Brainstorming a manifesto
Creating a gardening manifesto
I don’t know who’s more excited about Dig! Grow! Love! - me or my husband. When I thought about starting this business I was thinking local and homegrown, and not just the plants. “Local” as in dealing with clients in and around my newly adopted hometown of Ithaca, NY. “Homegrown” as in me sitting at my studio at home making it all happen. In my original concept, I would work with gardening clients - both public and private - empowering people to get out and get dirty. I’ve done garden design for clients in their penthouses who preferred the rarefied ideal of a beautiful garden vista as seen from their windows. I’ve also done the polar opposite - strategizing what to plant and where to discourage public urination in scrappy city parks.
I was planning for my work to fall somewhere in between these extremes, working with clients who appreciate gardens as something other than a convenient bathroom and who also want to get down and dirty with plants. I want to teach people about their gardens and about working with the earth. I want my love of gardening to go viral, so that each of my clients can grow as excited about a new plant as I do (OK, maybe that’s a stretch - I’ve been know to run up to a plant in a nursery and hug it, giddily placing it in my cart - but really, wouldn’t you if you saw this Sambucus nigra “Black Lace”
So while I don’t necessarily want them to publicly embarrass their friends, partners, or children, I do want them to acquire the skills to become self-sufficient gardeners within a community of other self-sufficient gardeners and to pass on their enthusiasm to others. I want to build grass roots!
I was brainstorming with my dear husband and he inspired me to think big. While local is good, and Ithaca is a great place to get started, really there’s no reason to limit myself. In the internet age and with some smart licensing, there’s no reason I can’t have a far wider reach.
That requires me to teach more and write more, which make me perfectly happy. What makes me even happier and has filled my husband with glee is his brilliant idea of organizing Dig! Grow! Love! garden parties. Not the garden parties of old ladies wearing big floppy hats (don’t get me wrong, I love old ladies with big floppy hats and I full intend to be one someday), but hip, exciting, fun parties with a great soundtrack and people having fun, getting, dirty, and doing hands-on gardening projects so they can learn techniques and build the confidence to go out and garden in their homes and in their communities.
All this has a purpose that’s rooted in self-sufficiency, food security, community building, and environmental remediation, I just need to get that part on paper. I can’t exactly write grants and get funding for these education parties without a good mission statement. So while the baby is asleep, the boy is engrossed and my husband is off drawing somewhere, I need to get to writing.
Keep growing!