Garden Coaching Blog

Amy Stewart on the many ways a coach can help

Garden writer (and Ranter) Amy Stewart was paid a visit by coach Genevieve Schmidt and in the second of her two-part series, lists the ways that coaches can help. Here's the link and Amy - thanks!

Surgeon overcomes fear of cutting (All it took was a little coaching)

This rash of publicity for garden coaching is creating a whole new bunch of coachees, and one of them is my new favorite.  Not just because his professionally designed garden was so damn gorgeous, which it was.  But because he decided the estimate he’d gotten for maintaining it - $11,000 a year - seemed outrageous, and he wondered if he could do it himself, with a little coaching.  And because he took careful notes as I explained how to prune each of his shrubs and by the end of the walk-through he was visibly excited and exclaimed, "I feel so empowered!"  God, I love that shit.

It seems that this surgeon-gardener had read many books about pruning and was still afraid to take action - it’s all so confusing!  Yeah, I hear ya.  That’s why teaching pruning one-on-one, in the garden, is so much better than books, videos, PowerPoints and all the rest.  Coaching rules!

Posted by Susan Harris

When the gardening coach is a hooker

Only urban gardeners get design advice from the neighborhood hookers. Here's the story on Mr. Brown Thumb.

Posted by Susan Harris

The Making of a Gardener

by Susan Harris, originally published July 14, 2007

Last week I canvassed the world for new gardening coaches, and showed you a coaching client being interviewed by a reporter for Agence France-Presse.  Here's the story - in English - and here, as promised, is the story behind the story. Susan

When Kirra Jarratt moved into her DC home last summer, the back and side yards were nothing but mulch.  The previous owners had had large dogs, and you can just imagine the realtor coming up with the mulch idea to cover up the ground, quick.  And it looked fine til the following spring, when the mulch was all gone and there was nothing but mud.  Something had to be done.  A quick call to a nursery brought some shocking news - that it would take a huge and surprisingly expensive amount of mulch to return the yard to its condition on move-in day, which mulch would again break down and return to mud.  The nursery offered this helpful advice, though: if she just bought some plants for the space, there'd be less bare ground to be covered in mulch.  As Kirra described it to me: "LIGHTBULB!" So, where does a total gardening newbie turn?

To a gardening coach, naturally, and I received an urgent email with the desperate mention of a housewarming party scheduled in just two weeks.  So I visited and found, as promised, not a single plant in the side and rear yards except a few weeds.  Not even a path through the mud.  But she was eager - and in a big hurry.  A visit to my own garden 5 minutes away helped us choose her new plant, and I left her with these assignments:

• To do: Take those stones that were piled up under her deck and arrange them in a nice curvey path along the length of the side yard, after doing a bit of regrading of the whole area.
• To buy: Bags of mulch (there was no time to schedule a bulk delivery), nandinas, pieris japonica, acubas, an oakleaf hydrangea, pulmonarias, heucheras, and any other perennial for shade that might catch her eye (which a nice blue hosta did).

When she'd accomplished both lists I returned with my tools and about 30 plain hostas from my own garden, and Kirra's mom had donated some humongous clumps of the lovely variegated liriope- excellent!  Here's what we accomplished in two hours:

• Deciding where everything would be planted, actually planting a few of plants to demonstrate.
• Instruction in laying the stone path.
• Instruction in watering.
• Some pruning and instruction for more.
• In the front, lifting and dividing a large hosta, instruction in dividing and siting more of them.
• Also in the front, redrawing the border edge and instruction in sod removal and the creation of a new edge.
• Plant suggestions for the front garden, for action at another time (we prioritized).

VOILA - A GARDEN AND A GARDENER
Two weeks later the whole place looked lovely and festive - inside and out - and the party was a good one.  I was there, introduced as her garden coach and handing out my card left and right.  Friends expressed amazement that Kirra had laid that path herself, that she'd created this garden herself, that she actually has a garden coach.  She tells me that neighbors are exclaiming, "Oh, you're a gardener!" and she doesn't know what to say. "Say yes, you are one."  And I know that not just by looking at her new garden.  I know she's a gardener because she already says things like: "Knowing how to prune is so liberating," and "Gardening is meditative - and addicting!"  And because she has lots of plans for the fall - and knows to wait til then to add more plants.   So even a big-city lawyer can catch the gardening bug.

MONEY, MONEY, MONEY
Remember the huge amount of money that Kirra decided NOT to spend just to replace her mulch-only yard?  Her next financial decision came after spending $748 for plants and 20 bags of mulch.  Because she was in such a hurry, she contacted a garden maintenance company and was given a bid to:

• Lay the stone path level with the grade, put her new plants in the ground and spread the mulch in the side and back yards.
• Plant a flat of vinca, prune one crapemyrtle, and spread the mulch in the front yard.

For the sweet sum of $2,820! - and that's for labor only, no plants. (No lie; Kirra has it in writing.)  What's up with that?  Are these guys getting rich?  I really don't get it, and this isn't the first time I've been amazed by the high cost of maintenance.

Compare that to paying $300 for four hours of coaching (half of which covered design and plant recommendations), and doing the work herself.  "AND I would have had no idea how to maintain what they did! Granted, my path would have been better graded, but I'm happy.  And everyone thinks that a professional landscaper did my yard!"  Looks like a happy coachee.  And she instructed me: "Don't forget to mention that the other advantage/benefit of going with you was you guided me to the local nurseries and gardening resources."  Going shopping with a coach can be a great learning experience, too.

The garden you see here isn't a finished product, we all know that.  It and its gardener will be evolving over the years.  But already, people are giving Kirra their extra plants, continuing the wonderful tradition of passalong plants. 

Photos:  Top, coaching in progress, photo by Nicholas Kamm for AFP. (I've decided the Frank Zappa T-shirt doesn't show up well, so it's back to Hawaiian shirts for me.) Next, the side yard, with a path and the beginnings of a garden.  The acuba will cover lots of wall eventually, and a few more large plants will be added. Next, the back yard as seen from the deck shows an oakleaf hydrangea anchoring the corner, surrounded by pieris, nandina, and lots of perennials. On the right, Kirra in her side garden.

The Gift of a Garden for Mom

by Susan Harris - originally published Mother's Day 2006, republished a year later

Say your mom, in need of some new interests at this point in her life, tells you she just might like gardening if she only knew where to start. You'd like to help but you live 200 miles away.  Most of us, myself included, would let it go at that but not the son who called me last month from NYC looking for someone to teach his mom to garden.  His search had started with calls to garden designers here in the D.C. area, where he grew up and his mom still lives.  Well, the notion of teaching a client to garden is apparently so alien they reacted as if the very notion were nutty.  But with a combination of persistence and chutzpa that surprises the Southerner in me but is essential for hailing cabs in Manhattan, he researched and found the D.C. area's one local gardening magazine and called its editor.  Now would you do that, even for dear old Mom?  Me, neither.  And luckily, the friendly editor of Washington Gardener Magazine is my buddy Kathy, who was more than happy to refer him to me.

So we talked and at first I didn't quite know what to make of this guy but after meeting his sweetheart of a mother, I was sold on the endeavor, whatever the hell it might turn out to be.  See, the goal here would be to teach and excite and create a gardener far more than to create a beautiful garden or add value to a piece of real estate. In fact, don't create too much garden and overburden the student; just a little something to tend to and enjoy.  Okay.

So where to start?  The backyard, with its old patio overlooking blank walls and a large AC, was the obvious place, the kind of fresh start that makes for great before-and-after pictures.  And after our first three afternoons together, I'm happy to present a colorful but manageable little garden of spireas, both 'Anthony Waterer' and 'Little Princess,' Hypericum shrubs, dianthus, scabiosa, and coreopsis, all chosen by Mrs. R.  Turns out this 70-something gardening newbie has a terrific sense of color and an eye for foliage, too.  As lovely as this is, imagine those shrubs blooming, not to mention a year or two older -  Sweet!  We've since moved on to the front, so stay tuned.

And before leaving this aaah-inspiring Mother's Day Story, let's ponder the question raised in my last post, namely how DO you create a gardener? 

In this situation I could have hired workers to install borders all in one visit, then left instructions for care and been done with it, but how much learning and inspiration would that have accomplished?  So we made several trips to the nursery together, an essential gardening activity that can be intimidating to the uninitiated.  And after drawing borders with my handy spray paint, I broke my own rules and removed the sod myself, amended the soil and planted Mrs. R's new garden, all under her watchful eye and chatting away about what I was doing and a million other topics.  And I'm hoping to arrange an educational outing together, like a garden tour or a visit to a public garden or even my own.  So, Readers, any other ideas?

Oh, and funny thing about this story.  Turns out Mrs. R's son has done lots more with his persistence and chutzpa than find a gardening teacher for his mom.  He's an entertainer, seen and heard all over TV, radio and even on Broadway.  Too bad he's too modest to let me name him.

Happy Mother's Day, Mrs. R!

2007 UPDATE
This story was originally posted on Mother's Day of 2006, so an update is in order.  Mrs. R's garden is  looking good and being added to gradually - recently some Flower Carpet roses, with 2 large weigelas coming soon.  And more importantly, she's become a friend. 

by Susan Harris - originally published Mother's Day 2006, republished a year later

Say your mom, in need of some new interests at this point in her life, tells you she just might like gardening if she only knew where to start. You'd like to help but you live 200 miles away.  Most of us, myself included, would let it go at that but not the son who called me last month from NYC looking for someone to teach his mom to garden.  His search had started with calls to garden designers here in the D.C. area, where he grew up and his mom still lives.  Well, the notion of teaching a client to garden is apparently so alien they reacted as if the very notion were nutty.  But with a combination of persistence and chutzpa that surprises the Southerner in me but is essential for hailing cabs in Manhattan, he researched and found the D.C. area's one local gardening magazine and called its editor.  Now would you do that, even for dear old Mom?  Me, neither.  And luckily, the friendly editor of Washington Gardener Magazine is my buddy Kathy, who was more than happy to refer him to me.

So we talked and at first I didn't quite know what to make of this guy but after meeting his sweetheart of a mother, I was sold on the endeavor, whatever the hell it might turn out to be.  See, the goal here would be to teach and excite and create a gardener far more than to create a beautiful garden or add value to a piece of real estate. In fact, don't create too much garden and overburden the student; just a little something to tend to and enjoy.  Okay.

So where to start?  The backyard, with its old patio overlooking blank walls and a large AC, was the obvious place, the kind of fresh start that makes for great before-and-after pictures.  And after our first three afternoons together, I'm happy to present a colorful but manageable little garden of spireas, both 'Anthony Waterer' and 'Little Princess,' Hypericum shrubs, dianthus, scabiosa, and coreopsis, all chosen by Mrs. R.  Turns out this 70-something gardening newbie has a terrific sense of color and an eye for foliage, too.  As lovely as this is, imagine those shrubs blooming, not to mention a year or two older -  Sweet!  We've since moved on to the front, so stay tuned.

And before leaving this aaah-inspiring Mother's Day Story, let's ponder the question raised in my last post, namely how DO you create a gardener? 

In this situation I could have hired workers to install borders all in one visit, then left instructions for care and been done with it, but how much learning and inspiration would that have accomplished?  So we made several trips to the nursery together, an essential gardening activity that can be intimidating to the uninitiated.  And after drawing borders with my handy spray paint, I broke my own rules and removed the sod myself, amended the soil and planted Mrs. R's new garden, all under her watchful eye and chatting away about what I was doing and a million other topics.  And I'm hoping to arrange an educational outing together, like a garden tour or a visit to a public garden or even my own.  So, Readers, any other ideas?

Oh, and funny thing about this story.  Turns out Mrs. R's son has done lots more with his persistence and chutzpa than find a gardening teacher for his mom.  He's an entertainer, seen and heard all over TV, radio and even on Broadway.  Too bad he's too modest to let me name him.

Happy Mother's Day, Mrs. R!

2007 UPDATE
This story was originally posted on Mother's Day of 2006, so an update is in order.  Mrs. R's garden is  looking good and being added to gradually - recently some Flower Carpet roses, with 2 large weigelas coming soon.  And more importantly, she's become a friend.