Managing Great Gardening Expectations
Set realistic goals for new gardeners by asking the right questions.
Article Originally Published February 07, 2022 in Garden Center Magazine Leslie F. Halleck
Working with new gardeners can often be fun, but also terribly challenging. Enthusiasm abounds but so do expectations, not all of which are realistic. That’s what it really boils down to when educating new gardeners at your IGC: identifying and managing expectations. Helping new gardeners be successful isn’t about setting them up with specific plants and products; it’s really about discovering their individual expectations and how you can best shape them for success.
On the sales floor, you have limited time to help customers new to gardening, but they are starting from scratch and have 1,000 questions. Where do they start? More importantly, where do you start when it comes to helping them? Questions are always your friend in this situation. Specifically, the questions you ask them, versus the ones they ask you.
In fact, they are often asking you all the wrong questions, and it’s your job to reframe the right ones to get them moving in the right direction.
Define success
First, let’s define what success really means to your customer. They might think success means harvesting a ton of veggies their first spring or having a garden full of perfect roses. However, what they might really want is an activity that helps them reduce stress and anxiety, or gets them off their screens for a few hours a week. Perhaps they have a health goal, and getting outside and moving more will aid that progress. Maybe they are looking for activities to get their kids off their phones with more outside time. It might not really be perfect carrots that are the goal; it could simply be the act of gardening that will make them feel successful. You won’t really know unless you ask them. They might not even know until you ask them!
It’s also likely that your new gardeners are starting out a bit overwhelmed. New gardeners don’t yet understand that it takes years to manifest such lofty garden goals, and even then, it’s always a moving target with new challenges to face. Helping customers focus on a few specific yet simple benchmarks will help you decide what to sell them and guide them toward a goal of progress versus perfection.
It is that pesky vision of perfection that gets most gardeners into trouble, whether they are new to the hobby or very experienced. It’s natural to beat oneself up when gardening goals don’t manifest the way we envision. Nature always wins. One of the most valuable lessons gardening can teach you is: You aren’t really in control … and that’s OK. It’s a journey, not a ribbon-breaking finish line. Gardeners and plants need resilience more than they need to “finish” anything. The faster you can help your customers shake off an expectation of perfection, the happier and more successful they’ll feel about their gardening projects. Sharing your own trials and errors is a great ice-breaker; it takes the pressure off the customer to feel like they must be “successful.”
Time is of the essence
Second, let’s talk about time. Once you’ve established how they really define success, the next question you should ask a new gardener is how much time they can spend tending their garden or specific project. That’s going to tell you a lot about what is or isn’t realistic. If they are a weekend warrior, with only a few hours to spend tending plants, then you already know you’re going to need to start them off with very tough, low-maintenance plants and projects. Or you may want to scale down the project from an entire backyard vegetable garden to a container or raised bed project to help them learn. Depending on the season, start them with lettuce, not broccoli; basil, not tomatoes; or iris and daylilies, not peonies. You get the picture. Let them cut their teeth on plants and projects they can realistically manage, given their time.
I just happened to have a conversation with a gentleman recently who told me he wanted to plant a large rose garden for his wife, who had passed away several years ago. “She would have loved it,” he said. Given his experience level and time commitment (and the pressure of rose rosette disease here in the Dallas, Texas, area), I told him straight up, “You would be so much happier with a mass daffodil planting … they are easy to plant, soil prep is minimal or unnecessary, and they’ll perennialize for years with limited care ...” After a pause, he said, “You know what? I think you’re right; that sounds wonderful.” Labor-intensive, disease-filled, beginner-stress-filled nightmare crisis averted.
Watch and learn
Lastly — and this is my most important piece of advice for consumers and my horticulture students — is that great gardening is not about schedules, regimens or the right products. It’s about observation. Learning to observe how your plants grow and respond to different resources and pressures will guide the care choices you make and help you make better choices.
If you’ve been in the IGC industry long enough, you’ve probably learned there’s no one-size-fits-all solution for your customers. Gaining a deeper insight into the root of their goals and managing their expectations is how we build the best foundation for trust and success with new gardeners.
