Q. I am a Mother of 5 children. I don’t have a lot of knowledge about gardening and would like to learn more. I don’t have a lot of time to spend gardening and need to find the best way.
A. I’m sharing my response to with you only to show how each of us can help make the world a better place by sharing – even in small ways – the good that we know. And perhaps you will come to know what motivates me a little better also.
Dear Mother: May I send you a gift to assist you? I am from a family of 13, and my mother didn’t have time to do justice to a garden, so being the oldest boy at home most of the time, I was assigned that task. I would have loved the materials I’m going to suggest here.
On the website – at the Store, you can look at the materials the Foundation makes available. Any one of the gardening books can make you a proficient gardener!
There are a couple of things, however, that I think apply especially well to a busy mother. The 6 Steps to Successful Gardening book is very simple and easy to read and follow, with illustrations for virtually every step.
And the Garden Wizard CD automates the planning and creation steps, and gives you a wealth of background assistance and guidance.
Depending on the ages and computer literacy of your children, and the possibilities of getting them involved in a “fun” gardening project, I believe you would benefit from either one or both of these.
Because My own wife – recently deceased – raised 5 girls, I felt a kinship for some reason when I read your note, and would like to send you one or the other of these two resources as a gift.
Please , if you would like to take me up on the offer, just give me your address and I’ll get something on its way tomorrow.
Best wishes for success in the most important work in the world – raising children. And I hope you can get some of them involved in gardening with you. I still thank my own mom 53 years later for getting me started (she even entered one of “my” pumpkins in the State Fair, for which I received a ribbon!).
Now don’t start sending me names of people you know who want a free book or CD, because I couldn’t begin to fill the requests.
Instead, I challenge each of you reading this to think of ways to “Pay Forward” the knowledge by which you’ve been blessed, by helping and/or encouraging others – in this way or any one of countless others.
Do you have neighbors or family you’d like to see improve their gardening efforts? How about a widow or single mother who needs a little boost?
I can help any of you who would like to use the Foundation’s gardening materials in this way. If you buy 5 or more, for charitable purposes only, in any combination, I will make the Garden Wizard CD and 6 Steps to Successful Gardening available for 1/2 price for the next 30 days, as the gardening season is getting started.
And if you are REALLY interested in helping others, I invite you to consider assisting people in many other countries, who almost ALL need help! As one example among many I could name, the Madagascar garden project I conducted in 2002 is suffering the effects of a typhoon that destroyed the greenhouse and storage shed. It is devastating to this little school that has been running on virtually no money since I left, except for the year’s supply of fertilizers and seeds I left with them.
