Organizing by not organizing

I read in the latest edition of “Today’s Garden Center” magazine an article titled “Slow Down”. Written by Sid Raisch of The Garden Center Group, it’s an interesting read concerning the changing garden retail landscape. What caught my eye was this. “Slow Retail Is Not Organized. There is no single controlling organization to the Slow movement. Its momentum is created worldwide by individuals who endorse and spread their passion that the Slow way is the better way.” This is the way it’s going to be going forward. Groups of like minded people connecting via The Internet and creating the change necessary to achieve their goals. Often the groups form without any real motivation or goals, but rather a shared interest. Soon themes may emerge that strike the groups fancy, and the group takes on a more proactive role. I see this in our trade group, Independent Garden Centers and Nurseries. Started as a place to just “talk shop”, it has morphed into a dynamic, action oriented group that is literally changing how business is being done in the horticultural world.

So rather than try and come up with a “plan of action”, such as the trade’s current fixation on creating "campaigns", use the “slow down” idea. Using “slow movement” thinking themes and ideas emerge through collaboration that can help the individual nurseries and garden centers who take part. Help the individual nursery do a better job, the customers will follow, and the “trade” will benefit. Actionable ideas that have a direct impact on the business, rather than a campaign which will have little or no effect on individual business. Guess I am just getting a bit tired of campaigns. So often it’s a forced movement that has no real underlying passion.

“Slow Gardening”, that’s something I can relate to. Our customers might ask, “I am already hungry for change in my life; show me how the garden can help. Help me slow down, and reconnect with the natural world. “ We ought to show the customers the benefit of doing business with us. That will really do something for our businesses.

If you’re an owner or employee of a independent garden center or nursery and want to join us go here.

To join our other trade group for nurseries, vendors, and garden media. Go here.

What are they thinking?

File this under why people new to gardening give up so soon. A new gardener might have heard that mixing perlite with their soil improves drainage. Perlite is commonly used in organic potting soils, and is the little spongy white rocks you see. Better look twice at that label.

Miracle-Gro perlite is not organic, or natural. For some reason beyond my imagination they have added Miracle-Gro fertilizer to the perlite! I have never heard of perlite with fertilizer added, and I sell pallets of perlite. That’s the last thing you want with a product designed to increase drainage. Fertilizers may be added to the potting soil, but never to the perlite itself.

The folks at Scotts Miracle-Gro have really outdone themselves this time. I would love to hear from someone at Scott’s on why they are doing this. If you wanted to grow organically and bought this perlite to mix with your soil, you’re screwed. Add this product to your mix and then fertilizer as you normally would, your screwed again. Check out the reviews at Amazon.com.

Why are you mixing fertilizer with a product designed for drainage? In my mind this borders on insanity. Can anyone in horticulture tell me why this might be a good idea? Could these kinds of things be one reason people fail at their gardening efforts, and blame themselves for their failure? Could it be that the decline in people gardening is a result of these companies who manufacture products and plants that are doomed from the start? Could it be the biggest enemies to attracting new gardeners, may very well be the biggest horticultural companies around? Perhaps.

What an amazing week

How does one explain the intense emotions that this post stirred up? It's clear that when we broached the subject of horticultural companies using social media, it hit a nerve. That was the question I was asking. Is this particular strategy of using garden bloggers to get your message out a good one? What happened is it quickly turned into something else. Sort of a cathartic explosion of pent of feelings that had been simmering just below the surface. Wow! What passion! All those people who "just want to write about the garden and their gardening", apparently don't. They also have some very intense feelings about the direction that gardening, and garden media is taking.

Gardening is not a community of like minded individuals. Everyone has their own idea of what gardening  is. "Gardening should be fun". We hear that often. Really? If your livelihood dependes on it is it still fun? Of course it would be nice if it was, but farming has always been a "tough row to hoe". As more and more people try to make a living from gardening, you'll naturally find different communities of people arising to meet and talk. Your community of gardeners may not agree with the other community of gardeners. Someone who depends on their crop to feed their family has a different set of priorities than some one who just wishes to dabble in the dirt. We need to drop the whole, "gardening should be fun" thing. If you want to have fun in the garden, that's great. If you want to make money from the garden, fine. It's up to you. But it's not always fun. It's a garden.

When you align yourself with one, two, or more horticultural corporations you can't say, "I just want to garden and write about it". Guess what? That company you just aligned yourself with is working against the best interests of someone else. One side or the other is not wrong or bad, unless your on the other side. The idea that you can support a corporation, and not expect someone from the other side to speak up is over. You might wish people who disagree with you would just hang out in their own "garden community". They don't. They like to get out and see what's going on in other communities.

I am a part of the "horticultural industry". Now that "industry" has fragmented into many different industries, each with it's own set of goals. I am aligned with the IGC (Independent Garden Center) industry, yet I think that side of the industry has it's own set of issues. There are some real crappy IGC's out there. That's why it's sometimes hard to say, "support you local indie garden center". Sometimes you can't. What I am trying to accomplish is more along the lines of "give your local indie a chance". You'll soon find out if they are worth your time.  Our goal is to make sure at least people know we exist. After that it's up to each locally owned indie to do something remarkable for their customers. If it doesn't they will eventually be gone, customers first, then the store. You gave them a chance and that's all we could ask. There are some really cool indie garden centers and nurseries. I think the prospects for these types of places are very good. The prospects for the whole nursery industry is less certain. I think it's going to get a whole lot smaller, which likely is a good thing, in the long run. In the short run it's going to get very interesting. It's hard to turn away, and not watch.

Why do we make social media so complicated?

I want to share a post done by one of the members of our IGC&N (Independent Garden Centers & Nurseries Group.) By the way, our group now has 287 members, and is growing every day! Ian Barclay, owner of The Desert Northwest and author of a blog by the same name wrote a great post on how not to use social media for your garden center or nursery. He writes about one garden center where he posted on their Facebook page, only to find his post's deleted, twice. Now if the garden center in question found a post that was derogatory or demeaning then I certainly could understand it being removed. His post's we're not, and when a garden center does that it shows they are not very open to having a conversation with people, but rather they are trying to control the message. These day's that doesn't work, but some garden centers, nurseries, and garden media continue with the illusion. I am concerned that some horticultural enterprises, who are jumping into the social media bandwagon, are following the wrong advice. Often this advice comes from the very people who tout them selves as social media experts.

There are no social media experts! Just people who have figured out how to use the various platforms available. Sure someone can tell you to push this or that button, or here is how to turn on this or that feature with Facebook or Twitter. But social media experts? I'm not a social media expert. I am a garden center owner that has figured out how to use some of the platforms available to get the word out.  What you do with  it after that is up to you. Do I need someone to tell me how to start conversation? No.

Simply being a IGC (Independent Garden Center) does not make you better than the local box stores. There a plenty of IGC's that don't get it, as Ian in his post points out. Why wouldn't an honest nursery, with honest advice not want to start a dialog about what they are recommending with Ian? Because they are trying to control the message. It doesn't work that way anymore. If your garden center or nursery that's get "it", and you want to hang with others that do, we have a community of like minded people here. Come join us.

There is no garden blogging community

The Big Boy's Have Gotten The Social Media Bug Bad seems to have it a nerve. It did because it was what a lot of people had felt before, but we're afraid to say. There is no garden blogging community anymore, and those of us in garden blogging knew it. There use to be a community, but now there are many communities. It was bound to happen but the knowledge has "depressed" some people from what I read at various pages. It's especially depressing for those who just thought garden blogging was always going to just be about people gardening, and sharing their love of gardening via The Internet. What has developed are a series of garden blogging communities, each with it's own dynamic. This is a natural progression, and not to be feared. Yet some people are fearful. So fearful they are brought to a point where ethics are thrown out the window, and they do things they wouldn't do otherwise. Fear also has kept some from speaking up about what they saw happening to their "community". They might think if they say something negative they will be ostracized by the community, loose the "link love" and other benefit's that come with being a part of "the community". They might have also felt that if they speak up they would be responsible for the disintegration of the beloved community. They need not be fearful, as the community has fragmented, just like the garden center business has fragmented. Right on!

If you going to try and monetize your blog, great! If you "just want to garden and write about my experiences in the garden", great. The problem is some say the later, but want the former. Ain't going to happen. Like any business you are going to have competition that might not always agree with what you say, and they are going to let you know it. How you react to criticism is going to be a big part of the success, or failure of your blogging business. Sure, if people don't like your blog they can just not read it and move on. They don't always move on. When you align yourself with a brand that has competition (they all do), sometimes the competition won't sit still. They will show up at your blog, and let their feelings be known. It's not  a matter if this is right or wrong, it just is.

Where do we go from  here? It's not really a concern for those who do not want to monetize their blog. What do they care? They can just write away, and say what they want. Those who wish to monetize their blogs need to understand that there is also no one garden business community. There are several, and they compete with one another. "That grower" is not always buddies with "that other grower". "That fertilizer" company is not always friendly with "that other fertilizer" company. Align yourself with one, and people who like the other may not let it go. We may not like that, but it's just the way it is. Get use to it.

I received a comment from Gayla Trail who runs one of the most popular garden communities ever, "You Grow Girl". Since 2000 she has been involved in the online gardening world, way before most of us. She is thinking about cutting back a bit. She said, "Yes. There are lots of places to be online and while it often starts off as a bit of fun, it can quickly become overwhelming. I had to pull back somewhere for my sanity. This is gardening season. I want to be gardening. I need to garden. It is a requirement for living.

Lately I’ve been thinking about taking too much on, especially when it comes to social media and how sometimes this can stem from a fear that if you are not everywhere at all times that you’ll be forgotten and left behind. I don’t want that sort of fear to dominate the choices I make in my career or how I live my life. I want to be okay with taking breaks and disappearing to recharge for a while.

So I’ve begun pulling back. I will likely pull back even more even though the timing is all wrong and most would think I am ill advised in doing so. I have known for nearly 2 years what I want to do next (when this current book is done), and yet I have found myself saying yes to too much, which is starting to get in the way of what I WANT to be doing and how I would like to spend my time." Right On!

That's unusual in the online world, and quite remarkable. So remarkable it got my attention. It's when people do remarkable things that the word spreads, not when brands try to "make things go viral" by having enough people talk online about their product. It backfires, and we witnessed it the last few days. It got me to thinking if I am trying to cover too many bases. I have a Twitter feed, 4 Facebook Pages, two websites, a LinkedIn group with over 1400 members, and this blog. I have purposefully not linked to the above sites, since I am getting tired of seeing social media posts that have a bunch of links to the brand that's being promoted. Where to cut back is the hard part. Perhaps like you, I don't want to miss something important. Yet with more and more noise coming at us everyday, from all the different media outlets, sometimes by doing less, you get more out of it.

Gardening virtually

Have you ever played Myst? How about Riven? My knowledge of these two graphic video games likely ages me. I am not a gamer.  I received one or the other from my sister years ago. These games are not like Farmville, which is so prevalent on Facebook. Farmville is cartoonish, while games like Riven are as real looking as a computer generated game can be. While at the ANLA Management Clinic a week ago I had the opportunity to sit down with Steve Cissel of 10-20 media, and watch a preview of a new gardening game they have come up with. The still unnamed game has a "world" along the lines of Riven. In  this virtual world birds fly in and out of view, water laps onto a shore, and  various events can be programed to happen at different times in the game. In this new un-named game the object is to grow to maturity various plants.

So there you are in  this virtual world trying to grow a real, or made up tree. Maybe it's a cross between an apple and a loquat, an apquat. You nurture your apquat by watering, feeding, controlling pests, etc.  When the apquat fruits you are rewarded with "gold coins" or other reward. Success, you can grow stuff virtually. So far it's just a game, and the connection to our garden center business is zero.

Being from an age group that doesn't automatically "get it" when it comes to games I had to have Steve explain why he was showing this idea at the ANLA Clinic? How does growing a apquat to maturity and fruit benefit the local garden center? When you successfully "grow" something in this virtual game you are rewarded. How the reward is paid out has not been determined yet. You take your reward to the locally owned garden center where you receive your prize! Guess what? You get a free, or reduced priced real plant or other garden center item.

That's when I had my AH AH moment! Someone, maybe a young person who has no experience gardening plays the game and learns that plants need water to grow. To thrive they need fertilizer, which can be applied to the virtual plant. Put too much on the plant dies. Put on the right amount it grows. Oh, oh, mildew has arrived and covers the leaves. You learn that organic fungicide is the answer, or perhaps moving the plant to a sunnier location might help. Now the plant thrives and you get a reward! Only to "cash in" the reward involves going down to that place called a garden center. Normally that might be intimidating to the new gardener, but you have learned from  playing the game that the "garden center" is the friendly place with answers to your questions. You have also learned from playing the game you need fertilizer, and mildew control. Now you enter this real garden center armed with enough knowledge to keep from feeling "foolish", and ready to grow a real plant.

They key to the game for garden retail is the reward, which brings in newbie gardeners to the garden shop.  Some may play the game, win a reward and never cash it in at the garden center. That's o.k., because others will wan't to cash in, and try their hands at real gardening. "If I can do this stuff virtually, maybe I can for real".  After all, you won a real thing, which needs other real things to keep it growing. I can see all sorts of  opportunities for interaction with the local garden center. Imagine a virtual "Golden Gecko Garden Center" that exists in the game. It's the "magical place" where you go to hear from the "plant wizards" and buy the "potions" needed for keeping that virtual garden growing, and  thriving. After all, you want to win another prize.

From what I understand the game is slated for release sometime this summer. It could be a fantastic way to interest newbie gardeners in gardening. So much these days is done virtually, and if we can at least get some interest in that world, we might be able to get some interest in our "real" world of gardening. Keep an eye on this!