Good News Here at The Urban Gardner!

Purple Bell Peppers, in our AG Extra, 4 months

Do you remember the old nursery rhyme about Peter Piper who picked a peck of purple peppers?   Did you wonder:  "What's a purple pepper?"  

Wonder no more.  This one's growing in the AeroGarden Extra in my living room.)


Did you also wonder: "What's a peck?"   

 Well, we don't have a peck of peppers yet.  But we've enjoyed a peck of pecks  (if a peck is a kiss.)  Yes, more than green stuff's been growing around here! Love is in the air, and has been for quite some time!

Scott asked me to become his wife this September 27th and I joyfully 
consented.  Finding one's soul mate half way through life is delicious, dizzying, delightful, the grandest of all of life's adventures-- an unexpected blessing! 
 
Some of you were on the Saturday morning AeroGrow call where we announced it (and if you were, you were some of the first to know, after our 11 children...)

Between now and our wedding in two months, life is not giving us a pass to just sit around and enjoy the bliss. We've also had some sobering moments. Two days after this momentous decision was made, we sat across from a doctor and learned that I have a benign brain tumor and so my surgery has been scheduled for August 11th. 
 
Though my energy levels have been seriously impacted for now, I expect to be fully recuperated in a few months under the tender lovin' care of my husband and rubbing shoulders with you all again.  

Until then, isn't it marvelous that we can a business that we can work, independently, by weaving it in and out of our busy lives as we go along our business?  

Our goal is one new distributor  a week and even with health challenges, we've been able to accomplish this with grace and ease! And you can, too!

Make a specific and clear list of the qualities of your perfect team member; your perfect customer.  That's how Scott and I attracted each other, our perfect soul mates~ we know that this works!

Use the great tools we have with phones, internet, and three way calls. 
Take 20 minutes one night this week to catch one of the outstanding webinars our leaders create for us to take prospect to; check out the schedule by going to:
 
www.aerogrowwebinar.com

 I know there is a Farmer's Market you could even sign up to take your Gardens to to "show and sell" to folks who are not going to be happy about going back to store bought tomatoes. . . Look at what they can have in just three months, if they buy and plant now! I'm telling you, these tomatoes are delicious!


It's getting really, really good for you to share this product and grow your team. Stay consistent, and before you know it, you'll be picking a peck of prosperity with what will be, I predict, the best network marketing opportunity to come around in decades. 

Over One Hundred Distributors!

Drum Roll . . .  An amazing hundred plus people have now joined our AeroGrow Worldwide team since its inception on Earth Day.

And with just under a thousand distributors company wide, this mean our AeroGrow team is one tenth of the company~!   Whoo Hoo!

We're honored to be associated with of all of you. and are delighted to be synergizing with so many people of passion, credibility, talent, and influence.  We've got folks of many persuasions and ages, from New York to California, and all kinds of place in between: Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, Florida, Wyoming, and more. 

Meet our newest AeroGarden Worldwide Distributor, the 103rd enrollee, Becky Sampson.  

A life coach and public speaker who has released 130 pounds of unhealthy fat using the 12 Step principles, Becky is an amazing "make a difference" kind of gal, who's inspired hundreds to: 

Take personal responsibility for your life, your food and your state, and LET'S GROW!

Having fresh food at her fingertips, no matter what, has been vital to her success in this huge victory.  

(Who else do you know who eats 16 ounces of vegetables at lunch, and dinner?) She'll jumpstart you into a healthier life. Here's a fabulous post on the core emotions and how they impact us:

 http://bexdailyinspirations.blogspot.com/2011/01/9-core-emotions-acknowledging-and.html 

I can't wait to see her army of fresh foodies with their AeroGardens, releasing their old patterns and the uneccessary fat that's holding them back.

And here's our 102nd distributor:  Ida Walker, from New York, an author and foodista and her recipes may just tempt you to cook a little more!  I, for one, can't wait to try the corn dish she traditionally has at Thanksgiving, the minute the corn is ripe in July.  Find it at: http://www.knife-fork-spoon.com/

Ida has FOUR AeroGardens and has been growing things indoors and out for quite awhile.

I love Ida's trademark slogan: "Grow it! Know it!" 

So, Becky, and Ida, thanks for seeing the possibilities here.  

And since Ida enrolled, there've already been 6 new distributors placed under her on the binary tree!

  

We encourage you both to watch the new compensation plan video in your back office, and take the steps to duplicate, so you can Come Grow With Us.

We're Planting Seeds of Prosperity!

Score!

Just got back from three days mother/daughter exclusive time with my darlin' daughter, Bethany.

For my birthday she volunteered her services as Personal Shopper.  This is a gift not to be taken lightly!

Instead of taking her to the nearest mall, I took her with me to a place with a million choices.  Because Bethany can whip through a store faster than anyone I know and find the two items that will look good on you, and know it, before you even try them on.  So we hit Vegas, the city where you can find anything.

Score!    
We soaked up sunshine, ate fab food, swam, and shopped til we dropped.  When it comes to clothes, hair, & makeup advice, Bethany is gifted. I highly recommend her!

Now here's a personal recommendation from me:

Which would you prefer?
An inch of growth, or six and a half inches of growth?
(In the hair on my head, or in my plants, I'd take the six!)

When I got home last night, of course, I had to check on the babies who've begun to fill my empty nest: my gardens.  

My AG 7's are thriving.  6 1/2 " of growth in four weeks! And none the worse for wear for having been left for a few days.
The herb garden growing in the 7  looks like it's on steroids compared to what's up with the AG 3: herbs barely 1' high.

Just so you know:  Go for the AG 7 over the 3 unless there's just no room (Like on your desk at work.)

I recommend you pay the extra $30 for the AG 7 Extra, which it's extra lumens.  Your plants will grow 25% faster in the Extra.

And while we are speaking of recommendations . . .

Did you know that the Aerogarden 7 got NINE out of TEN possible points, when rated by almost 100 testers/members of  Gardening How-To Magazine?

This is a magazine with more than 600,000 subscribers and is America's top gardening magazine.
They use extensive unbiased product testing by their subscriber base to review, rate, and recommend products to their readers.  The AeroGarden 7 was tested for:

• Ease of use
• Quality
• Design
• Performance

And the AeroGarden 7 got a 9.2 out of ten overall rating.  This is the highest given among all the products that were rveiewed in their March/April edition.  Personally, I give it a 10 out of 10!

Strawberries, anyone?

I spent my evening washing, hulling, and bagging strawberries. Stopping for mozarella string cheese, I hit the local "buy it low" grocery store last night and found them as the loss leader for $1 a pound and couldn't resist...filled my shopping cart with strawberries and blackberries.  Three hours and at least a thousand berries later, ( I should have snapped a photo!) I have two freezer shelves full of quart sized freezer bags and several batches of strawberry freezer jam chillin'! Low carb, low sugar, and full of antioxidants and flavor . . .  I guess you could say I really like berries!

Some of you have asked me how you do a plant that doesn't start from seed in the AG.  So I'm going to show you plant propogation or "cloning", as last week I also started an Aerogarden full of strawberry plants.

 I don't have a clue how long it will take to get a thousand berries. . .  I'll let you know!

(I did find out that one of our  fellow Aergardeners, Bobbie, picked over 300 Mega Cherry Tomatoes from her AG7 in the 14 months her plants produced before they peetered out.
She quit keeping track after three hundred.)

So, we'll see!  I planted bare root strawberries from my local nursery, the sweet "Albion" variety that is ever bearing. I didn't want plants to bear for a few weeks and then be dormant for months.  I kept them healthy under the borrowed grow lights until my "Grow Anything" paraphernalia arrived.

Gently rinse the soil from the root

This kit comes with blank peat sponges and the plastic pods, and evern little donut shaped rings you can place over the pod if you are growing from seed so you can write on date planted and variety.  These are "blanks".  You won't have room to use those with the bulky stems here.


First, gently wash the roots under slightly cool water until you wash away the dirt.   You can also swish them in a bowl of clean water to dislodge the soil.

I'll warn you: Be careful!  Those stems break really easily!
I ruined a few starts by not holding them gently enough.

Choose 7 sturdy plants with the most leaf nodes;
as the leaf is the solar power cell charger.

Dang it!

Cut off the twigs from old stems that have gone woody

I used my electric bread knife to saw the peat
sponges in half like hot dog bun...

Salad, Salad, Salad!

. . . Okay,  I can't wait any longer . . . I can't wait to show you the progress.  I've named this Aerogarden:  "Mes Cheri". 

How does your garden grow?
With romaine lettuce and buttercrunch, and pretty kale, all in a row.

Why did I plant this combination?  (Besides that I thought it would be so beautiful?)   Well, I'm a huge salad lover. I'm going to give you my favorite salad recipe of all time in a minute, given me by one of my dear friends, Cheri Soelberg. (Hence the garden's name.)

Even my son, Collin, (twitter.com/collinkartchner)  (whose go-to breakfast is Lucky Charms, not green smoothies) asks for this salad.  I think it is nature's answer to Sweet Tarts. By the way, Collin's tweets make over two thousand twitter followers laugh every single day, so if you need more smiles in your day, check him out!

But before I give you this recipe, can I tell you happy I am that I am NOT going to be throwing away ANY lettuce for the next three months? As much as I know about the importance of eating living food, too often pricey organic produce wilts and browns in the so called "crisper" drawer of my fridge.

Face it. Life is BUSY!  And most of our food has been cut from the vine 4 to 5 weeks before we even buy it at the store.  So a lot gets wasted. But no more; Aerogarden to the rescue!
I'll pick my salad; then I'm not even going to wash it, because I know I'm not using pesticides;
and then eat it!

This is a 15 second, time release stop action video clip from You Tube. You are going to be amazed at the growth of this lettuce that is flooded with oxygen in the AeroGarden, versus the lettuce that is sitting in high quality potting soil, it's roots struggling to breathe.  You might have to watch it twice; it goes so fast.

You can see that by day 16 I'm going to have to start "pruning" my lettuce plants . . .in other words, eating that lettuce. You can strip off up to 1/3 of the outer leaves and keep a healthy productive plant that will keep on giving you lettuce leaves for three months before the plants get too old and grow bitter, and you start a new batch.

The thing I love about this little experiment is that BOTH sets of plants are getting the EXACT same amount of measured light; both are sitting in the same room exposed to the same temperature. The major difference is the amount of oxygen and the nutrients the plants are getting.

Now, here is the recipe for the most delicious salad in the world. This is a favorite from a favorite friend, Cheri. Her son is one of the best chefs in Utah and owns two amazing restauraunts, Communal, and Pizzeria 712.  Colton Soelberg only uses the freshest, most locally grown food.

His food is amazing! http://heirloomrestaurantgroup.com/blog/.

Mes Ami Cheri's Salad


4/5  bowl washed, torn dark green leaf lettuce (like romaine and buttercrunch)
1/5 bowl thinly sliced Lacinado Kale shreds
one tart organic  green apple, seeded, unpeeled, diced into bite size pieces
one sweet organic pear, seeded, unpeeled, diced
one handful of dried cranberries or Craisins
one avocado, peeled, pitted, chunked
1/2 cup of toasted walnuts

Dressing:

2/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup Bragg's vinegar
2 T good quality Dijon mustard (Cheri says  " A plop of good dijon")
dash of sea salt
dash of shoyu or tamari
1/8 to 1/4 cup Agave nectar

Cheri's naturally skinny and I am naturally not, so I substitue 1 dropper full of Nu Naturals Vanilla Stevia for the agave, as it doesn't spike my blood sugar level and tell my body to store fat.
You can tell from the photo I also add carrot shreds for color.

This dressing is also great on roasted asparagus and on salmon.

 How do I know?

Because I served salmon & asparagus, along with this salad,

 the last time I had company.

The dressing got (happily) on everything and I (happily) ate it all, dressed to the nines in Cheri's secret sauce.

Come join me.

I'm just sitting down to have some!

"Why" #1: Self-Reliance in Troubled Times

Are you concerned about the skyrocketing prices of food?
About gas prices impacting food costs?  About the tightening tentacles of big agri-biz? About Monsanto's lobbyists pushing legislation that would drastically impact the small family farmers? About the widespread use of genetically modified seeds?    I am.  The more I learn, the more concerned I become.  Consider also that:

• One in seven Americans is now on food stamps, according to the Wall Street Journal. http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/05/03/about-1-in-7-americans-receive-food-stamps/
• Some financial analysts, like the National Inflation Association, are warning about hyper-inflation If that happens, how many Americans will go hungry?  http://www.inflation.us/
• Global food reserves are at an all time low. 
• Global food prices are at an all time high, even higher than in 2008, when hunger riots erupted from Haiti to Morocco .http://www.grist.org/article/food-2011-01-12-lester-brown-the-food-bubble-is-bursting
• Community food banks have been stretched thin and had to turn people away in the last year.
• Food and commodity prices have raised, as much as up to 39% according to some sources. 

When we look around the world news it can be easy to get discouraged, with so many things out of our control. Growing our own food is one thing that is IN our control.

Gardening isn't cheap. Yet it's a way we can be more self reliant. It's also addictive.  (As is eating!)

Veggies from my garden

 I just added up the money I've spent the last three years on fruit trees and grow boxes. Over a thousand dollars. You can see from the photo that I've grown lovely but VERY EXPENSIVE food! One cabbage, some peppers, a box of tomatoes, some berries, and three pears, so far.

However, I count that money as "sunk costs".  I bought more than food.

• I bought peace of mind.  
• I bought more self-reliance.
• I obtained the ability to produce my own pesticide free food. 
• I bought FUN.  Traipsing out to the fence on a summer's morn accompanied by birdson and butterflies to hunt ruby red jewels amongst the dark green leaves is sheer, simple joy.  
• I even bought memories for my grandchildren, who love picking those red juicy raspberries in Gigi's backyard.

So far, I've spent over a thousand dollars on AeroGardens.  What have I traded those dollars for?

In addition to the ability to grow year round, pesticide free tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers, peppers, daily  green salad, and herbs, I've acquired:

Beauty. Life. Pleasure. Fun. Oxygen. Cleaner air. Self reliance. Preparedness. Tax write offs for years to come.  And a wonderful stream of income that taps right into today's biggest trends, with a solid, rising company.

If I'm not dependent on commercial food production, I won't have to worry about going hungry or sickly if AHBL. (All H--- Breaks Loose).  If there's a terrorist biohazard attack in repercussion for Osama Bin Laden's execution, or a nuclear power plant melts down and the soil is tainted, like in parts of Japan. . . well. . . I have my Aerogardens. I'm okay.

Sugar Snap Peas, planted 4 days ago

And if not; well, then. . .  Hurrah!

I have peace of mind.
The same pleasure I get strolling through my raspberry patch is already being equalled by the delight of
seeing peas sprouting
growing 4 inches in a week
and reaching for the light
right here in my kitchen.

. . And the sturdy stalks and healthy leaves on my 3 week old heirloom tomato plants are making me smile!

So, do I think folks should only grow indoors this year? Not bother to plant a garden outside?  NO~

I think you should plant, if you possibly can, outside.

And if you live in an apartment, a townhouse, or a condo,
 you should have Aerogardens. More than one.

And if you live in a home in the suburbs, I think you should have  Aerogardens.

And if you live on a farm in Minnesota or Park City or Vegas, where the season is short, you should have Aerogardens.

In short, I think we should all be more responsible for providing the food that goes into our mouths, every single day, no matter what.

It just makes sense in these uncertain times.

Plug In to a Growth Climate

Spring Fever! This week I spent a lovely two hours roaming through one of my favorite places, my local nursery, with two of my favorite people, my daughter Emily,  and my adorable grandson, Hayes. As I drove away with the back of my SUV full, I remembered, with chagrin, how this annual trip usually ends. Eighty dollars and two weeks later I'm left with wilted and frostbitten plants. (I usually jump the gun in my hurry to plant.)  Here in Provo, our average last frost is May 11th, and last year it snowed early in June.  So. . . 

This year, for the first time, I set annuals & veggies next to my Aerogardens to share the light until it's safe to tuck them in bed outdoors. Hurrah!  No more weather worries or toting blankets outside at night to tuck them in.

In addition to my normal gardening faves, like the sweet cherry tom, I've got several 6" pots of "Jetsetter" tomatoes going outside. Meanwhile, indoors, I'm growing Red Heirloom tomatoes in my AeroGarden. As soon as the new AeroGarden Extra arrive, I'll be planting indoor peppers.

It gives me great satisfaction to know that while friends in Midway might give away their annual four boxes of green tomatoes next September,  I'll be harvesting clear till St. Patty's day! 

Sporadic and unexpected freezes don't just affect our gardens.  In the world of entrepeneurs, where we are privileged to create our future, to determine how much we and our time is worth, to envision and then go about making our dreams come true, even veterans find they can be susceptible to a "freeze".  A cold blast of indifference from someone  you thought would be so excited by what you have to bring to them?  A chilling reaction from someone who was badly burned in a previous MLM can bring on a sudden desire to do paper shuffling instead of income producing activities.

Just like our AeroGardens, which are going to go on creating their own perfect growth climate, no matter what the weather outside is like, we've gotta plug ourselves in.  Stay plugged in, and those occasional frigid blasts will blow right on by you, leaving you unaffected and happily planting the seeds of prosperity.

1.  Plug yourself in to the product.
I promise you, the more you have growing, the more your passion for Aerogrowing will grow---
and result in BOUNTIFUL HARVESTS!  (and I'm not just talking food here.) Want to make over $4,000 in the next four weeks?  Then order the $999 Leader's Pak enrollment kit, and plant those five Aerogarden Extra's!  Now duplicate that process with 4 people.

Your fast start bonus of $250 for each of those four new distributors you enroll who do what you do, buying that (optional) Leader's Pak,  allows them to take advantage of $125 worth of free seed and nutrient kits and outfit their home and workspace with beautiful aerogardens that will attract attention as well as create enjoyment.    And as those four leaders on your new team duplicate the process, you'll see exponential growth.  Watch the narrated powerpoint to see how you'll get paid and be quickly earning a thousand and more a month:
http://www.aerogrowworldwide.com/tribrid/player.html

2.  Plug yourself into the company.
Come to Salt Lake City to the Hilton for our monthly Aerogrow Presentation and business Opportunity meeting if you are within driving distance. Meet Steve and Melyn Campbell, our CEO and Master Distributor.   Come feel the integrity, the down to earth friendly graciousness of the couple behind this vision.  Check out about their vast networking experience gleaned over the last 23 years in the industry. Meet Aerogrow's management team.  Check the side bar of this blog for the next date.

3.  Plug yourself into our duplicateable system.
Go to http://www.aerogrow.myvoffice.com/comegrowwithus/index.html . . .  Today.
Enroll yourself with a $39 distributor fee which pays for your website; and start with the $999 enrollment kit. Why?  Because people will do what you do. If you lead with a half-hearted $39.00 "distributor only" in your Aerogrow experience,  that's what you'll attract; a team of half-hearted, non-committal, wait and see  business partners.

Next, when your shipment comes, invite friends over to help you plant your gardens!
What works here is what has always worked: See the people, show the product, tell the story, build for events.  Now help them place their own first order, and then with their first two sales.

This story is simple, intriguing, and fun! And easily told in 5 minutes in front of your own garden, and on your replicated website. We even have celebrities telling our story: The Today Show, many news anchors, even Ellen DeGeneres, on the fabulous video press releases. Click "compensation plan" to hear Melyn Campbell, the CEO, telling the money making part of our story.


4. Plug yourself into the team.  
Make a commitment to your own growth to be where you need to be in order to be in the know. 
Pick up the phone and call us!  We'd love to meet you!

Check our site for upcoming meetings, conference calls, and webinars. Three nights a week there's a 20 minute webinar, held for your convenience.  We'll keep this blog updated with that link.  If you are in Utah County, come to our weekly meetings (see sidebar); if not, host your own Garden Party; invite people over to your home!  Visit your own website and see how effortless it is for someone to join.  Get to know your own back office. How many days has it been since you checked on the growth on your binary tree?  I bet you'll be amazed at what you find--

5. Plug yourself into your phone.
Pick it up. Call people. Invite. It can be as simple as "Hi, it's ___.  Are you near your computer right now?  Can you get near one, for just the next few minutes, I have something really fun I want to show you!"  Send them to your own replicated website to see the video.  If you don't yet have a website, send them to ours:  www.AeroGrow.myVoffice.com/ComeGrowWithUs.


6. Plug yourself into inspiration.
Get clear on what kind of a business you want to have; what your perfect customer and perfect business associate are like. Then open yourself to inspiration in your daily morning mediation.  Ask that you'll be inspired  with the names of those who will value what you are creating.  Make your list of 200 people.  Yes, you do know 200 people! And once you have that list made you will not be discouraged if someone doesn't come aboard, you just say "next!" Listen. And open your mouth. The same principle that attracts a perfect friend,  soul-mate, house, etc, can attract the perfect business partner and customer. My favorite book on this is Attracting Perfect Customers by Stacy Hall & Jan Brogniez.

Then, be prepared. I've been toting my iPad wherever I go.  Have a brochure or a business card.
"Do you have 13 seconds?" is a magic line because everyone has 13 seconds, and one look at the Youtube video of "Aerogarden versus dirt"on your smart phone, or an iPad, and they'll be asking YOU the questions.  It is a compelling, amazing 13 second attention getter!

Set a goal of talking to ___ people a day to enroll ___ people a day to earn ____ a month. 

Shoot an email to aerogardenguru@gmail.com asking for the income calculator and we'll get you one  via email. You can play with numbers to plan and set your own personal goals. My first goal is to place 40 gardens with 40 distributors to make $40K + a month.  Because once they are all on Grow Club and have done the industry's minimum average of two apiece, down 6 levels, that will be the minimum each month in my AeroGrow checks.

Tell your sponsor your goal and ask them to help you be accountable!  

6.  Plug yourself into your own "WHY?"  
Why do you want to Aerogarden? Why do you think sharing this will be fun? Why do you want to see Aerogarden in the homes of all those you love?  Why do you want to create another stream of income? What are your goals, dreams, and aspirations? Get clear on these reasons, write them, and re-read often. AND HAVE FUN!!!  Having fun is magnetic.  People will want to join you if you're having fun!

Come Grow With Us.
We're Planting Seeds of Prosperity.

Leave a comment:  I'll tell you my Why, if you tell me yours!