I wanted to share our progress with you. One of my first blog posts was Humble Beginnings, and how we got started gardening in boxes. I posted Things I Learned Last Summer in 2012 updating on our progress and a post in September of last year about the birth of Garden Anywhere Box. There have been other posts along the way updating our GAB journey.
It's time for another update. Every business has a story. This is the continuation of ours.
Some of you know that Larry has developed macular degeneration. It had been advancing slowly, but at the end of last year, it worsened. He could no longer drive or see the regular print on the computer to do his telecom job. He has been without a "regular job" since January. Thank heavens for Garden Anywhere Box. This is something that he can still do. We have been (mostly) able to live on GAB sales from The Home and Garden shows and farmers markets...but just barely. Pay bills...buy box supplies, both, neither...
If Larry was able to do his telecom work, we would be fine, but apparently there was another plan. We were not ready to jump feet first into the deep end of our business just yet, but...here we are. Sink or swim.
Some months have been really tough, especially as the summer gardening season came to an end. If it were not for the generosity of family, friends and our church, we don't know how we would have survived this year. We think of those that have helped us as silent investors. Your investment WILL pay off!
We have had a booth at the Home and Garden Show for the
The first year, 2013, we didn't even have any boxes to sell. We didn't know if anyone would want them. We paid for a booth space and handed out flyers to anyone that would take one. From that humble beginning we found out that, yes, people were interested in Garden Anywhere Box. Yay!
The second Home show, 2014, was a lot better than the first. We'd learned some things along the way.
This is a picture of one of our last customers of the weekend. She had heard about us on the radio from Larry's "minute of fame" the day before. All she could remember was "garden box". This lady went through five buildings to find us. She has a condition that does not allow her to have a garden. She grew up with a big garden and misses not being able to have one. She literally was in pain by the time she found us. Larry was talking to someone, so we offered her a chair in our booth to sit and rest.
We were so humbled that she would seek us out so diligently. I wish I could know how her garden did this year. When people buy GABs, they get us. We care and want to hear about successes and failures. We want everyone to be successful and if you aren't, we want to help.
This picture is of William Moss, a Master Gardener who lives in Chicago and gardens in containers. http://www.wemoss.org/
He was at the Home and Garden show this year. Larry met him while waiting to be on the radio. He invited Mr. Moss to come by our booth to see our container garden set-up. He said that he would stop by. His handler did not want to let him come because he was on a tight schedule, but he came anyway. Larry offered to send a Starter Kit to Chicago for him to try. He said that he would really like that. We emailed and tried to establish contact, but I guess he never got the email. Oh, well...it was still a pretty exciting meeting.
This is a picture of Larry being interviewed by our local gardening show hosts. Notice the eye patch...perfect for radio...last year, he developed Bell's Palsy. When you have Bell's Palsy, sometimes your eyelid will not close without much struggle. This causes your eye to become irritated and dry. We got an eye patch, but our oldest (hipper) son was not satisfied. He got his dad a Steam Punk monocle to wear. Now, his dad could protect his eye and be cool. Plus, the monocle allowed him to see out instead of using the patch which blocked vision.
Larry had to wear eye protection for a while and tape his eye shut at night. The Bells' Palsy lingered longer than we hoped. After almost a year, his Bell's Palsy was getting less noticeable. He started using frankincense essential oil around his eyes for a little while. One day I noticed that his eye was closing on its own and the Bell's Palsy was nearly gone. YAY! Yay for oils.
This year has been a roller-coaster of a ride and January, 2015 is fast approaching.
We did not even know if we could afford a booth at the Home and Garden Show this next year. We were planning to borrow the $1000 (yes, it costs that much) to pay for a 7x10 ft. space just to be there. I'd been emailing back and forth with the managers of the event to let them know our situation and that we really did want to be there. They were more than understanding and said that our product was perfect for the Home show and that they would wait for us. (Thank you!)
Well...Larry got a call on Monday from one of the event managers. She asked him if he would consider a proposition. Okay...Intrigued.
She asked what we would think abut having Garden Anywhere Box as one of their featured booths. We would get a 20x20 space (huge) for $500. (No kidding!) We would have to do demonstrations all throughout the weekend and be available for interviews. (Ummm...YES!) We were beyond excited to receive this invitation. We do demonstrations all the time. GAB is not self-explanatory so we always take the time to show how the boxes work and what we are growing.
We are so grateful to the managers of the Home Show for allowing us this opportunity. Add this to the list of silent investors. :)
So, if you live in the OKC area and want to come by our booth, we'd love to see you. We will be getting some free tickets and just like last year, we will be having drawings to give away free ticket to the Home and Garden Show coming January 16-18 to the OK State Fairgrounds. It looks like we'll be in the same spot that we had at the fair. :)
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