Today I will be launching my world wide garden movement… Okay that sounded cool but it really isn’t that exciting. Let me explain. As most of you know I always want to leave a positive mark on the world. And if you have followed me long you know my family believes we should sow good with our marks on the world. What you might not know is that April is Lawn and Garden Month. The first week of the month is also Keep America Beautiful week and the second week in the month is Garden Week. So I think I have found away to sow all three causes and bring a smile to peoples faces with what I am calling QT Gardens Around the World. (Do you think I would be able to get “Keep America Beautiful Month” Changed to “Keep the World Beautiful Month”?)
When I was at the Capitol I met some really nice ladies with the USDA. (That stands for United States Department of Agriculture for those of you not familiar with it) As we chatted and learned more about each other’s programs/business an Idea was born in my head (I know all ideas come from someone’s head … LOL). I have to admit I am excited to see what happens with this project and just how big we can make it. You see the USDA was handing out promotional postcards. No big deal right? However, these postcards are very special cards. You see, they are Plantable. What does that mean? Well, they are postcards made from recycled paper with flower seeds embedded in them. The idea is that you can send a short note to someone and then that person can plant the postcard and it will sprout flowers bringing a smile of remembrance of the message or person who sent it to them.
My goal with this project is to have QT gardens in every corner of the world. To kick this off the Ladies from the USDA gave me 10 cards. The plan is that after these 10 are mailed out and this gets into full swing, I (Okay Mom and I) will be making these plantable cards ourselves but these first ones will give me time to get seeds and get ours made. So last night and today I spent time finding a few select people who would agree to help. I have heard from most of them and they have all agreed to help with the kick off. I have chosen to make sure we include other contintents in our kick off and it will at least appear as a nice flow of area covered on my world map. For the US I have California, New York and Texas and I have Australia already marked with people to get the cards. Ireland and New Zealand are countries in waiting but I hope to have people there that are willing to take part too. (I have two ladies I am waiting to hear from but I have faith they will let me mail to them. The lady in Ireland loves flowers and has a huge heart so I am pretty sure she will. The New Zealand person however is a new friend so I am just kind of hoping)
That leaves 4 more cards for the kick off and that means I am still looking for 4 people to let me send them one of these special cards. With that said if you are from the North Central or North West US or a country that isn’t Astralia, New Zealand or Ireland email me at rj@barnontheweb.com and let me know if you would want to be in the kick off. All you would have to do is plant the card when it arrives and then let us know if it grows.
These seeds are from hardy flowers that only require 4 hours of sunlight a day and you can plant them in a pot inside as well as outside if you like. No Green thumb or skills are required for this. As the paper decomposses it is compost and nutients for the flowers so there are no worries in the care of them. It really is just that easy. “But what if the cards don’t grow”, you ask?? Well, Remember these gardens are meant to sow smiles as well. Who knows you might just end up with a funny story of the garden that didn’t grow … LOL
What if you really want to help but don’t have a place to plant a card or you just don’t think it is for you. Well, we have other ways you can get involved that doesn’t take planting a card. The first is I need seeds. You can donate seeds for the cards I am going to make by popping some in the mail to me. We just ask that whatever kind you send are consided Hardy because climates change. Another way you can help is to look in your cookie cutter stash (Most baking Mom’s have one … LOL) and see if you have any that you could share with us. I think it would be fun to make our cards different shapes. The only thing you have to consider is that they need to be the kind open all the way through. It can’t be the ones with detail on the back as I can’t press the recycled paper out of the shape if it is … They can be metal or plastic Here are two pictures of examples of the kind we need.


You can mail donated items to:
RJ Straw
HC 61 Box 16
Lenapah, Ok 74042
And finally you can donate postage to the cause … remember these are post cards so even a dollar will mail out two cards in the US or one Overseas. Every little bit helps. For this I am making a donate button for the web page.
My plan is to make people smile while planting QT Gardens all over the world. I am even going to have a thread on Ravelry so that all of us can chat about it year round. When I get mine made (I will be gone tomorrow and Saturday so I will be trying to get more made after that) Then I will need your help once more … In the form of names and addresses of people who will need a smile. Think of your neighbor having a hard time. What would it mean to get a card in the mail with a nice note of cheer that they can plant and grow flowers with??? Or what about a class of school children getting a smile and taking on a small project to make their school a better place??
I sure hope all of this makes sense (sometimes I have trouble getting my ideas out of my head and on the blog in an understandable way) and just so you know I hope it gets so big the next time I ask for your help I can say I need people to make the cards and mail them out because I can’t keep up … LOL … So what do you think? Are you willing to help out in any of the ways we need?? Let me know if you can with a quick email to me at rj@barnontheweb.com
A short call out to “Pat” a retired school teacher that I hope still reads my blog … Do you know of a school teacher with a class that might want to be in the kick off???
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