Hello Gardeners! This month we have been closely following the #MyYoungerSelf campaign from The Child Mind Institute and Project UROK. It's a campaign where actors, athletes, musicians, and influencers of all kind come together to provide advice to their younger self about struggling with their weeds (stress, depression, and anxiety). What we have noticed is that most of the advice is rooted in #GardenerAnna & #GardenerAidan's belief - that talking about your weeds keeps them from growing and talking about your flowers gives them strength! We are so happy that these organizations and initiatives are helping to shed a light on the issues that every gardener struggles with and we hope that we can do our part to spread seeds of positivity! Be a good listener when a fellow gardener needs to be heard, branch out and make new friends, work hard to #PullYourWeeds, remember that #TheFutureIsBright, and it will get better if we all work together.

Hello Gardeners! Something our author Shanna has always told her kids is "no dream is too big or too small". Sometimes when we visualize our goals, we strive to achieve them just a little bit more. With #GardenerAnna and #GardenerAidan, Shanna uses vision boards. She asks them questions like "what do you want to be when you grow up?", "what are your goals for this year?", "who do you look up to?". They pick out photos of the various goals and images, then Shanna uses a photo collage app (like Pic Stitch) and prints out a collage of 6-10 photos. She hangs the collages above the gardeners' beds, but any high traffic area will suffice - refrigerator, bulletin board, kids room. Here are a couple of Gardener Anna and Gardener Aidan's vision boards: Vision boards are effective because they force us to take a second to reflect on what we want, what our goals are, what kind of people we strive to be. Something as simple as picking out photos that remind you of those goals, can actually help you achieve them. This is a great activity to do as a family, so give it a try and continue to make new ones as you achieve old goals and strive for new ones! Send us your vision boards - we would love to learn a little about who you are and what you strive to do! Email flowers@youareagardener.com or tag @youareagardener. Remember, #TheFutureIsBright!

Hello Gardeners! The first episode of #SeasonTwo debuted today and it feels SO good to be back in the greenhouse. #GardenerAnna and #GardenerAidan had the pleasure of meeting Gardener Frankie and Gardener Julia - who you may also know as #ThePetiteFastinista. Julia started a Facebook group for women in North Jersey that provides quick workouts, meal plans, and healthy lifestyle tips to make health and fitness easy for busy ladies to work into their lives. She has changed the way so many people view fitness - not as a chore, but as something that makes us feel good about ourselves and our bodies - we were thrilled to have her and her son Frankie for our season two premiere. When we are feeling down, antsy, cranky, restless - sometimes all we need to do is get moving! Exercise has incredible benefits on not just our physical health, but our mental health as well. These include increased endorphin levels (the stuff that makes us feel happy), decreased stress, increased self-esteem and confidence, more restful sleep, and improved brain performance. The Petite Fastinista gave us a quick and easy workout to do in those overwhelming and intense moments - something to get the blood flowing and reduce a little stress! #1 Sit on the ground with your knees up and spin to the right a few times, then reverse and spin to the left #2 Butt kicks! Kick those feet all the way back #3 Jumping jacks - we all know what these look like, arms and legs out and then arms and legs in! #4 Repeat this cycle of exercises as many times as you'd like We would love to hear about exercises all of you gardeners do to relax, unwind, and to help #PullYourWeeds. Email us at flowers@youareagardener.com or tag us @youareagardener and show us how you get moving!

Hello Gardeners! Recently, we heard that a group of first graders from Harding Township School made a bulletin board inspired by Hello Gardeners and we are loving it!! Whether you book one of our three workshops, bring the Hello Gardeners web series into your classroom, or even incorporate our vocabulary into your lesson plans - there are so many ways to introduce young gardeners to managing their flowers and weeds. We've had the great pleasure of visiting many other schools and working with teachers and educators from all over New Jersey. It's been a busy year so far, but we are always looking to expand our circle of friends. If you would like to bring #YouAreAGardener to your summer camp, your school, your library, wherever - please contact us at events@youareagardener.com. We would love to connect! That's all for today but remember gardeners, #PullYourWeeds!

Spring is all about new beginnings and growth, it’s the perfect time to take a closer look at our gardens and see if there are any big weeds taking up space and do a little #SpringCleaning to make room for new flowers. As a reminder, flowers are the things that make you happy, weeds are the things that make you feel sad, scared or mad and seeds are the positive solutions on how to address your weeds. For all of you new gardeners, remember the best way to #PullYourWeeds is to talk about them - find a friend, a family member, or a teacher and talk through what’s going on! If weeds are particularly hard to pull, sometimes it might take a little longer than we expect. A great way to deal with stubborn weeds is journaling! Think of journals as a really good friend - they never judge you, they always keep your secrets, and they are great listeners! Write down what you’re feeling if a stubborn weed keeps popping up, and you can share your journal entries with a trusted person or keep some private. Just know you never have to pull your weeds alone! For all of you seasoned gardeners, teach your friends about flowers and weeds - be a #PullYourWeeds ambassador and help your friends and siblings start fresh this Spring! We cannot wait for all of the beautiful flowers to bloom, so we decided an Origami Tulip is the perfect craft for today! All you need is some origami paper and to watch Episode 1 of #HelloGardeners - start at 2:16 for the tutorial!

Hi Gardeners! Today we are going to talk about #sharing. We all know that sharing is good and we should do it as much as we can, but sometimes sharing is easier said than done. Let’s remember Mason’s weed from Episode 2 of #HelloGardeners, he wrote: A few great suggestions #GardenerAnna & #GardenerAidan gave us were to: 1. Request some solo play time 2. Show your siblings and friends how to play nicely with fragile toys 3. When in doubt - take a deep breath and practice patience. Sharing doesn’t just apply to toys and other objects - it applies to time, friendships, space, and many other things. A word we’ve talked about before comes to mind - EMPATHY! Remember empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another person. Empathy lies at the root of why we share - being sensitive to others needs and including others in group activities. For our teacher friends out there, try only putting one of each color marker out on the table for two or three students to share. It requires that students wait their turn for the color they’d like to use and need to ask politely if they can use that color when their classmate is finished. It’s little exercises like that that end up teaching the biggest lessons! Thanks for reading along today gardeners! Still don't have our book? No problem! Follow the link to grab a copy of your own here.

Hello Gardeners! Today we are going to talk about something that EVERY gardener struggles with - fear. Fears can be big or small, silly & strange, or things that can immobilize us and make us feel alone. Those weeds that are especially hard to pull are most likely rooted with some sort of fear - fear of being judged, fear of being alone, fear of asking for help. Just know that every single one of us deals with this and you are not alone! In fact, talking about your fears might actually make them impact us a little less!! Let’s look back to our October Episode of #HelloGardeners (Ep. 8) where #GardenerAnna and #GardenerAidan get a phone call from a very scared gardener. He tells the gardeners that he’s afraid of little kids and therefore is dreading Halloween night when he’ll have to greet them Trick-or-Treating! Here are a few tips we gave him: 1. Share your fear with someone you trust - like #GardenerAnna and #GardenerAidan always say, the best way to pull a weed is by talking about it 2. By talking about your fears with a friend, you never know - they may share it! It’s a lot easier to conquer a fear or at least put it at a distance if you can go through that experience with someone by your side. 3. Even though it can be scary to try to make new friends and put yourself out there, it could lead to a beautiful friendship! Having supportive people around us helps to make us feel less alone. If you find yourself in a moment of fear or anxiety, here is a little mindfulness technique that will help you catch your breath and calm down a bit. All you need to remember is S-T-O-P. S - Stop, slow down T - Take some deep breaths, release the tension and negativity with each exhale O - Observe your body, feel how it calms down with your breath P - Proceed with what you were doing If you are comfortable with sharing a fear that is making it hard to #PullYourWeeds, let us help! Shoot us an email at flowers@youareagardener.com and we will give you some tips to help pull your weed. Thanks for reading along and feel free to rewatch Episode 8 or any of our other episodes here!

Afternoon Gardeners! A little while back we received a note from two gardeners in Atlanta, GA. There names are Skyler and Savannah, and they explained that their mom travels pretty often for work and they struggle with how much they miss her when she’s gone. Many of us have dealt with missing someone - whether it’s a traveling parent or a friend who moved away. Not having those people around us can make us feel sad and alone, but there are so many ways that we can maintain those relationships even at a distance. For people in Savanna & Skyler’s situation - remember that your parents miss you too! The people who take care of us work in part so that we can live good, supported lives. Make a calendar of your parent’s or friend’s schedules so that you can plan on a time to touch base and video chat or plan an activity to do with them when they are home! Sometimes, that missing feeling is more permanent when we lose people in our lives. It’s really hard to talk about, but it’s a reality for many gardeners. How do we deal with missing someone who is not around anymore? Making time to remember those people - by talking about them with family members and friends, by looking at pictures or objects that make us think of them, or maybe it’s about crying and letting out feelings that are kept inside. All of those things help to keep their spirit and presence alive. In any case, we can always be a friend to gardeners who are missing people in their lives. We can do this just by listening, by showing our friend that you are there to support them when they are missing loved ones. Even just focusing on the flowers in our lives, gives us the extra bit of strength to pull out our weeds or help keep the weeds from growing too big. Below is a craft to help remind us of all of the wonderful flowers in our lives, here is what you'll need: A piece of paper Black marker Colored pencils or markers Draw a flower as big as your piece of paper. Put as many petals on it as you would like - enough to write in ALL of the flowers in your life. Write your name in the center of the flower and write in your flowers on the petals. Color in the petals and the stem, and add a background if you’d like! Then hang your flower in your room, keep it on the refrigerator, or at your desk at school to remind you of all the flowers during those time where the weeds start to take over. Follow the tutorial in Episode 9 (starting at 3:26)! Last but not least, when we feel especially alone, it's important to remember that the future is BRIGHT!! Thanks for checking in gardeners and see you next time!

Hello Gardeners!! Today we are going to look at a phrase that you’ve probably heard. Maybe your parents said this to you in passing, or maybe you’ve heard #GardenerAnna and #GardenerAidan offer this as advice. It’s that phrase “just walk away”. Now, it might seem simple, but this is some of the best advice a young gardener can get. The beauty of this small piece of advice is it gives you an option in almost any situation. Whether you are dealing with people who just don’t treat you well, or if you’ve gotten yourself involved with something that just doesn’t feel right - all you need to do is walk away. Let’s look back at Episode 3 where #GardenerAidan describes a situation with a friend at school. He explains that his friend, Emma, asked to play with a group of girls at his school, they chose to not be very inclusive and said no. Emma realized that this was not a group of people she wanted to be with, and chose to walk away. When a group of people choose to not include others, it’s important we treat ourselves with respect and walk away from situations that seem toxic to us. Who knows, maybe our fellow gardeners are talking about something private or maybe a gardener is just having a bad day and needs some space. Whatever the case may be, remember, you can always walk away! Also in Episode 3, we were able to visit our friends at Pediatric Therapeutics. We had such a great time reading You Are A Gardener and doing this fun planter craft! What you’ll need: Terra Cotta planter Potting soil Seeds of your choice Decorative materials - stickers, markers, paint, pom-poms, etc. Decorate your planter with your stickers and paint, then fill with potting soil and push your seed down into the soil - so it is about a quarter to a half the way under the top of the soil. Place any decorative items on the top of the soil to greet your flowers as they bloom! Watch the video below to follow along (starting at 1:53)!

Hello Gardeners! In honor of starting to film #Season2 of #HelloGardeners, let’s look back at our very first episode. We received a weed from #GardenerAlexandra who explained that a classmate of hers was alway bumping into her and getting in her space - and that was in turn causing her to get frustrated and distracted. She was afraid that telling a teacher would be tattling, and she didn’t want to be a tattle-tale. So, where’s the line - what’s the difference between tattling and asking for help? Let’s break it down - tattling is telling ON someone. When we tell on someone, we are suggesting that that person deserves to get in trouble or suffer some sort of consequence for their actions. Tattling is a passive and non-direct way of dealing with a problem. A more productive route is to either address the person directly or consult a teacher or parent - not with the hopes of getting the other person in trouble - but with the end goal of solving the issue! Addressing people face-to-face can be really scary - you don’t want to hurt the other person’s feelings and it can be hard to tell your peers exactly how you’re feeling. At the end of the day, practicing direct communication will always be better! It will make weeds easier to pull, boundaries better established, and communication clearer! To celebrate the #EasterWeekend here is a craft from #Episode4 when we visited Sugar Rush in Madison, NJ and made some colorful candy art! Perfect for those leftover jelly beans and candies in your Easter basket. All you’ll need is: A sturdy piece of cardboard or canvas Craft glue LOTS of colorful candy Then just start gluing! Maybe you’d like to make a rainbow, or a garden full of flowers, or even a *sweet* self portrait. Watch the gardeners below if you need more ideas (start at 1:49!). We'd love to see your candy art! Be sure to tag @youareagardener and let us see those SWEET creations. Catch you next time gardeners and as always #PullYourWeeds!

Hello Gardeners! With #MothersDay and #FathersDay just around the corner, now is the perfect time to remind ourselves of those special mentors in our lives and about how much they mean to us. It doesn’t matter if these individuals aren’t biologically our parents - all that matters is that they have helped us pull our weeds, plant new seeds, and water our flowers! Sometimes it might be easy to forget, but our babysitters, coaches, teachers, parents, uncles, grandmothers - every adult in your life has weeds! Gardens have no expiration dates and weeds have no age limits. They grow with us and the types of weeds and flowers change as our lives progress. If you ever notice that one of those special people seems down or a little blue, be there for them! Show them the same support you would a fellow gardener that is your age. Here are a few things that you could do to brighten their day: -Write them a nice note -Draw them a picture -Help out around the house - put your dishes in the dishwasher, clean up the floor of your bedroom, take the garbage out -Make them a handmade bouquet of wildflowers -Set the table for dinner Something to show them that you are there and you are thinking about them! We would love to hear about your mentors or the special things you did to say thanks. Shoot us an email at flowers@youareagardener.com or tag us @youareagardener. Thanks for tuning in gardeners and remember to #PullYourWeeds!

Hey there Gardeners! This week, the entire Pull Your Weeds™ team is craving some sun, so we thought we would revisit Episode 6 of Hello Gardeners, when #GardenerAnna and #GardenerAidan went to the beach and learned that animals can have weeds too. The gardeners’ grandfather, Dr. Stanley Truffini, is a veterinarian and he taught us about recognizing fearful behavior in animals when they are stressed (dogs in particular) so that we can stay safe! We see dogs everywhere - at our friends’ houses, at the park, in our neighborhoods. Most of the time, our four-legged friends just enjoy the everyday flowers, but sometimes 'weeds' come up when humans, other animals, and loud noises, scare them. When dogs get scared or stressed they can respond by growling, lunging at us, or biting us. Here are some signs that a dog is stressed: 1. Ears are back 2. Dog is showing its teeth in an aggressive way and growling 3. Tail is tucked under its body 4. Dog is hiding or looking to escape the situation When we see these signs, it’s very important to back up, give the dog it’s space, to not lock eyes, and to not interact with the dog. The best thing to do when meeting a new, non-fearful dog is to get down to their level, put the back of your hand out in front of you, and let the dog come to you. Remember, most of the time, our furry friends just want to sit with us and show us love, but it’s important to remember their boundaries and to keep ourselves and our dogs safe. As a thank you to our dogs for always providing us with flowers and love, here is a quick and easy dog treat recipe that they are sure to love! Ingredients: 1 ripe banana 1 cup of uncooked oats 1 heaping spoon of peanut butter (substitute canned pumpkin if you have a nut allergy) Start by preheating oven to 300º Let them cool, then place in a food safe container and store in the fridge for up to 2 weeks! Thanks for checking in this week and send some pictures of your pets to flowers@youareagardener.com or tag @youareagardener! We would love to see the animals that fill your gardens with flowers. Have a great week and don't forget to #PullYourWeeds!