February 2023 - 30

ECO-FRIENDLY
Natureworks holds a lot of workshops right in their gardens on the property.
coming in droves. I've never sold so many native plants in
my life. We sell milkweed - tons of common milkweed.
To me, it was a weed; it's great, but I could never sell it.
Nobody would pay money for it. Now, of course, they do.
" So now I'm on a whole new rant trying to get people to
understand that there's value in some plant breeding that's
being done, and, for horticultural purposes, there's value in
the work that's being done to bring to us varieties that are
garden worthy. It's a fascinating spiral of events. "
Educating Consumers
Teaching the benefits of cultivars is just one way
DuBrule-Clemente and St. John educate their customers.
" [In 2023], we're excited to focus a lot of workshops right
in the upcoming renovated organic gardens that surround
Natureworks, " St. John says. Natureworks is currently doing
a major overhaul of the gardens, which began late this past
fall, and the replanting will begin in early spring. " We're
not going to have everything all planted by spring [in the
gardens around the property] so we can do that in a series
of workshops next year. People like when you show them
stuff - not just talk about it. You're in front of them with
the shovel and pruners and actively doing something and
showing them how to do it. We do that - we do a lot of
videos like that and lots of workshops.
" COVID kind of ended our workshops ... so we're coming
back as a team and trying to figure out workshops again,
30 | LAWN & GARDEN RETAILER | FEBRUARY 2023
and the gardens around the property are going to be perfect
to help us do that. We demonstrate proper planting. A lot
of organic gardening is cultural ways of doing things, like
planting things the right way, building up the soil, mulching
it, watering properly.
" We also have a weekly email - we call it 'our famous
weekly email,' " for educating customers, St. John says.
" During the gardening season, it is filled with timely
tips that are happening right then in the garden. Nancy
and I write it together. I feed her some ideas and things
employees have gotten a lot of questions about from
customers, and then she writes it on Tuesday, and it goes
out on Wednesday. "
Natureworks also has hundreds of handouts in the store
and posted on its website.
" I've written a ton of handouts, " DuBrule-Clemente
says. " One of my little writing projects for Natureworks is
revising all the handouts and updating them with more of
an ecological bent, not just organic. "
She says they are especially handy during busy periods in
the store. " When you're busy, your staff doesn't have time to
get into [all the details]. " Instead, staff members can hand
them what she calls the CliffsNotes for their topic.
" Diane writes the organic lawn care handouts. We don't
do lawns in our landscaping business at all. We have no
interest in being a lawn care company. But we sell organic
lawn programs and all the stuff that comes with it because
February 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2023
