The Eternally Hopeful Gardener is the story of the first year of the All Gardening Cafe.

It’s your story, the story of the All Gardening Cafe community. A community that came together in 2021 to make the timelines of Facebook and Instagram beautiful.

During the year there have been over 5000 people join and connect, they have shared thousands of moments and beautiful images.

Everyone has been commenting, connecting with love and beautiful words, over 300,000 at the last count.

The Eternally Hopeful Gardener is a 36-page book that features some of the thousands of photos from the member's gardens throughout the year {2021}.

It is a beautiful book and memory of the year.

Alongside the photos, there is the story of the idea behind the All Gardening Cafe, how it got rolling slowly but surely, making friends along the way and where it's heading.

It's connecting the gardener of the world, one gardening moment at a time.

Gardeners are eternally hopeful, which I think the book shows that perfectly.

A small gift for anyone who might be a gardener, or friend or family member.

If you haven't yet visited the All Gardening Cafe on Facebook and joined the community, follow this link below:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/allgardeningcafe

Thanks and love as always

Here’s today’s podcast:

https://www.allgardening.co.uk/gardening-blog/2021/12/17/64-the-eternally-hopeful-gardener-a-book-by-the-all-gardening-cafe

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Note: All Images we’re shared and gathered via the All Gardening Cafe. All Image rights belong to All Gardening.

Today I’ve started thinking about creating a real place for the All Gardening cafe.

When I started All Gardening way back in 2004, I had the idea that I should build a business that somehow connected all the gardens in the world, it was a BIG IDEA.

Then I let the idea slip for a few years.

But I’ve recently started to rethink the idea, at first I started connecting with people through my All Gardening Facebook page, which grew gradually, then I thought I needed a “cafe” a virtual place for people to share moments from their garden and I started to gradually grow a Facebook group - The All Gardening Cafe.

At the time of writing this blog 250,000 people have discovered All Gardening on Facebook, the All Gardening page has 31,000 followers and the group has 4,700 members,

Where I think I go next is to try and help build deeper relationships, so that people can connect more deeply with each other, tell stories to each other, I’m thinking the All Gardening Cafe should enter the real world.

The All Gardening Cafe is a place to go with friends, where everyone knows your name, grab a coffee or a tea, grab a cake and a smile, grab some flowers on the way out.

The location and details to follow, but will be somewhere in Harrogate, UK.

It all started a few months ago, building a global community that is, but since I've been building an active Facebook group, the page has gone from just a few hundred followers to 28,876. The Facebook group is now just under 4000.

I'm not totally sure what to do with the page followers or the group from a monetisation or business building point of view, so I thought I'd ask you.

https://www.facebook.com/allgardeningHQ is the Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/groups/allgardeningcafe/ is the Facebook group.

https://www.allgardening.co.uk/ is my website.

If I go back to the conversation I had with my mum about building something “big and beautiful” It gives me the ability to understand that maybe the Facebook group building is not just group building but more than that it’s bigger.

I’ve today started an Instagram account, you can find it if you search All Gardening Cafe on Instagram.

I’m thinking that the content on the Facebook group should be shared on the Instagram account using the hashtag #allgardeningcafe.

Where will it go? who knows.

Here’s today’s podcast.

I think the stats talk for themselves, 100k engagements in the last 60 days, 3017 members of the All Gardening Cafe group (the mission my mum set me), and 8347 followers. 

It's just the start but I build a Facebook page, group and audience that love gardening. 

I think I know what I'm good at. And I think there is space in the All Gardening cafe business for others. 

If I said I was building one of the biggest brands (coming soon) on the planet would you believe me?

We'll in 60 days I have built the All Gardening Cafe group to a level of engagement that is extraordinary, 75,000 engagements (comments, posts, emoji's) and that's just the start.

I think the All Gardening brand has just started on its journey, I know what I'm good at, and I need a few others to join me to do the next bit, building a strategy around products and services.

Hello everyone! ❤️

Build something "big and beautiful", that's some of the last words my mum said to me before she passed away this year.

She loved her friends, her garden and loved to travel with a camera in hand, so much so that I thought I'd build the All Gardening Cafe group (worldwide) as a memento to her.

She would have loved to have seen all the gardens and flowers, friends, comments and pictures, so much beauty, sharing and learning. 

It would have made her smile a huge smile.

In the first 60 days we have become nearly 3000 worldwide members, wow! ❤️  with over 60,000 comments! Wow!

I laughed to my mum that Facebook had 468m people worldwide on it who loved gardening, I said "would that be big enough?" 

She smiled and laughed, even though it nearly killed her to laugh, she wasn't ready for giving up but poor health had taken its toll.

We move on. 

I'd like to keep building the group, I think it's a good thing.

So, to start i'd to learn more about you all, about the community we are building across the world and how we might be able to help each other all learn, enjoy and grow plants, flowers and gardens, either begin or get better at it.

I'm thinking I might be able to build a small business opportunity that services all your gardening needs, in one place. 

A small business designed by a community, by you, for you. If that makes sense!

So I've made a short survey, all the images have come from the posts from the group.

It will take just a minute to complete, hope you are happy to help. 

If you drop in an email, I'll make sure to send you all a short overview on what I learn.

Thanks loads

Keep smiling, gardening and loving your friends. 

Cheers, love as always.

Phil xxx ❤️

It was all about moving an idea on a bit and trying to find a way to bridge a gap that I see in the All Gardening Cafe community.

That gap I see is, how do the masses who love gardens but don't know where to start move to the other side of knowing and sharing.

I thought the All Gardening Club box, a subscription service, monthly or bi-monthly would be a nice idea.  

So today I went and thought about what goes into it.