TheGardeningCoach.com

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? 

Comments

[Allison]

This is probably overwhelming, but here's an exhaustive list of templates:
http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Graphics/Web/Templates/

Of course, I don't know how easy they are to use. I suck at graphic design, but I'm reasonably competent on the technical end - and I'd be happy to help with making specific changes. And I do need "is this a weed or not" advice!!!

[Heather]

Love the story about "empowering" the folks to get rid of plants that aren't working. I love the way you think. I am the same way. Life's too short to nurture plants that aren't reciprocating.

The site looks great! I have no advice on site creation though. Never gone into business. But it sounds like it's going great. Very informative. If you ever happen to be in Houston for some other reason, I've got $60 and a pitcher of margaritas with your name on it!

[Heavy Petal]

Susan, what a fantastic business idea! It's what we end up doing for friends, anyway. My only advice would be to charge more, especially since you're not charging for research time, etc.

[Alice]

Dear Susan

I would be very grateful if you could spare a little time to give my husband and I some badly needed advice on creating a new area of our garden.

I can see that we have similar ideas, and I think the personal input would be just what we need.

I feel that your charges are quite reasonable for the service you provide ...... uh oh, I've just realised, I don't think I can afford your travelling time, and a weekend visit may leave us a little short of time to actually do any work. However, if you do ever come to Australia, I'd love to meet you and I'm sure there will still be some of the garden to develop; after all, we've been here 30 years.

With all good wishes -

'Alice'

[Sandy]

Thank you Susan for inspiring me to start to charge alot more than I do. My friends always tell me to and now reading your list I'm going to give myself a raise:)

[Annie in Austin]

What a cool idea, Susan! Linking to your own garden photos is a very wise move, I think... you will 'weed out' any prospective customers whose garden visions are incompatible with your style without either client or coach feeling rejected.

As Heather says, if you find yourself in Austin you've got web-friends here!

[Kathy Jentz]

Congratulations on the new site and your "growing" business :-).

[Nelumbo]

I'm glad your business is taking off! I like the site, especially your niche of taking a "coaching" approach vs. just being a hired hand and doing everything for the person. I imagine there will continue to be a good market for your services.

[Sandy]

I don't know if you've ever checked out this website, but they have great templates there, and the staff will work with you if you have any problems setting up any of their templates. I am a website designer, and like these quite well. They also have some really nice ones even at the lower end of their price range. Here's the link...

http://www.templatemonster.com/

Sandy