Hello Gardeners! It's been a minute since we've shared a #WeedsToSeeds story. We came across this movement based in Newberg, Oregon called the Don't Give Up Movement. Amy Wolff and her family did one simple thing - they placed 20 yard signs with supportive messages around their community. The response was overwhelming and soon people across the country and across the globe were buying her signs to spread the word. You never know what someone might need to hear - and a simple sign that says "Don't Give Up" might be the one thing that person hasn't heard all week, all month, all their life. This movement reminds us that there are supporters and allies all around us. We may not know they exist all of the time, but a movement like this shows us they do! Thank you so much to Amy & her family for planting this seed. We are in awe of how that small seed has spread so far and so wide - we can't wait to see how much farther it spreads! All it takes is one small seed. If you have a way to pay it forward and spread kindness and love to others, know that there are people just waiting to help you spread the message. If you get a chance, so the Don't Give Up Movement a little love by following their Instagram @dontgiveupsigns. We'll leave you with one final thought, borrowed from the Don't Give Up website (because we love it so much!): "Whatever you do or don't do, honor people. Focus more on common ground than differences. Have hard conversations by flexing your empathy muscle. Listen to understand, not debate. Look people in the eye. Be present. Be generous with love (including with yourself). Life is messy but we're in this together!" -Amy Wolff

Hello Gardeners - welcome back to #PullYourWeeds! Today we are going to talk about apologies. All of us have been in the position where we've needed to apologize to someone for something we did or said. But just saying those two words: isn't enough. Most of the time we understand that those two words are connected to an event and we understand that the person apologizing feels bad for what they did or said. By only saying "I'm sorry", we do our friends and ourselves a disservice. We don't put ourselves in our friend's shoes, feel the impact of our actions or words, and then ask to be forgiven - we instead assume saying "I'm sorry" are the magic words to solve our problems. That's why we've come up with this 4-step apology - think of it as a guideline to a genuine, well-rounded apology. If we use this tool to improve our apologies, we not only make the person who deserves our apology feel heard and respected, but we exercise our ability to feel empathy - something we need more of in today's world! Remember, we all make mistakes - we do or say things that can negatively impact other people. The best way to fix it is to own up to what we've done, and offer a sincere apology that tells our friend that we recognize why what we've said or done is harmful and commit to not doing it again. Recently we found this passage that describes empathy and understanding using gardener friendly language. Written by Vietnamese, Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, it reads: 🌱 🌱 🌱 When you plant lettuce, if it does not grow well, you don't blame the lettuce. You look for reasons it is not doing well. It may need fertilizer, or more water, or less sun. You never blame the lettuce. Yet if we have problems with our friends or family, we blame the other person. But if we know how to take care of them, they will grow well, like the lettuce. Blaming has no positive effect at all, nor does trying to persuade using reason or argument. That is my experience. No blame, no reasoning, no argument, just understanding. If you understand, and you show that you understand, you can love, and the situation will change. 🌱 🌱 🌱

Hello Gardeners! If you've read our book or watched our web series you know that flowers are the things that make us feel happy and weeds are the things that make us feel sad, scared, or mad. Sometimes "sad, scared, and mad" are too vague to accurately describe our weeds and if we can't pinpoint the emotion(s) at the root of our weed, we can't pull it out. For example, one of our #PullYourWeeds writers noticed she starts to feel irritable, tired, and cranky during certain hours of the day - especially on days when she hasn't eaten full meals or nourishing food. By examining how she reacts to hunger and how she feels when she is hungry, she determined how to pull that weed and how to prevent that weed from growing (eating full meals or keeping snacks on hand). #GardenerDevin's hangry snack! All you'll need is a banana, peanut butter (allergies substitute sunflower butter or tahini), and chia seeds. Makes a great mid-morning or afternoon snack. It just takes a little investigation to get a clearer view of what you're feeling. To make this process a little easier, we compiled a list of possible emotions that your weeds make you feel. Take a look at this list when you feel a weed popping up and try to identify with some of these words. Once you have an idea of what you are feeling, you might have a better method for pulling the weed. Feel free to screenshot this list to carry on your phone or tablet. We've also compiled definitions for these words in case you need some clarification: Thanks for reading along gardeners! Keep sending us your flowers 🌻 and your weeds 🌱 - we love hearing from gardeners all across the country, #TheFutureIsBright!

Hello Gardeners! We’ve talked about fear before - how many of our weeds are rooted in fear and how those fears can make us feel isolated - but what about excitement? Excitement and fear are actually quite similar. Both emotions elevate heart rate, increase awareness, create the “butterflies in the stomach” effect - the difference is that fear can immobilize us while excitement pushes us forward. If you think back to all of your firsts or big changes in your life, excitement and fear exist simultaneously. Let’s take the first and last day of school, for example. The last day of school is met with so much excitement for summer - no more homework, spending days by the pool and at the beach, maybe a summer camp or a family vacation. It can also be met with some anxiety - when will you see all of the friends you made throughout the year, maybe you are nervous to make new friends at camp, or you’re just not sure what to do this summer. To prepare for this we've gathered some tips to help turn that fear into excitement for the summer! #1 Get some events on the calendar Schedule a couple playdates, a day trip to the beach, a family picnic, a birthday party, a camp - something that gives your gardener something to look forward to! #2 Write your teachers a nice note If your gardener is feeling particularly sad about leaving his or her teacher this year, sit down with them and have him or her write a nice note to their teacher. It may give them some closure transitioning out of their classroom, while also providing the teacher with a truly genuine gesture of gratitude. #3 Come up with a summer project Give your gardener a task to complete over the summer - this could be teaching your dog a couple of new tricks, or doing some home improvement, maybe it’s cleaning up litter in the neighborhood. Think of how proud they will be looking at what they’ve achieved at the end of the summer! #4 Get outside After being stuck in a classroom for most of the year, summer is the time to be free and run wild! Schedule some family hikes, pull out the sprinkler, or do a craft outside - just go out and get some fresh air. #5 Continue to #PullYourWeeds This is a big one - just because school is over and the schedule is a little looser, doesn’t mean we stop pulling weeds! Keep that routine strong because weeds certainly do not stop growing just because it’s summer. Moreover, when both excitement and fear are present - sometimes just trying to reframe your outlook from “I just want to get this over with” to “this is exciting!” is the small step that can bring positivity and excitement forward, while putting fear a few steps back. You Are A Gardener is the perfect end of year gift for your teacher!! Who knows, you may even spread our seeds to future students. Enter code 'SUMMER' for 10% off of the book until the end of June! Thanks for tuning in gardeners, and remember to #PullYourWeeds!

Hello Gardeners! Recently, #TheGardeningTeam has been looking for #WeedsToSeeds stories - stories of people turning hardship to opportunity, of people putting others before themselves, and stories that help inspire us to water our flowers! We stumbled into one project that truly inspired us to pay it forward. It’s called The Kindness Rocks Project™. The Kindness Rocks Project “encourages people to leave rocks painted with inspiring messages along the path of life”. The hope is that the kindness rocks will cross paths with someone who needs a boost or a push to keep going! We love this project because it helps plant seeds of positivity in others. Maybe this message will change someone’s day, maybe it will give them hope - one small seed has real power, and we love other organizations and projects that are spreading this message! So why don't we give it a try? Gather some rocks, get out your paints and your permanent markers, decorate your rocks with inspirational messages and uplifting symbols, and leave your #kindnessrocks in a place where someone will see them! Post pictures of your kindness rocks with the hashtag #TheKindnessRocksProject and be sure to tag us! We would love to add some gardener rocks to this post.

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!