Coaching

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.

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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."

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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.

• The status of that particular paper is such that the mere mention of being interviewed or photographed by the Times seems to fill people with awe and predictions of great things to come. (We’ll see about that.)
• The client with whom I was photographed and who is also quoted in the story is the charming Kay Meek of Silver Spring, MD.  I’d been asked to recommend a few "advanced gardeners" among my clients, and she totally fit the bill.  I’m only sorry the photo chosen doesn’t show more of her fabulous garden, which I showed in this post.
• The very nice photographer got us to do the damnest things – some very cheesy, almost cheek-to-cheek shots, some weird arms-folded shots – and I’m just glad the editor chose a photo that needs no ’splaining.  And if you mouse over it you’ll see it’s titled "Gardenwomen" which has a nice sisterhood feel to it.
• My brazen attempt to get my coaching site’s URL used resulted in a big no-show – and after I’d added a Coach Near You page and everything.  But I like the page; I like spreading the coaching thing because I’m seeing how much people can be helped by hiring an experienced gardener for even an hour or two. 

Photo by the very nice, very persuasive Jamie Rose for the New York Times.

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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. 

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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.

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