This morning I am pleased to announce the launch of the Kickstarter campaign for my next book, Grow Curious: Creative Activities to Cultivate Joy, Wonder, and Discovery in You and Your Garden. There is so much that I want to say about this project, but in short, this is a creative activity book for adult gardeners. Below I have written the story of how this idea came to fruition, but first I would like to send you over to the Kickstarter page where you can watch my video, learn about the book, and find out how you can be a part of helping me bring it into the world.

The Kickstarter campaign will be running for a month, and within that time I will post more details about the book and provide updates on the process so far as well as new events as they unfold. You can also follow along via Instagram :: Facebook :: Twitter. Campaign backers will receive further behind-the-scenes updates.

Click here to check it out now…

“If we allow ourselves to be more playful, see the garden with the open eyes of a child, and spend some of our time there in exploration, discovery, and with a creative freedom that is not tied to perfectionism and productivity, how will that change us?”

The Story of Grow Curious

The idea for this book came to me sometime around 2009, but the seed for it reaches way back to 1978. Imagine a five year old Gayla, sat in front of a tv screen watching Captain Kangaroo. Back then, there was an interstitial during the show called, Picture Pages in which children were invited to follow along with activities on screen using an exclusive booklet. Every segment came with instructions on how to send away for a free copy through the station, but I was five years old and without the know-how to write a letter and get it into the mail on my own. I begged my mother to order away for the book, but no book ever arrived. As the days passed, and I watched, booklet-less, I became increasingly obsessed with it, or my idea of it. In my mind’s eye, I imagined an incredible, magical book full of curious ideas and fascinating activities that would invite wonder and discovery into my life. It drove me nuts that as a kindergartener I lacked the power to do anything but stare at the screen in silent longing. Eventually, the segment was dropped from the show and I grew out of children’s television programming.

Some 30 years later, it was this childhood memory that became the seed for the idea to make an activity book for adult gardeners. Alas, when I eventually looked it up online I was disappointed to discover that it was not the portal to a world of creativity and wonder. It was a fairly dull book of simple puzzles and juvenile connect-the-dot games. Still, the premise for the Grow Curious book is rooted there, or at least in my imagination’s version of it, and it was only until a few years ago that I stopped calling the book, Garden Pages. Throughout the process of scratching out ideas and putting them together into a cohesive structure, I have continuously reached back to the imagination and feelings of the five year old that I once was. Make no mistake, this book is not written for children — there are plenty of nature activity books for them out there. This book is for adult gardeners. However, it seems to me that children are encouraged to play, engage with the garden, and explore. Adults are encouraged to be productive and create an enviable outdoor space. Over the years I have had a great many new gardeners approach me with fear and trepidation around making mistakes in the garden. They are afraid to take chances. Afraid to kill plants. Anxiety, dread, and fear should not be the emotions from which we approach the garden. It certainly doesn’t have to be that way. If we allow ourselves to be more playful, see the garden with the open eyes of a child, and spend some of our time there in exploration, discovery, and with a creative freedom that is not tied to perfectionism and productivity, how will that change us?

To that end, one of my goals with this book is to give adults like myself permission and a groundwork from which to reconnect with the open imagination and freedom of exploration that children have around nature and gardens, but geared to the complexity and experience of an adult’s mind.

Back in 1978, I was an isolated and lonely child longing for connection and closeness. During that time, for about 10 months, we lived in a house with a backyard. I remember spending countless hours peering closely at the plants that popped up around its perimeter, exploring underneath the bushes, making up stories about the critters to be found there, picking at the peeling bark of the birch tree, and scratching around in the dirt. Nature was my respite and a safe place where I could be myself and explore what the world had to offer. It’s no wonder that despite the round-about way I got here, I eventually found gardening.

No matter where or how we live, we humans are a part of nature. It is not a distant, separate thing. Nature is in us. We are it. On a primal level we all long for and need a connection to the natural world. When we connect with nature, we learn who we are as a part of it. And because we are nature, it is everywhere within and around us and can be fostered in what may seem the most unlikely places. There is nature in the way our bodies adapt and change with the seasons. There is nature in the way just looking at green things lowers our heart rate. There is nature in the plants that come up through the cracks in an old parking lot and even inside a pot of basil sat next to the front door. We just have to look for it. And once we see it, we start to see more of it. The world cracks open little-by-little and eventually, with time, it expands a whole lot.

This is my goal. To encourage you to look more closely, soak in the experience of the garden more deeply, and help you see what is already there in a new way.

An invitation to crack your world wide open.

More Ways to Support the Grow Curious Kickstarter Campaign

Kickstarter campaigns are all-or-nothing; I do not get a cent if the funding goal is not met. Nerve-wracking! Whether or not a project is picked up and promoted by Kickstarter (or others) depends on the momentum that is built around it in the first week or so. For that reason every little bit of help you can offer to plug the campaign TODAY and through the coming month is huge! Thanks so much for being involved in the process of making this book!

• Tell Your Friends – The old fashioned way by word-of-mouth.
• Share Via Social Media: Feel free to tweet, retweet, regram, pin, or post using any of our graphics. Please use the hashtag #growcurious and the url grow-curious.com
• Write a Blog Post: Get in touch if you have any questions and I will try to answer in a timely fashion. If you do post about it, please let me know.
• Media: If you are a member of the media and would like to report on the campaign, get in touch here.