Quit trying so hard

This photo of community gardening in Switzerland was taken by Yann Athus-Bertrand. It is of Allotments in the Avanchets estate, Geneva, Suisse (46°12’N, 6°09’E). What a marvelous display of community gardening. This ability to share across borders and languages will continue to shape and change horticulture. 

At times we can find ourselves stuck in an echo chamber based around our shared trade. We talk to, and hear from others in the trade. We use the various social media platforms to "sell" stuff, rather than to learn and enjoy. I believe conversation, and the sharing of ideas is the new advertising. It's not advertising in the traditional sense, which is good, since the traditional way of promoting products and services is dying.

Rather than advertising the new way is to be "out there" enjoying and sharing stuff we love. Have a interest in history? Join some history groups on Google +, or Facebook. Want to broaden your interests from horticulture to the larger world of science? There are people doing stuff there that will blow your mind. Interestingly, it's outside our traditional area of expertise that many great ideas can be found that ultimately will benefit us.  Do it without the intent to build your business, or brand. People are developing an aversion to the "sales pitch" anyway. Conversations and sharing are the way forward for business.

IKEA, maker culture, and hydroponics

We talked earlier about How the Competition May be Hard to Spot. Food growing has taken on a life of its own and everybody has new ideas and techniques they want to talk about. Eliooo is a book which describes how to make a hydroponic system for growing food from parts bought at the local IKEA.

Two huge takeaways for me are, the explosive growth of the “maker culture”, or DIY (Do it yourself) movement and the mainstreaming of hydroponics. Oh, and one other takeaway. This is all done without the need of a local garden center. It’s only a matter of time before IKEA seize on this and start selling vegetable plants. They already sell house plants.

When we first started talking about selling hydroponics here in July of 2008 it was considered esoteric and something only marijuana growers used.  No more! It’s going main stream and the problem for many garden shops is the people who are really interested in this stuff often think of places like IKEA, or Home Depot before they think of the local garden center.

The other important trend going on here is the "maker culture". The author of Eliooo, Antonio Scarponi says he wants to show how to make this out of stuff you may already have, or can buy cheaply.  How will you stay relevant when you need to sell "stuff" and these projects are more about ideas. How can you spread ideas and still make enough to stay in business? It will involve a new way of thinking and valuing what we do as horticultural professionals.