Open Register is taking on the Coaching Challenge with some great ideas for their members, the indie nurseries.
And here in the DC area, writer/editor Kathy Jentz covered the coaching phenomenon in her gardening column in the Washington Examiner Newspaper. Great article, Kath! (But who are those people in the photos, anyway??)
Here it is in PDF: Download GardenCoach9-14-07.pdf
First there was garden coaching, and now that it's been discovered, for me it's morphed into coaching garden coaches. Mentoring, if you will. It means compiling information about everyone for the Directory, answering emails and even some phone calls. One very nice gardener in Montana called and asked some great questions, including: What do you take with you to see a new client? This was my answer.
PRUNING TOOLS
I take with me my three main pruning tools. That would be the Felco number 2s, (on the left in this photo), some loppers, and a folding pruning saw. SO many people need instruction in pruning, and you just never know what tools they'll have. More often than not if they have any pruning tool it's the dreaded shearers.
MARKING PAINT
Oh, I made fun of this product once - remember the "
marking paint" that turned out to be clear? Well, I know now to look for not just the words "marking paint" but a can top that's an actual color, preferably a bright one. But the point is to quickly draw some suggested new borders, and this stuff does the trick. If people need assurance that the paint won't last forever I tell 'em 2 weeks, max.
BUSINESS CARDS
I've changed my business cards so many times over the last couple of years, it's a good thing they're free at Vista Print, just $5 for shipping. The only catch is that there's a tiny advertisement for the Vista Print Company on the back of each card, but no one's ever seemed to notice it. (Here's the design I chose.)
THE PLANT LIST BOOK
This is such a fabulous idea - the New York/Mid-Atlantic Gardener's Book of Lists
form really badly in my area, like rhododendrons and leucothoes. And missing from the list of "Problem-Free Shrubs" are spirea, weigela, aucuba and nandina, beautybush and cherry laurels - literally the 6 easiest shrubs in my whole garden. Yet the relatively thirsty hydrangea macrophylla IS on the list. Oh, and guess what other list those hydranageas are on - deer-resistant plants. Uh, not hardly! Still, after I marked up the lists to reflect reality, they're actually helpful. And I think people like the assurance of something in print, don't you?
And through the recitation of these tricks of the trade, the Montana coach hung on every word, I tell ya, and was mighty appreciative. I encouraged her to "return the favor" by writing a little story someday about her adventures as a gardening coach. I might even nag her for that report.
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:
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.
I learned a thing or two from this story in today's Free Press:
Great story, Marty, and thanks for the link to GardenRant.
I've watched and loved this show since its debut over 20 years ago, so when a message appeared in my In Box with the all-caps subject "CBS SUNDAY MORNING CALLING" I was psyched. Would my client and I like to appear with Rita Braver in a segment about personal coaching? You bet your Felcos we would!
And lucky me, the taping would be done at my client's garden so SHE'D have to make her garden perfect and clean the house. Good deal! Except that after we'd finished up in her garden Rita says "Hey, let's all go shoot Susan's garden!" Imagine if you will having your garden on national TV on the spur of the moment, having Rita and her crew descend on your home with no warning. "But my house is dirty," I lamely protested, because Martha Stewart I'm SO NOT.
But for all my kvetching, here's the result - Rita sitting on MY FRONT PORCH giving the show's opening come-on: "Coming up on CBS Sunday Morning, personal coaching is blooming." I loved it! And the fact that before R
ita could sit on my porch the crew had to remove my discarded toilet (charming!) only added a soupcon of cringe to this happy scene. (Because she's a pro and SO NICE, she told me her own discarded-toilet-in-public-view story and I felt much better.) I'm just glad it wasn't until later that day that I read in her bio about the many hugely famous people she's interviewed during her illustrious career, or my cringe level could have been crippling.
Many thanks to Kay Meek, who's been so generous with her garden and her time. And thanks to the Sunday Morning team for a wonderful experience and for making me look not-terrible in the actual broadcast. (Kay and I particularly enjoyed being miked by the charming storyteller kneeling in the photo, but enough said about that.) My only regret? The story aired sooner than we expected and nobody saw it - well, not the hoards of family, friends and readers I'd planned on alerting. I'm hoping their lawyers will consent to at least a snippet appearing on this humble blog. Stay tuned.
UPDATE
Good news - a commenter on GardenRant gave us the video - thanks! It's
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml?id=3108384n
Group photo by CatAnders Photography.
Yes, but a quickie. Here's a fascinating story about kitchen garden coaches in the Seattle area, via Ed Bruske on DC Urban Gardener News. Great idea. Now I wonder if they'd just stick around to coach me in cooking.
And thanks to all the coaches who've contacted me about being included in my Worldwide Directory of Garden Coaches. The list continues to grow.
Here's my call to experienced gardeners everywhere to hang out their shingle and get listed as gardening coaches. I mention it here so it'll be included in my "Coaching" category for researchers of the garden coaching phenomenon (oh, yeah, we're thinking big).
And here's a coaching story: "The Making of a Gardener."
Could garden coaching be going mainstream? Check out this story about us in today's Times, on page 1 of their Escapes section. I like that, the notion of escaping to the garden.
Two months after I was first interviewed and long after I'd thought the editor had nixed the whole idea, the article appears and I get to meet some of my competition - coaches in New York and Seattle. I'm hoping the publicity will turn others on to the idea of garden coaching, either to become one or hire one because MAN, is it ever needed.
On page 2 of the story I'm quoted as saying this about an old grape holly: "You don't like it. It doesn't look good there. Take it out." Tough love, folks. That's what coaches are for.
Now for a few behind-the-scenes thoughts.
Photo by the very nice, very persuasive Jamie Rose for the New York Times.
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.
Did you catch Adrian Higgins' story in today's Washington Post about taking on the job of teaching fellow staffer Lauren Wiseman to garden? He's teaching her from scratch. How much of a newbie is she? Well, she bought some full-length and no doubt hot-as-hell wellies from J. Crew as her gardening shoes - that's how much of a newbie, so Higgins has his work cut out for him. To accompany the story of this journey, wherever it leads, is Lauren's on-line journal, The Budding Gardener - what a great idea.
So I applaud Higgins for the story idea and for his usual excellent advice. But what should people do if they don't happen to work alongside an Adrian Higgins? Why, hire a Gardening Coach, of course. Funny thing - I was recently interviewed by the New York Times for a story they're doing about gardening coaches, so I'm interested to see that I'm not the only one and curious to learn something about the others out there, somewhere. You can bet I'll link to it here if and when it ever appears in the paper.
