vehicle for sales, but I realized that by the end of the party the guests all felt safe, able to choose armed with knowledge and real experience. They expressed that they would have liked to have gone home with some small tools or a starter kit. I realized that for a new gardener going to a nursery is intimidating, a source of anxiety; but buying from a trusted teacher, after learning about the tools and plants, could be a pleasure. I just have to not ever get greedy and violate that trust by selling someone something they don’t need.
Now I just have to follow that up with more, more, more. I’m working through the incorporation paperwork and I’m trying to figure out how to structure the sales end. I have to figure out how to operate in multiple states. I’m also working on choosing community partners to support with the proceeds of each party. Originally, I was going to have Dig, Grow, Love create a arm of the organization specifically to reach into underserved communities, especially where food security is an issue, but I realize that is just too much for me to handle. Better for me to regularly hand over funds and volunteer with an organization with an established infrastructure, than try to invent one.
Oh yeah, and I have to build a website, get people to know what Dig Grow Love is, and create a movement.
Wish me good luck! Better yet, wish me the power to keep my brain focused while reading dry business-creation paperwork and literature.