Fourteen years ago, I began offering garden seeds in our Homesteading Facebook Group with the intent to help people grow their own food and be able to have the very best Non-GMO, Heirloom quality seeds.
I sold them this way for about 5 years.
Then, ten years ago, I felt impressed to begin offering them at wholesale price, so I could help more people.
But there was still something missing!
I didn't know enough about gardening to really help anyone, and traditional gardening felt incredibly overwhelming to me.
When the crazy year of 2020 came, I began to feel an urgency to not only garden myself, but also find a way to help more families get seeds and find a way to inspire them to grow their own food.
The number 5,000 came to my mind. I decided then that it would be my goal, to help 5,000 families!
Normally, I would do 1-2 small group buys a year, but after setting this goal from 2020- 2021 we did 17 group buys and helped over 500 families! That felt SO good!!
In 2021, I also felt impressed that we needed a way for families to begin growing medicinal herbs so they could doctor themselves at home. My son, Jamon and I, had been talking about merging our business in some way, to be able to include seeds in Lulu’s Garden and be able to help even more people.
I connected with my seed guy, and although he didn't grow medicinal seeds, he rolled into action and began a tedious 8-month long search for the list of 40 medicinal herbs Jamon and I gave him.
I approached my son Jamon, and let him know that my seed guy was looking for the medicinal seeds- He was thrilled! My seed guys search for good, high quality, organic, Non-GMO, Heirloom herb seeds in the qualities we needed, was looking nearly impossible.
Through his search we learned that many herbs were on the government’s list of “noxious weeds” and some had been designated as illegal! He also learned that the big farms that grew lots of herbs were already contracted with the pharmaceutical companies and it would be impossible to get seeds from them. The search continued to small "mom & pop" farms around the country and even overseas.
Finally, he found enough connections with enough growers that we could put together a pack of 20 out of the 40 herbs on our list. We didn’t get them all, but we got enough really good ones! It was such a journey that my seed guy said, “I’m going to make these seeds exclusive to you!”
Jamon designed the label, and I invited him to offer the seeds to our members of our homesteading group, and on his Lulu's Garden website.
My daughter Danielle and I wanted to help families discover how to use these medicinal herbs to bless their family’s health.
So Dani and I started offering herb classes to our members also!
See our classes here.
From 2021 to 2022, we did 15 group buys and helped over 300 more families.
In 2021, I had a thought come to me with an idea of how we could help even more families through allowing individuals to host group buys for their own community, while also earning FREE seeds, as our way of thanking our hosts for assisting us in helping more families! ❤️ Through this project I had 14 hosts which assisted us in helping almost 200 more families.
This was a great success and allowed us to connect to many more people all across the United States and Canada. 😊
Also in 2021, Jamon and his wife, Rianna, came and taught me how to build a fruit and herb tree guild.
"Learning permaculture principles took all the overwhelm out of my mind and body and created a whole new excitement in me that I hadn’t felt since I was a child. "
One day in 2022, while enjoying the second season of the beginnings of my food forest and sitting, with my feet soaking in a little wading pool, with my one-year-old granddaughter splashing in the water, a couple childhood memories came flooding to my mind, and it occurred to me that I had come full circle!
I remembered being in my grandma Belva’s garden with her, as a small child about 3 or 4 years old, while she taught be about the vegetables and flowers, and gave me peas and peppers right off the vine.
Now I was teaching sweet Gianna all about my garden too.
When I was Younger
Then another memory came flooding back of a time when I was about 10 years old when I told my dad I wanted to earn some money. He talked with me for a while, learning all the reasons I felt I needed my own money and then he said well, how about selling something?
He then showed me a catalog of all sorts of things you could purchase to sell. I remember looking and seeing one ad for Garden and Flower seeds. I loved flowers and enjoyed my grandmother’s garden, so I thought I could sell the flower seeds and garden seeds as well.
Dad offered me a proposition. He said he’d give me a loan for the money to buy the seeds and explained that after I sold them, I’d pay him back out of my profits.
I thought that sounded like a good plan, so dad ordered the seeds. I still remember how excited I was when that box of seeds came in the mail! I tore it open quickly to reveal so many pretty flowers seed packs and lovely veggie packs.
Dad then sat me down and gave me his best pep talk explaining how I’d get a lot of no’s when I went door to door. He taught me how to be gracious even if they said no, and how to remember the more no’s I got, meant I was that much closer to a yes!
My dad had been a great insurance and car salesman, so he had lots of experience in this area!
I assured my dad that I’d be polite and gracious no matter what, but I was confident I’d sell all the seeds!
Sure enough, I got some no’s! But, after getting a couple yes’s, I was hooked. It took me two days to sell all the seeds. Dad was shocked I had sold them all, and very pleased when I remembered I had to pay him back the loan he gave me. After paying him back I said “Dad, do you think I could try it again?” Dad decided I’d done so well with the last batch it was worth another shot. So, he ordered me another box. This time I sold them quicker than the last time! I paid dad back for the second loan and got to go shopping for the Barbie’s and Barbie stove I had been wanting. My heart was content.
We moved from California to Arizona after that and I set aside my door-to-door salesman shoes.
I hadn’t thought about these memories for a long time until that day in the garden with little Gigi.
It brought tears to my eyes as I realized what great examples I’ve had from my dad and grandmother and what a powerful influence for good they’ve been in my life.
I wasn’t thinking about my dad when I started offering garden seeds 14 years ago. I just knew I had to find a way to earn a little money as a single mom and wanted to be able to help people along the way.
Those beautiful days in the garden with my grandma as a little girl and my dad’s encouraging me to be an entrepreneur must have been subconsciously there in the back of my mind.
Now, I’m loving working with my kids, Danielle, Jamon and Rianna, as we have begun partnering in Lulu’s Garden.
Jamon has provided that “something missing,” by teaching not only me, but hundreds of families all over the country how to grow their own food forest in their own yards!
That IS a dream come true!!
We here at Lulu’s garden, are all so blessed to be connected with so many of you, incredible souls!
The moral of this story is…your example and teachings as parents and grandparents is SO important and valuable!
Even when you think you are doing something simple like walking in a garden, or feeding your kids peas from the vine, you never know what an impact that walk with your child or grandchild will be to them or where it might take them one day.
Share your passions freely with your little ones and then stand back and watch…oh the places they will go, and the good they will do!
Happy Gardening!
P.S. If you’d like to host a garden seed group buy for your family, friends, and community, and earn FREE seeds at the same time, contact Renee at: 435-531-0366.