Help a Small Organic Gardening Company Grow

Reader Contribution by Jaime Netzer

What if someone could come to your door to sell you organic gardening products and offer demonstrations the same way a make-up sales rep could bring a catalogue and a guide to applying mascara? The Happy Gardener is a three-year-old company that does just that. By giving demonstrations and lectures at community events and garden shows as well as private parties, Happy Gardener distributors do more than just push a product: they inform their customers about the benefits of organic gardening.

This month, the Happy Gardener is a part of the Forbes.com Boost Your Business Contest, which will award $100,000 to one deserving business to help it expand.

Mother Earth Living spoke with Annette Pelliccio, founder of the Happy Gardener, about her (pardon the pun) grass-roots approach to sustainable living and organic gardening education.

Q: The direct sales model of your business (like those used by Avon and the Pampered Chef) facilitates conversation and education between distributor and customer. Why is education so important in organic gardening?

A: Most Americans do not realize that the average product used to fertilize their lawn is detrimental to the groundwater, wild life and community around them. The average person still doesn’t know about organic alternatives; why would you change and use something that’s more Earth-friendly if you didn’t know it was out there? Our distributors can offer that information to their customers.

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