Monthly Archives: December 2008

Gardening Coaches Grow Gardeners

Posted on by mikethrgardencoach

Gardening Coaches Grow Gardeners.

I’m a relatively new gardening coach, but I am a Master Gardener and have 20-some years of landscape contracting and design behind me. I really enjoy showing people how to have the garden and landscapes they want, but at a lower cost and lower environmental impact than they can get without knowing what they are doing.

My main service is education, and I gather that is true of most of the people here, whether you think of yourselves as a ‘coach’, ‘mentor’, ‘facilitator’ or ‘consultant’. The only one of a list I saw of services that falls outside of this is ‘Personal gardener’, which doesn’t suggest that the client is learning to do it themselves.

Large corporations have studied learning, and what they have found is that for the best retention, students need to have hands-on experience. Lecture somebody til you are blue in the face, wave you arms as much as you want, and they will retain 5% of what you say. When they learn by actually doing, the retention comes up to 75%. Add immediate practice to the mix, and they retain over 80% of the material. Doing the work FOR them is really doing them a disservice, doing it WITH them makes tour visits a truly valuable service.

I have been working with Susan Harris to set up a forum for gardening coaches. The goal is to create a safe environment for us to ask and answer questions, exchange ideas, develop and exchange tactics and strategies, solve common problems, share reference materials we use, etc. By joining forces, we can create a united front – a world-wide association of coaches.

We all share common, or at least similar, goals and problems. I’d like to invite all of you to join us at http://gardening-coaches.com/forum/ and take part in the discussions as we learn and grow together. Go to the above link, register, and leave a note in your profile that you are a coach to get access to a private area just for coaches. There is also a public area where you can interact with the general public.

Let’s not just grow gardeners – let’s grow a movement.

Maybe Victory Gardens can save U.S. again

Posted on by mikethrgardencoach

Maybe Victory Gardens can save U.S. again.

Here is a very powerful call to the original Victory Gardeners to  step back into the garden and teach the younger generations about the values of the Victory Garden.

An excerpt:

“First, help bring back the Victory Garden — small market gardens that can feed America. You recall Victory Gardens: Nearly 20 million Americans planted them during World War II, in city plots, small town backyards and across the countryside. You yourself may have planted one, or helped your mother tend one. You produced 40 percent of America’s fresh food, freeing up transportation, industry and fuel for the war effort.

Sadly, when the war was won, you surrendered your Victory Garden. With newfound purchasing power, you ushered in the era of cheap processed foods and artery-clogging fast food. Yes, you! (We’ve been looking for a scapegoat for the sorry state of the American diet). You even got your kids hooked on TV dinners and junk food. Now your 50- and 60-something kids are so out of shape you could whip them from your rocker.”

Gardening Coaches Forum

Posted on by mikethrgardencoach

via A New Gardening Coaches Forum

I have set up a forum for gardening coaches. This is a public site with a private ‘coaches lounge’ to discuss our businesses , exchange ideas and help forge this new and needed industry.

Coaches should take a moment when Registering to introduce themselve to gain access to the private area. Click the above link to go to the forum.