Garden Coaching Blog

Garden Coaching in Organic Gardening Magazine

 
Man, talk about lead time - 11 months.  Garden photog extraordinaire Rob Cardillo spent hours shooting my garden last April and in September I delivered the text about springtime garden-coaching and voila - it's in my hands and on the stands!  And looking good.  Here's one of Rob's cool shots that didn't make it into the mag.

And the folks in the garden coaching world are mighty grateful to Organic Gardening for the great publicity - I'm already hearing from other coaches who subscribe, and they're a happy bunch. 

Posted by Susan Harris

Garden coaching via the Associated Press

Veteran journalist Dean Fosdick, who covers nature and gardening for the Associated Press, wrote this wonderful story about garden mentors of all types.

 

Congrats to coach Robin Haglund

Posted by Susan Harris

Here's what the Washington State Nursery and Landscape Association said about Garden Mentor and  Certified Professional Horticulturist Robin Haglund when they named her Young Member of the Year:

Garden Mentors is dedicated to furthering the integrity and development of the international horticultural industry. Because of Robin's dedicated service to the industry and WSNLA, and because of her exemplary work illustrating the values of WSNLA's Certified Professional Horticulturist designation during the 2007 year, Robin was nominated by WSNLA peers and voted WSNLA's Young Member of the Year. She was presented with her award in January of 2008.

Visit Robin at her site GardenMentors.com

In more news about Robin, she'll be speaking to the Maymont Flower and Garden Show in Richmond, VA month about garden mentoring and I hope to be there!  Photos and stories would surely follow right here and maybe elsewhere, too!  Here's the link to the show's site.

Garden coaching in the Christian Science Monitor

We're on a roll!  Thanks to coaches Victoria Secunda, Jim Freeman and Genevieve Schmidt and correspondent April Austin for spreading the word.  Here's the article.

Garden coaching in Newsweek

Wow, still more media attention to garden coaching - this time in Newsweek.  And with each story, new coaches are getting listed in the Directory and hanging out their shingle, so it's all good news for our new profession.  And a big thank-you to reporter Christina Gillham for even giving the web address of our directory and other coaching resources.  (Yay)  Here's our compilation of press clippings about garden coaching, and if you know of something we've missed, leave a comment, will ya?

Posted by Susan Harris

California coach Genevieve Schmidt in the news

Congratulations to Genevieve in Arcata, CA for this nice profile in the North Coast Journal.  Writer Amy Stewart, a blogging partner of mine at GardenRant, has been an early and enthusiastic supporter of coaching and we thank her for spreading the word. 

Posted by Susan Harris.  Photo by Amy Stewart.

Surgeon overcomes fear of cutting -with a little coaching

This rash of publicity for garden coaching is creating a whole new bunch of coachees, and one of them is my new favorite.  Not just because his professionally designed garden was so damn gorgeous, which it was.  But because he decided the estimate he’d gotten for maintaining it - $11,000 a year - seemed outrageous, and he wondered if he could do it himself, with a little coaching.  And because he took careful notes as I explained how to prune each of his shrubs and by the end of the walk-through he was visibly excited and exclaimed, "I feel so empowered!"  God, I love that shit.

It seems that this surgeon-gardener had read many books about pruning and was still afraid to take action - it’s all so confusing!  Yeah, I hear ya.  That’s why teaching pruning one-on-one, in the garden, is so much better than books, videos, PowerPoints and all the rest.  Coaching rules!

Posted by Susan Harris

Hot discussion of coaching on GardenRant (our ears were burning)

Check it out.  That post doesn't seem incendiary...until the commenters weigh in.

Coaching in Total Landscape Care

Here's the story, with quotes from Robin Haglund in Seattle and yours truly here in Maryland.

Posted by Susan Harris

Coaches in Washingtonian Magazine

Washington, D.C.'s big glossy monthly has a comprehensive feature this month about finding help in the garden and includes coaches, along with the more established professions of designers and landscape architects.  Excellent!  I was interviewed and quoted at length, as was one of my clients. Kathy Jentz, editor of Washington Gardener Magazine, was asked about the difference between a coach and a consultant.  Her answer: there's no formal distinction, but those who call themselves consultants tend to have certificates or degrees in landscape design or horticulture, while coaches are generally people who have gardened for years and developed expertise that way, as well as through research or volunteering in a community or botanical garden.  Good explanation, Kathy!

Finally, on their website I found this little gem: "Local garden coach Susan Harris links to a variety of regional gardening blogs at sustainable-gardening.com."  Ah, link love!

Posted by Susan Harris