Good People: Growing Gardens

Growing Gardens gets at the root of hunger right here in Portland, Oregon. The Portland Home Garden Project began in 1996. The organization's original focus was installing home gardens for low income households in Portland. The organization expanded its mission to build gardens in partnership with other organizations with the involvement of hundreds of community volunteers. The organization was renamed Growing Gardens in 1998. 

In 1999, Growing Gardens began offering workshops on topics such as basic gardening, composting, cooking and food preservation. An education and service-learning program for youth, called Youth Grow, began in 2000.

Organizing hundreds of volunteers, Growing Gardens builds organic, raised bed vegetable gardens in backyards, front yards, side yards and even on balconies. Supporting low income households for three years with seeds, plants, classes, mentors and more.  They offer Youth Grow after school garden clubs growing the next generation of veggie eaters and growers.  Through Learn & Grow workshops and work parties, they are teaching gardeners about growing, preparing and preserving healthful food while respecting the health of the environment.

Growing Gardens plants seeds for good food and healthy people by making sure low income people have the resources  they need to grow organic vegetables at home.  Through this work, community members meet over the backyard garden, through volunteering, by attending classes, and through sharing extra produce.

Portland Chickens!

A group of volunteers who seek to promote the joy of chickens and freedom to design and build small structures without permit requirements. The passion about Urban Chickens is for many reasons, here are a few: They bring us closer to the chain of life, they make great pets, fresh eggs, fertilizer for the garden, and they are Voracious Insect Eaters.

The Urban Chickens group has found a perfect match with non-profit Growing Gardens. Sign up for the Growing Gardens newsletter to receive information on Upcoming Portland Chicken Events.

For more info on Growing Gardens visit HERE.

Images copyright Growing Gardens & Jim Golden, 2009.

Blogging: The Low Cost, High Return Business Marketing Tool - Part 3: Case Studies of Successful Business Blogs

David Harlow, a lawyer and health care consultant in Boston, began writing his blog, HealthBlawg, to market his private practice after leaving a large firm. Two years later Mr. Harlow says he is happy with the results. His blog gets about 200-300 visits per day and has been utilized as a reference site for publications seeking commentary on issue in the health care field. He also stated that he has gained new clients because of his blog, has met many people and has been able to communicate with other bloggers in his field across the country.[1]


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l 2 r: Cherry Blossoms Lavender eye pillow - small city styles, Ripe White tea - ruaTea, Circles Yoga Mat Bag - small city styles, and Raspberry Minis Anna's Oatcakes - Down from the Mountain

Sarah E. Endline, chief executive of sweetriot, a producer of organic chocolates, started her company blog before the company launch in 2005. Endline wanted to have a place for customers to get a behind-the-scenes look at the business of making chocolate treats. Being personal with customers is a common reason cited for blogging, especially for companies that want to be known as mission-oriented or socially responsible. The sweetriot blog includes an entry written about their first cacao shipment from South America, greeting the truck on Labor Day weekend after it cleared the customs process at Kennedy International Airport, and the appreciation she felt toward the delivery driver who helped her sort through and inspect her product.[1]


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l 2 r: Chocolate Chili Cashew Biscotti and Homemade Chocolate Marshmallows - whimsy & spice, Vegan Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies - Vegan Propamanda, Chocolate Chai Bread - Get In My Belly

A company blog guarantees that the blog author can tell their side of their story, in their own words. The best bloggers type fast and talk a lot. They are chatty people and are into relationships. Blogging provides small businesses global reach for a very low cost. Blogging is soft marketing and can work in place of an email newsletter and with better results. Companies that already have a website can add a blog and achieve higher rankings in search engines. Examples of the benefits of a company blog can include but are not limited to:

IMPLEMENTING IDEAS - One person can come up with a good idea but it can take 100 or more people to implement the idea--blogs can help provide resources for both.

INCREASING REVENUE - Great ideas that can come from the conversations and feedback between a blog author and blog readers can increase revenue and marketing power.

KNOW THE CUSTOMER – Blogs can link companies directly with their customers, help them to understand their market, and aid in discovering ways to deliver new products on time and on budget.

FEEDBACK - Relying on a small sample of customer feedback can hurt development of products and ideas. With blogging, you can ask your entire blog readership for their opinions. Insight to what a larger community of readers want can help you to deliver better products.

VISIBILITY - Blogs allow marketing visibility and help to reach the right people and make them aware of the right products and services at the right time.

MESSAGE – Blogs can help a business connect to individual customers with a specific message instead of marketing a generic message to a global mass of random buyers.

SPREAD THE WORD - Blogging, a component of viral marketing, can create word-of-mouth advertising about a product or service and introduce incentive programs and contests for customers to interact with the company and create relationships.

This post is part two of a marketing series. Please visit my archives for parts one through eight.

The photos displayed in this post represent items sold by our talented fellow small business owners, in their online Etsy stores. Please click on their links to browse their shops for quality handmade and edible goods.

[1] "Blogging - Low Cost, High Return Marketing: NY Times." [Weblog smallbiztechnology.com] 6, Jan 2008. The New York Times. 24.4. 2008 .
[2] Alboher. Marci. "Blogging - Low Cost, High Return Marketing: NY Times," The New York Times 27, Dec 2007. The New York Times. 26.5. 2008

copyright pfeiffer photos 2008 - all rights reserved. do not use my writing or photographs without my permission. Contact me HERE for info and permissions...thanks!