"Only" experienced in vegetable gardening...

by Billy Goodnick
Yesterday, thanks to a connection to Gardenerd via this great new blog, I passed along some encouraging words to Christy Welhemi (Gardenerd). She was explaining that she'd like to eventually offer garden design services, but for now could "only" offer advice about growing food. My response was "what higher calling is there?"

Then I got to thinking about a fabulous project that a colleague of mine (Owen Dell) has undertaken here in Santa Barbara, CA and how it could grow into a marketing opportunity for coaches. (Owen and I cohost a local TV show called "Garden Wise Guys" about sustainable landscaping. Lots of good info buried in blatant silliness.)

Owen's brainchild is the Neighborhood Foodshare Project, and it's catching on locally. In a nutshell, neighbors within a reasonable walking distance, form a food sharing group for all the produce, eggs, herbs, etc. that they grow, then have a bi-weekly or monthly "mini farmers market" in a member's driveway to distribute they're goods. I accompanied him this weekend and was touched by the fabulous bond and sense of community that came from this gathering. Moms and dads and kids on their bikes bringing everything from end of summer giant zucchinis, to rare fruits, dried figs and prickly pear cactus fruits. Snacks and fresh lemonade abounded and new friendships were popping up. There's a PDF file at his site on how to create a Neighborhood Foodshed.

So what does this have to do with coaching opportunities? Well, I'm figuring that if one of you coaches out there with strong skills in growing food helps to nurture a few foodsheds in your area, you then have a command audience to assist them in expanding their gardening skills while learning even more from the free exchange of knowledge!

I'm tapped. Hope this gets your creative juices flowing.

Visit Billy's website at http://www.billygoodnick.com

Comments

[Spidra Webster]

Thanks for the info on NFP, Billy, but what I'm *really* thankful for is the trail that led to me discovering "Garden Wise Guys". The production values are high, the humor is right up my alley, and you guys are doing a real service. I'm disabled and my hands are really killing me right now so I'm not able to actually garden as much as I'd like. Which means I've been looking for ways I can learn more about gardening that don't require me to be on the computer or be kiling my tendons in the garden. There's a real dearth of freely available garden videos out there (I don't have cable). I've had a lot of fun watching what you guys have produced.

[gardenwiseguy]

Spidra: Thanks SOOOOOOOO much for your feedback on Owen's and my TV show. We're having a blast doing it and feel like we're really imparting some useful knowledge. We get very little feedback here in Santa Barbara (where we're actually on cable television), since we're well below the radar for Nielson ratings.

If you need more info, be sure to stop by my full-blown blog at http://gardenwiseguy.blogspot.com