We are now in the young teen years of this business of spreading the Joy of Miniature Gardening. We are 11 years old this year! (Note that we will be skipping the attitude and the tantrums of a typical teen. ;o) We are evolving and growing each year thanks to your support throughout all these years.
Eleven years ago this month, we started selling miniature gardens at the Fremont Sunday Market here in Seattle, WA. We branched out (yuck, yuck!) slowly to other street markets in the greater Seattle area to spread the word and feel the response before we went “all in.” Internet and library searches came up empty for any variation of the words “miniature gardening,” there were no signs of anyone doing the level of gardening that we were doing save for only one lonely company back east making fairy garden accessories (Gnomenculture.) So, we were left to spread the word boot-strapping-grass-roots style – and spread it we did! Checkout the photos on this blog post from last year here to see some of our beginnings.
“Hanging out our shingle” in touristy street markets, selling at garden and miniature shows – while connecting personally with everyone who came into our booths – really laid the groundwork for us and our message travelled far and wide. Demonstrating, talking and teaching the miniature garden hobby at numerous garden centers and garden clubs helped get the message to other green-thumbers too.
It’s funny to recall the very first garden club I spoke at, miniature gardening was met with such skepticism that several of the women asked, “You’re really going to make a business out of this?” and looked at me sideways. Then I found this quote by Grayson Marshall, “If people aren’t laughing at your dreams… then your dreams aren’t big enough!”
You can make a four-inch miniature garden in a few minutes, a big garden can be completed within an hour. The trick is have all the ingredients ready at hand. See what’s up in the store now.
Texas, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Connecticut, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, California– you name it, we had people visit us from all over the world! (We took names for our mailing list, which is how we knew our reach. Note that was a “mail” and not “email” list, THAT’s how long we’ve been at it!)
Here’s another blog post with more background and history here. In an interview with HGTV.com last week, Danny Bonvissuto captures our beginnings in a few sentences – up in her gardening blog here. (Not sure what happened to Danny… Lol!) We now have fellow miniature gardeners (Fellow MGs) from every state on of the Union and just as many worldwide – check out this little garden from Turkey:
So look forward to more new and innovative ideas from Two Green Thumbs Miniature Garden Center this coming year. The main differences between us and “the new guys” are simply experience, passion and great customer service. We have been gardening in miniature and studying the nuances of the gardens for well over eleven years. We don’t just sell the plants and accessories, we plant the plants and watch how they grow before passing them on to you. We use the accessories in our own gardens to make sure what works is sturdy, durable and doesn’t end up in the landfill. We are just as in love with this idea as you are. We are miniaturists who love gardening – or you can call us gardeners who love miniatures – either way, we’re hooked! We’ve been selling online for over 10 years, we have secretly shopped “the other guys” and yes, we know give great customer service, we pack with the utmost of care and we have very competitive postage rates!
Gift-giving is the perfect excuse to make Miniature Gardens – to try out some of your ideas and to play with a different assortment of plants. Everyone loves a thoughtful, personalized gift made especially with them in mind – no matter how small it is.
Look forward to another year of creative, crafty, garden fun. Our brand new, definitive guide on Miniature Gardening by the world’s top garden publisher, Timber Press, Gardening in Miniature: Create Your Own Tiny Living World is due out in the summer so it’s a big year for us. (BTW – You’ll want two copies, one for your coffee table and one for the potting bench!)
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