Garden Coaching Blog

New coach has her say

Emily Ogrinz in Montclair, NJ, the new gardening coach mentioned in the previous post, sent me such meaty comments, I'm giving them their own post.  Here are the highlights, with headers added:

WHAT WE TEACH
You mentioned how you bring your pruners to every meeting and teach all your clients how to prune. Thus you are providing on-the-spot training, as well as demonstrating how a little effort can have dramatic results. I think one of the great things about garden coaching is that it is primarily about the sharing of information. I see that there are 3 types of information we can provide for the client: technical or factual information (species, soil and light condition and needs), design principles (plant in odd numbers, create garden rooms, etc.) and technique or skills (how to prune which shrubs when, how to divide perennials, etc.)

OTHER GREAT INFO WE DISTRIBUTE
Another topic we discussed was how useful it can be to bring books and other reading materials with you, such as plant ID books and other gardening books to give people examples of plants to use. I told you how I was very inspired by an article called "Envisioning Your Dream Garden" by Rand B. Lee, in the March/April 2003 issue of Fine Gardening, and already have a stack of copies that I love to share with friends. This article is a guide to brainstorming about your personal vision for your own garden, and supports your concept of giving people permission to do what they like in their gardens. I could see how if you knew specific questions or issues that your clients had that you could provide them with copies of articles on the topic or suggestions for books that they might be interested in reading.

(Emily, I feel the same way about the Renegade Gardener's article "Landscaping 101", which I posted with some other great info on the "Getting Started" page on my website.)

MARKETING
I asked about the idea of giving workshops on gardening locally, such as at a local garden or at a local community organization. I've also noticed that there is a garden coach in California who does workshops, I believe at her local farmer's market. My first client said she could imagine me sitting out at a table at our farmer's market, answering questions and handing out brochures about my services.
(Great ideas!)

INSPIRATION FOR NEW COACHES
I have also found all of the listings on your Worldwide Directory of Garden Coaches to be incredibly informative and inspiring. It's a great source of ideas about what other people are doing that can help you figure out what you can do. It's also inspiring to see so many people all around the country who are reaching out to other people to share their love of gardening.

ON THE GENEROSITY OF GARDENERS
Another thing that struck me in our conversation was when you told me how you like to work with people locally, because it makes it possible both for you to swing by and see their gardens and also so that it is easy for them to come see your garden and get extra plants from you. You are both creating a community of gardeners and also beautifying your own community. There is so much generosity in gardeners, you see it in our desire to find good homes for our offshoots and extra divisions, in groups like Dave's Garden, as well as in the donation of extra produce from the summer vegetable garden to food banks and to neighbors and friends.

EX-ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATOR PREFERS GARDEN COACHING
I used to be an environmental educator, and I got turned off by the environmental movement because there is so much negativity and hopelessness in it.  Environmental problems seem so overwhelming, how can one person possibly make a difference? I've found that gardening is a positive act I can do for the world, by creating wildlife habitat, growing organic food locally, composting and minimizing the waste stream, and most of all by creating beauty. In my garden I feel like I am a part of the great force of nature, and I can actually see how I am making a difference. When I see my extra plants beautifying my neighbors' gardens, and see my neighbors becoming more engaged with their gardens as they become more beautiful, I sense an outward flow of positive energy into the world. I feel energized and excited by the thought of all these people throughout the country passing on their knowledge and extra plants, and creating beauty. There is an ever expanding networks of gardeners and gardens and it is making the world a more beautiful, more engaged, and more positive place.

(You said it, sister!) Posted by Susan Harris

How to start charging $$ for your coaching

I just had a nice chat with a potential gardening coach in Montclair, New Jersey who wanted to know all my ideas for transitioning from coaching friends for free to hanging out a shingle.  I happily spilled all my ideas, then thought to put them here for others in her situation.  So here's my idea dump:

• Start out charging low and you'll feel more comfortable asking for actual money.  Then raise your fees as you get more experience and confidence.
• Offer to barter your services - something I've done for catering and computer services of various types.
• Take out an ad in the community newsletter.
• Offer to write a gardening column in any local publication that'll have you.  I've probably gotten more clients from my newspaper column than any other source.
• Promote your services with the local independent nurseries - maybe they'll post your flyer or card.  Let them know you'll be sending customers to them, and helping their customers keep their plants alive (and not asking for that free replacement plant).
• Get some free business cards from Vista.com (just $5 for shipping), put your pruning tools and digital camera in the car, and visit our first client.  Oh, and don't forget a can of marking paint.
• Donate your services to a local charity auction, especially if it gets good exposure.

Then to increase call-backs:

• Send newsletters or simple emails that include tips (like "What to do this month") or to announce your latest column or a helpful blog post you might have written.

Memory's failing me here.  Emily, what else?

Posted by Susan Harris

Full-Time Career as a Garden Coach?Fugeddaboutit!

by Susan Harris, originally published August 20, 2007

I've encouraged people to take up garden coaching and - yay! - they've responded.  My Worldwide Directory of Gardening Coaches now lists 23 coaches.  But before you quit the day job, here's a reality check.

It's hard enough for anyone to make a living in the gardening field generally but at least landscape architects and really successful designers get hired for BIG jobs, usually for a cut of the whole project. (And someone correct me if they're paid a flat fee.)  But coaches are hired on an hourly basis - and for very few hours, at that - so it's not like a lifetime of Freudian analysis.  Most of my clients need one or two hours and I never hear from them again.  If I reminded them of my gardening brilliance regularly, as my friends suggest, it might result in more call-backs but really, most of them are on their way and don't need regular visits.

So even at my recently increased fee of $75 an hour, how much money can there possibly be in it? Remember that the appointments have to be when the client is home on the weekends, and naturally during the gardening season.  And the kiss of death to career aspirations?  While the universe of people who need it is HUGE, the people who know such a service exists, seek it out and make it happen is tiny, tiny, tiny, even with all the recent publicity.

Despite the pitiful financial returns, here's why it's still a good idea for some people:

• The need is there and it's really fun to help people in this way.   Plus, the folks who hire garden coaches are a damn nice bunch. 
• Gardenwriters can use coaching to learn a lot and beef up their resumes, while earning some extra cash. 
• Landscape architects and designers can add coaching as one of the services they offer.
• Retirees and Master Gardeners?  Go for it!

But if you were thinking that coaching would ever pay your mortgage, sorry about bursting that bubble.

IS IT TOO LATE TO COACH SOMETHING ELSE?
Just the other day a DVD arrived from CBS of the personal coaching segment on "Sunday Morning" and I was surprised to see that the wardrobe or "image" consultant featured in the segment is someone I actually know - cool! Then I listened and heard Rita Braver say that this other kind of coach charges $250 an hour.  Crikey!  Where does she find clients who can pay that kind of money?  I'm afraid the answer is that she's rich and probably knows most of the rich people in D.C. (Her brother is Dan Glickman and their family seems to have made a fortune in scrap metal.)  So that $250 fee is another case of the rich getting richer, I'm afraid.

Help Grow Some Gardeners - Start Coaching Now

by Susan Harris, originally posted July 7, 2007
Here's a quiz:  The June 15 New York Times story about Gardening Coaches and the story's aftermath are examples of 1) the reporting of new career, 2) the creation of a new career, or 3) pack journalism in action.  Answer below.

Norma Gladden, a Master Gardener and retiree in Michigan, was sent the Times article by a friend, who encouraged her to become a coach herself.  Because Norma had enjoyed helping friends and neighbors get started in gardening over the years, she promptly posted her availability as a gardening coach on Detroit's Craig's List and created a flyer to post around town.  (How's that for ease of entry into a new career?!)  And a quick Googling for gardening coaches reveals Normas popping up all over the country to offer their services via Craig's excellent Lists.  And I suspect there are lots more just using the flyer technique and not popping up on the Internet - yet.

But not everyone calling themselves a gardening coach just sprang into action three weeks ago. The coach at GardenMentors.com was featured in the article, and the domain name TheGardenCoach.co.uk takes you to the site of a landscaper in England.  There's also GardenCoach.com, and if you can find the coach's name anywhere on that site, let me know.  All sorts of qualifications are revealed, however, including her employment by DavesGarden.com (not surprisingly listed as her favorite gardening site).

And since writing about coaching myself I've learned that Pam Penick in Austin and Billy Goodnick in Santa Barbara do a bit of garden coaching on the side.  Billy calls these one-time consults a "brain dump." Stuart Robinson in Australia - same deal.

So here's something new on the coaching front:  I've contacted everyone I could find working as a gardening coach or mentor and offered to list them on my site's new Worldwide Directory of Gardening Coaches. Not because I'm all that eager to give free web advertising to total strangers but because I'd really like to see this coaching thing take off.  It's SO NEEDED. 

• Take the first-time homebuyers who've acquired a yard with their new house and doesn't know  a weed from a keeper or anything at all about taking care of all that alien green stuff out their back door.
• Take the vast majority of homeowners who have no idea how to prune their shrubs and small trees.  Evidence of this is rampant.
• Take the actual case of a nongardener who ventured out to the local nursery, bought 50 or so assorted plants (and I do mean assorted), and called me two months later because he had no idea where to plant them.  Or how to plant them.  Or how to water them (and it was now mid-summer, of course.)

Gardeners, how long did it take YOU to produce a garden you're proud of?  It took years of actually gardening, right?  We know that gardening isn't learned by reading or sitting in classrooms.  We know that HGTV is no help at all.  We know that Master Gardener training just scratches the surface, despite the misleading name.  We know that nurseries don't offer much help, certainly not enough help for the newbies who wake up one Saturday in June and decide to go buy themselves a garden.

So experienced gardeners of the world, help them out! Offer your services, create not just gardens but gardeners, and make some extra money while you're at it.  YOU ARE DESPERATELY NEEDED.  I'm not kidding.  Use Craig's List.  Get included on my Directory.  If you're not sure your services are worth anything, start out cheap (I started at $35 an hour) and raise your rates as you gain experience and confidence.  I think you'll be surprised how valuable your guidance and hands-on instruction really are to the clueless public.

And why aren't nurseries offering these services, or at least publicizing the availability of independent coaches to help turn homeowners into regular customers?  I'm going to go right over to Open Register, the blog of the retail nursery industry, and suggest they do just that.  Nurseries are INTIMIDATING places for beginners.  Imagine if there were someone to lead them through the process of not just choosing plants but going home with them to show these poor folks where and how to plant them.  Then tell them the part they're always shocked to hear - that they have to water the damn things or they'll up and die.  After which, the customer returns to the nursery for their guaranteed replacement plant, of course. (Man, that's gotta gall nurserypeople!)

Now it's time for the Answer.  1 and 2 are correct because the handful of garden coaches in the world were reported on, and the story created more of them.  But how about number 3, pack journalism? For this gardening coach the Times story has led to an upcoming feature on "CBS Sunday Morning" and a story by the wire service Agence France-Presse, and I bet the other coaches in the original story have experienced similar journalistic pilings-on.  And for a story like this it's a good thing.  (When covering people in power, not so much.)

So unless you'd be competing with me in the Washington, D.C. area, drop me a line and get listed - quick, before the next wave of garden-coaching publicity.  Let's ride this wave as far as it'll take us.  Email me.

Photo: Taken just this morning of Kirra Jarratt - an outstanding garden coachee - singing the praises of garden coaching to Agence France-Presse reporter Virginie Montet (who hired me to consult at her own garden tomorrow morning.)  I'll tell the story of Kirra's garden soon.  Hint: A gardener was born!

But not everyone calling themselves a gardening coach just sprang into action three weeks ago. The coach at GardenMentors.com was featured in the article, and the domain name TheGardenCoach.co.uk takes you to the site of a landscaper in England.  There's also GardenCoach.com, and if you can find the coach's name anywhere on that site, let me know.  All sorts of qualifications are revealed, however, including her employment by DavesGarden.com (not surprisingly listed as her favorite gardening site).

And since writing about coaching myself I've learned that Pam Penick in Austin and Billy Goodnick in Santa Barbara do a bit of garden coaching on the side.  Billy calls these one-time consults a "brain dump." Stuart Robinson in Australia - same deal.

So here's something new on the coaching front:  I've contacted everyone I could find working as a gardening coach or mentor and offered to list them on my site's new Worldwide Directory of Gardening Coaches. Not because I'm all that eager to give free web advertising to total strangers but because I'd really like to see this coaching thing take off.  It's SO NEEDED. 

• Take the first-time homebuyers who've acquired a yard with their new house and doesn't know  a weed from a keeper or anything at all about taking care of all that alien green stuff out their back door.
• Take the vast majority of homeowners who have no idea how to prune their shrubs and small trees.  Evidence of this is rampant.
• Take the actual case of a nongardener who ventured out to the local nursery, bought 50 or so assorted plants (and I do mean assorted), and called me two months later because he had no idea where to plant them.  Or how to plant them.  Or how to water them (and it was now mid-summer, of course.)

Gardeners, how long did it take YOU to produce a garden you're proud of?  It took years of actually gardening, right?  We know that gardening isn't learned by reading or sitting in classrooms.  We know that HGTV is no help at all.  We know that Master Gardener training just scratches the surface, despite the misleading name.  We know that nurseries don't offer much help, certainly not enough help for the newbies who wake up one Saturday in June and decide to go buy themselves a garden.

So experienced gardeners of the world, help them out! Offer your services, create not just gardens but gardeners, and make some extra money while you're at it.  YOU ARE DESPERATELY NEEDED.  I'm not kidding.  Use Craig's List.  Get included on my Directory.  If you're not sure your services are worth anything, start out cheap (I started at $35 an hour) and raise your rates as you gain experience and confidence.  I think you'll be surprised how valuable your guidance and hands-on instruction really are to the clueless public.

And why aren't nurseries offering these services, or at least publicizing the availability of independent coaches to help turn homeowners into regular customers?  I'm going to go right over to Open Register, the blog of the retail nursery industry, and suggest they do just that.  Nurseries are INTIMIDATING places for beginners.  Imagine if there were someone to lead them through the process of not just choosing plants but going home with them to show these poor folks where and how to plant them.  Then tell them the part they're always shocked to hear - that they have to water the damn things or they'll up and die.  After which, the customer returns to the nursery for their guaranteed replacement plant, of course. (Man, that's gotta gall nurserypeople!)

Now it's time for the Answer.  1 and 2 are correct because the handful of garden coaches in the world were reported on, and the story created more of them.  But how about number 3, pack journalism? For this gardening coach the Times story has led to an upcoming feature on "CBS Sunday Morning" and a story by the wire service Agence France-Presse, and I bet the other coaches in the original story have experienced similar journalistic pilings-on.  And for a story like this it's a good thing.  (When covering people in power, not so much.)

So unless you'd be competing with me in the Washington, D.C. area, drop me a line and get listed - quick, before the next wave of garden-coaching publicity.  Let's ride this wave as far as it'll take us.  Email me.

Photo: Taken just this morning of Kirra Jarratt - an outstanding garden coachee - singing the praises of garden coaching to Agence France-Presse reporter Virginie Montet (who hired me to consult at her own garden tomorrow morning.)  I'll tell the story of Kirra's garden soon.  Hint: A gardener was born!

Rolling out The Gardening Coach.Com

by Susan Harris - This was my blog post announcing my coaching site.

Finally, there's a place to go for information about what a "gardening coach" could possibly be or do - or charge, for that matter.  And for a little background, it all started in the fall of 2004 when a Hort Club member asked me if I knew anyone she could pay to teach her to garden, at which I immodestly offered my  own services.  We accomplished a lot in her garden, she recommended me to others, and a little business was started - well, business cards were printed and an ad placed in the local paper.

With the ad came 19 new clients in 2005, people who needed help with tasks like determining weeds from keepers, learning to prune, creating borders, deciding what project to start with, and making their gardens easier to maintain, to name a few.  Considering that the work is seasonal and almost always on weekends (in order to work with the clients while they're home), I've concluded that coaching will never be a primary source of income, but it offers other rewards besides monetary ones, like increased credibility, opportunities for my own learning, and the immense satisfaction of helping to create gardeners.  But then again, with my new website, who knows how many more calls I'll get.  It takes a lot more, I think, for people to see an ad and place that first phone call - what the heck do you do? - than simply reading a website.

So what's new this year?  Some new clients, including Kay and Kelsey, the owners of the garden pictured here.  Now you're thinking, why on earth would the people who created that vision of loveliness need a coach?  Which was exactly my thought when I arrived to discover one of the most beautiful gardens I'd ever seen.  But in fact, it was so close to perfect that its few trouble spots and marginal plants were driving them crazy, so they decided to get input from someone else.  (They'd seen my garden on a tour, so knew that my tastes were similar to their own.)  And besides some pruning advice, the most important thing I think I did was to give them permission - actually, more of a declarative "do it" - to get rid of those marginal plants.  You know the type - they've been there so long or they're so large, we let them struggle on for years as we stiffle our displeasure over their very wrongness in the garden.  But the next thing I heard from Kay, they were positively giddy about getting rid of their problems, being freed from their doubts and guilt, and researching some wonderful new replacements. 

Finally, friends, check out the site and give me your feedback.  But if you ever need to create a site of your own, don't do what I did and use one of Register.com's templates.  Imagine this example of truly horrible programming:  you can't bold, italicize or underline a word or two; the entire paragraph has to look the same.  Other examples abound.  The two other static sites I've created use templates found on Tripod, part of the portal Lycos, and are a pleasure to use. (See Takoma Garden and Takoma Hort.)  Too bad most of their designs are circa 1965, which is why I went looking for another website vendor for the coaching site.  And by the way, anybody can afford a website nowadays; these all cost about $95/year each, including domain name, server space, the program itself and human support.  But can anybody recommend sources of other templates?