Inspired Real Estate For Today

It's Friday night. If you're anything like me, Friday Nights are nights when you let down your hair and relax a little...perhaps dinner, a movie, or a show.  This past Friday is no exception.  We've still got a teenager at home who doesn't drive, so Friday night involves playing part-time taxicab driver too. 

As we're preparing to go out, I notice that he's busy at the computer.  I'm a "quasi hip" mom, so I presume he's checking out Facebook to see where everyone will be hanging out.  Imagine my surprise when he tells me he's downloading music because he's going to be the DJ!  I can barely contain my surprise..."You're down loading music for the dance onto your iPod?"  He barely gives me a sideways glance...continues tapping the keyboard and says..."Ya."

Now, you've got to understand, I can still remember the days of vinyl records.  The DJ's table was exactly that...a sturdy looking structure with various turntables, speakers, gadgets and microphones.  By the time things went totally digital...I'd started having kids and sleep was far more important than dancing into the wee hours of the night. So...for the me the trajectory was turntables, to CD's and then things dropped off.

Until they resumed this Friday night with my iPod DJ downloading songs for the party at school onto  a device that fit neatly into his back pocket.  I asked him how they would hear the songs.  He replied in mock disbelief.."We'll hook the iPod up to the speakers and if they don't like my selections, we'll hook up somone elses."  Wow...talk about feeling old fashioned! This type of DJ experience is not even on my radar...

So, it seems that while I have been sleeping, the world of dance music and entertainment has become much more portable.  Music travels hipster style to where the party is...not the other way.  It's a fluid movement of exchange and interraction which allows anyone with the right mix at the moment to step up to the turntable, hook in and share what they've got playing on their iPod.

It occurs to me that in a sense, this is not unlike what is happening in the real estate industry today.  The conversation online about real estate moves with fluid grace and sometimes jolting jerks...either way, it's a continiuum of moving parts which includes websites, newsfeeds, blogs, video casts, podcasts, social networks and the mainstay of the real estate genre...MLS systems. 

Today, real estate buyers are surfing for the hottest offerings online.  The average buyer is visiting numerous websites to sample what's out there. 

Recently, I looked up a certain price range for homes in our local area online.  The results were interesting.  In the top 8 Search Results, the number of listings in "a particular search area" ranged from 1 home  to 32!  No wonder buyers feel they must look at all options...landing on the wrong site means that you may not be seeing 90% of what's available for Sale. 

That's one reason why connecting with a good real estate who is pluged in to one or more MLS systems as well as many of the other frequently visited sites which feature Homes for Sale is so critically important.  This is a partnership...a dance which requires coordination and synergy.  As a home buyer, you should move in perfect sync by:

1.  Clearly thinking and writing down what you would like to find in a home

2.  Choosing a real estate agent to assist you...preferably one who is connected online

3.  Link up with a good mortgage specialist to make sure your finances are in order

4.  Create your own Playlist...Surf online, take virtual tours, research various blogs and sites

5.  Be prepared to sync up with your agent on a regular basis, learn from them and create winning solutions.

What's wonderful about this new emerging conversation is that it is so portable.  You can find listings everywhere.  You can download them to a number of devices.  You can search for homes by Street Name through the  Search Engines.  Don't snooze now or you loose.  The best deals won't wait...they'll just twirl around to the next available player!

Vector photo courtesy of Sabrina Campagna's photostream on flickr.com

Dance photo courtesy of firutin's photostream on flickr.com

Copyright 2008  Audu Real Estate  All Rights Reserved

It was one of those absolutely gorgeous Spring days here in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  The Magnolia tree is blossoming in full splendor!  The flowering Crab tree is pushing out it's first blossoms too. But there's something else happening...(This picture was taken a couple of days ago)  Now, this tree has started to shed those large, luscious flower buds onto the grass.  It's barely perceptible if you're just looking at the tree, but if you're up close & personal...you can see that the buds will only be here a little longer.

This is a floral pictorial for what we are seeing in the Grand Rapids, Michigan real estate market.  Spring is definitely in the air.  Buyers are contacting us to see homes and bid on them.  Home owners are making the necessary adjustments and repairs to place their homes on the market.

But there's something else happening that only busy real estate professionals showing and selling homes can clearly see.  Homes which are priced properly are being Sold...Quickly!  We're hearing the words...I'm sorry, it's already gone more and more these days.  Our buyers are bidding on homes only to find that there are multiple offers.

If you're a home owner, don't wait for the news media to finally get a whiff of this good news and begin to report it.  Get a jump start and find out what's going on in your neighborhood.  Call Audu Real Estate for a FREE Certified Market Analysis.  Take a lesson from the Magnolia Tree...those blossoms will be gone very soon & the tree will be covered with verdant green leaves.  Pretty, but not the rare beauty of the delicate pink blossom.

There's nothing quite like a festive African party.  For an African woman, the preparation of the food is more than a labor of love...it is hard work requiring skillful handcrafting and hours of preparation.  It is within this arduous process that my adolescent memories of entertaining linger, mostly because of the women who surround my mother to assist in the cooking.

I vividly remember their arrivals. Some are wearing their "good" clothes...others carry fancy bags brimming with colorful lapas,  lace blouses, high heeled shoes and headdresses.  Throughout the morning, a chorus of greetings welcomes each new entrant. This intimate gathering of sisters...Click to continue reading...

Picture courtesy of OziAfricana's photostream on flikr.com

This is not the picture I set out to take today.  In fact, it's the sort of picture that captures you on the way to do something else...like setting out to snap a quick shot of a potential listing from across the street.  I'm in the parking lot of the Church of St. Johns on Bridge St. in Grand Rapids, Michigan and as I turn to get back into my car, I'm struck by the simple elegance of this structure.  I am reminded of the simplicity and clarity that faith can bring to life and community.

I pass this orchard on my way home.  The strange, yet twisted beauty of these clipped trees is almost reminiscent of a scene from a sci-fi movie.  It's been a few days since I saw the farmer out pruning.  It's absolutely necessary if there's going to be a good harvest.  But, at this time of the year, there's an ungainly ugliness about the process. 

I'm thinking about the messiness of faith. We're often clipped and pruned through trials and hardship.  Sometimes, it's ugly to observe from the outside...very unlike the serene beauty of the church taken on the same day within a mile of this seemingly mangled mess of trees.

But, I've lived here long enough to know that the process is not only necessary, but good.  To bear fruit, trees need tough love to strip away dead stuff which will hinder healthy growth.  It's not unlike the challenges of being  a real estate agent. 

Today...experienced agents and new agents find themselves together in the same boat.  It's no longer about knowing how to navigate across the landscape...the very essence of the landscape has been altered.  We can choose to live in suspended disbelief or recognize that the same essence that dresses the church with serenity grants strength to the wounded tree to deepen it's roots and find a new measure of strength to blossom again.

Copyright 2008  Audu Real Estate  All Rights Reserved

Addiction (n) defined as: The condition of being habitually or compulsively occupied with or or involved in something.

The book "A Beautiful Boy" was just featured on the Oprah show and selected for sale by Starbucks .  It's a story about the trauma of addiction in the life of family...primarily the painful relationship between a father and son.  I am reminded of an unusual list I made a couple of years ago after hearing a comment from a speaker that went something like this...

Addictions are far more pervasive than most of us would care to admit. They are not limited to what we traditionally refer to in the realm of drug and alcohol abuse.  Addictions relate to habitual compulsions, habitual destructive thought patterns and relational patterns which influence and control our lives in ways that are not healthy.  She mentioned some of the items below.  I found the concept so fascinating, I decided to continue the list.  Here's what what I came up with....

Well Documented Addictions...

1. Caffeine Addiction
2. Chocolate Addiction
3. Smoking Addiction
4. Alcohol Addiction
5. Drug (Illegal & Prescription) Addiction
6. Sex Addiction
7. Gambling Addiction
8. Over-Eating/Anorexia/Binge Eating
9. Shop Lifting Addiction
10. Sugar Addiction
11. Co-Dependency/Enabler Addiction

Less Famous Common Addictions...

1. Slave to Fashion Addictions
2. The Need to Be Right
3. The Need to Win
4. The Need to Please
5. The Need to be Admired
6. The Need to feel Superior
7. The Need to be in Control
8. The Need to hold Grudges
9. The Need to Hate
10. The Need to Create Enemies 
11. The Need to Lie 
12. The Need to Gossip
13. The Need to Know... 
14. The Need to Talk Excessively
15. The Anger Addiction
16. The Excessive Shopping Addiction
17. The Worry Addiction
18. Excessive, Compulsive TV/Media Addiction
19. The Need to Avoid Confrontation
20. The Need to Interrupt
21. The Need to Have the Last Word 
22. The Need to Fit In
23. Addiction to Unhealthy Relationships
24. Addiction to Competition
25. Envy/Jealousy Addiction
26. The Fear of Failure Addiction
27. The Fear of Aging Addiction
28. The Addiction to Sabotage
29. The Addiction to Being the Center of Attention
30. The Addiction to Ignoring the Truth
31. The Addiction to Fantasy
32. The Addiction to Blogging *an addition to the original list.
33. The Obsession with Being Connected 24/7 *an addition to the original list
34. The Adrenaline Addiction *an addition to the original list

So, What do you think?  Did I cover them all...or do some additional ones come to mind? One of the issues which is most sobering in the memoir is the way in which the father chose to ignore signs in his son and habits in himself until the situation became an irreversible nightmare. 

As I look at the second list, I wonder if many of us inadvertently are doing the same thing.  Just because these things won't land you in jail does not mean that they are not having a hugely, negative impact in the quality of our lives and relationships when we become enslaved to them.  Food for thought...

Copyright 2008  Audu Real Estate  All Rights Reserved

Click here for more entires in the "What It Means Series."

Recently, we met with a new client.  As we discussed various housing options, she mentioned a home that she had found online and fallen in love with.  She couldn't remember the website, but was sure that it was one of the websites advertised on TV.  We started listing off sites we knew, hoping to jolt her memory.  Finally we googled a term close to what she thought the website was named

Imagine our surprise when she clicked a site on google and said, "Yes, this is it!"  It was the website for our LOCAL REAL ESTATE BOARD; they don't advertise on TV.  But, she did not associate the site with Realtors®.  It was simply a site where she went to look for listings and had found a home that she loved!

Well, this is good news and bad news for agents and more importantly for their MLS systems. The good news was she was on a Realtor site®.  The bad news...well, that's obvious. While our buyer may be an anomaly, it is a jarring indication that real estate agents and the sites they frequent will not necessarily be connected in the minds of tommorow's consumers when it comes to the buying or selling of real estate. 

It would be a mistake for us to ignore the fact that in the minds of a significant number of folks...homes can be found just about any place.  In fact, when she indicated that she had located the site...we turned to each other and said..."Well, that's us!"  What was left unsaid was..."Wow, that's obviously not important to her!"

Tonight, I picked up a Business Week article entitled "Ambush in Beijing." Amid all the clamour surrounding the Olympic torch and the outcry for Tibetan independence, stories like this get buried in the mix.  This tale was not about a political ambush, but rather an economic one.

In what could easily be termed the Marketing Mecca of the Millennium, the Olympics in China represent an unprecedented opportunity to reach billions of people.  That's why corporate sponsors like Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Samsung have not hesitated to fork out as much as 100 million each to be official global sponsors of the Beijing Olympic Games.

It's also why...according to Business Week, dozens of other companies with less rigidly formal ties have opted to create another kind of campaign.  Instead of linking to the official games, these corporations have created lucrative financial agreements with Olympic athletes...the reason why the games exist in the first place. These  measures are gaining traction.  That is...many people are presuming that they are official sponsors and are more favorably disposed to doing business with them.  It's Ambush Marketing at its' best!

I am struck by an uncanny comparison to the real estate marketplace today. While Beijing organizers have taken action against many Chinese corporations for illegal use of official logos, they have been unable to effectively reign in image associations which the athletes themselves allow. 

It's not unlike the current state of affairs in which MLS systems fought for years to prevent listing information from being disseminated then found themselves outwitted by Ambush marketers like Zillow or Trulia who skillfully changed the very nature of the real estate conversation. 

These companies have taken their incentives directly to the buying and selling public and presented an attractive service proposition to encourage listing and buying homes with their aid.  The listing which was the fulcrum of the transaction when secured by the listing agent became a pendulum to be swung towards the most attractive information aggregator. The official sponsor, the MLS, found itself competing with sites that offered incredibly rich data gathering/sharing experiences garnered in significant measure from the listing data it created.

What agents and their MLS systems failed to understand was that the official endorsement of an MLS listing was only as valuable as the perception that this was the best method for buying or selling a home.  When information was withheld, that was not difficult to argue. But today, with the wide dispersion of data, the waters are much murkier.  

Most real estate consumers simply want the best possible real estate transaction "experience," something which the data centric model utilised by most agents has struggled to deliver. Like, my client, real estate consumers are more concerned about who delivers the "total package.  They are less deeply vested in who owns the website where they find the listing because information is ubiquitous.  A relevant, informative and interactive real estate experience is not!

This situation will continue to evolve and expand in the years ahead.  The vital links in this system are the buyer and seller. The new systems for delivery will rise or fall on the basis of their ability to win the market share of each big or little piece of turf called home in a way which draws participants into engagement and thereby association.

Make no mistake about it, the hottest piece of real estate right now is not ocean front property or an expensive New York highrise condominium. Rather, it roams around daily taking in the sights and sounds of it's environment and microprocessing them into a zillion different opinions about what will influence the buying or selling decision.  It is nuanced and fickle, opinionated and easily swayed.  The hottest piece of real estate on the planet is mind share...it's physical address... the space between your two ears.

pictures courtesy of pdphoto.org

Copyright 2008  Audu Real Estate All Rights Reserved

There are many things that make the Tiger Woods story extraordinary.  However, as a non-golfer who has been fascinated by the transcendence that Tiger Woods has brought to the game; one particular legend about his approach to his golf game has been very inspiring to me.

It is said that Tiger Woods has recreated his game many times.  One well know strategic reinvention  of his winning golf swing occured when he was just 21 year old in 1997.  After winning the Western Open, he announced that his near perfect swing was in need of a major overhaul.  The world received the news with stunned surprise.  How do you improve on what appears to be near perfection?

He then proceeded to spend the next year totally altering his training regime, his diet and his swing.  It cost him.  During that year he won just a few tournaments.  But after a year; the period of chastening completed, he won a remarkable 50 percent of the tournaments in which he participated.

The next challenge occurred in the life of an older Tiger Woods. In 2003, Vijay Singh replaced Tiger Woods as the best golfer in the world.  Tigers' response to this upset was quoted in Golf Digest:

"You can play from the wrong position for a long time with good hands, but eventually its' going to catch-up with you." Being really good at something, the best even, does not guarantee you a permanent position at the top.

This time, the reinvention was not a one year effort. Knee surgery in 2003 forced him to train very differently on a regime that included a stationary bike.  He had to adjust his swing to compensate for the changes that his body had undergone.  This time the reincarnation of the famous swing was much more subtle.  Nothing like the drastic re-imaging that occurred in 1997. 

In fact it was not until 2006 that the winning streak started again and he went on to win six consecutive  PGA Tour titles into the spring of 2007.  An interview by CBS Sports contains this quote from those who were amazed by the amazing transformation:

Players marveled at the fixes of the past few weeks, though Woods discounted the degree of difficulty.

"Because it wasn't that much of a change," he said. "It was just getting back into my natural posture, which is no big deal. Toward the end of last year we worked on the same things at the Western, and I went on that nice little run there. A lot of this is the same thing. I tend to slip back into the same old faults."

I take away much wisdom and great insight from this older, wiser Tiger.  In his earlier days, dramatic shifts created impressive gains.  But as he matured and had to contend with physical limitations in addition to an increasingly aggressive field of players, Tiger Woods drew on a different dimension of inner core strength. 

Gaining dominance is never as difficult as maintaining it.  But, the biggest challenge of all is continuing in excellence rather than succumbing to the easy fix or tricks that worked well in the past.  It takes great humility to be able to look at anything which seems to have worked well for so long and recognize that one may be actually "playing from the wrong position" even though one has good hands.

The danger of the "good hands" is that we may inadvertently fashion a mold which hardens into default positions designed to maintain the margin not redefine it. The truth is that it does catch up with you.  What we often miss are the initial cues which indicate that we are flirting with that precipice. 

Copyright 2008  Audu Real Estate  All Rights Reserved

Photographs By mandj98 are courtesy of Flickr.com

There's a lot of "noise" about real estate right now.  The plight of the market has become a staple of the nightly news and media commentary throughout the nation.  Congress has weighed in with different "solutions" to the crisis and it's an important part of public policy discussions.  Even the President & the current 3 "Would be Presidents" of the United States have proffered solutions.

All this talk got me thinking about a blog post I wrote when I first started blogging.  It was about the Palaver Tree, a Uniquely African concept.  I went back to revisit that post and was struck by how much this is true..."the more things change...the more things really stay the same."  I could have written the same post today, and it would still be strikingly on target. 

The last quarter of 2007 actually posted moderate increases in homes Sold in Grand Rapids, Michigan and January of 2008 had an 18.9% increase...the largest since 2005.  But, it was NOT reported in the news despite a press release by our local Board. In spite of much progress, we continue to formulate Palaver....  The recycled post continues below.  What do you think?

Peering Through the Bubble & Climbing the Palaver Tree!

"We don't yet see things clearly. We're squinting in a fog, peering through a mist. But it won't be long before the weather clears and the sun shines bright! We'll see it all then, see it all as clearly as God sees us, knowing him directly just as he knows us! "

1 Corinthians 13:12  Quote from Message Bible

On any given sunny day, all along the African coastline, discussions range from the mundane to the serious, but without fail, the colorful, often loud and lyrical prose of spirited discussion usually includes at least a little of what is known in colloquial terms as "palaver" .  As a child, I was warned not to create "palaver" an admonition which usually occurred when I was about to involve myself in some major mischief.  I always equated palaver with confusion and trouble. However, a recent google search revealed over 813,000 results for this enigma of a word.

One thing is clear, palaver is generated by people. It's an oral tradition which affixes meaning to events sometimes with little relevance to the actual facts at hand.  It is also closely related to tribal wisdom and strives to create sense out of the insensibility and foggy events of everyday realities.

For a couple years, the chieftains of media have pronounced the source of all the mischief in the real estate industry. The palaver was re-packaged in western terminology as the bubble.  The trouble was the bubble...whatever that was....it was growing too big, it was in danger of exploding and creating even more trouble...more palaver. 

It took some doing, as palaver often does;  for palaver usually requires a catalyst or initiator to really get it going.  So as the bubble, which the media chieftains defined as the healthy real estate industry,  grew more rotund it needed more and more hot air to make it grow larger so it would finally do something...like burst!

The Bubble...the Bubble...Brings All Kinds of Trouble

In regions like the Midwest and communties such as Grand Rapids, Michigan, the whirlwind gathered gusto and grew the bubble, such as it was, very large.  The furor was fueled by wars, and rumors of wars, lay-offs and corporate closings and finally the auto makers joined the fray in announcing record losses. 

Just like the childhood story of the big bad wolf that huffed and puffed until the house fell down, the bubble began to wobble and dance and shimmy dangerously...definitely the stuff of palaver.

But is palaver real?  According to wordhut.com, palaver can be described as "

1. (n) loud and confused and empty talk; "mere rhetoric"

2. (n) flattery intended to persuade

3. (v) have a lengthy discussion, usually between people of different backgrounds

4. (v) influence or urge by gentle urging, caressing, or flattering; "He palavered her into going along"

5. (v) speak (about unimportant matters) rapidly and incessantly

As, I reviewed the sales statistics of the last year at the Grand Rapids Real Estate Board, there are mixed results.  The last 2 years have been challenging, but to hear folks talk at the water cooler, this year was definitely worse than last. 

The statistics show something different.  In comparing the last 2 quarters of 2005 with the last 2 quarters of 2006, Kent County had a POSITIVE correlation  in the average price listed to average home sale price.  (2005 - 85.4% to 2006 - 91.3%).  This means that although there were more homes on the market this year, home purchases in the last 2 quarters of 2006 closed for almost 10% more than last year.  This is good news. 

I heard a newscast in December which mentioned a 3.4% increase in sales activity nationwide.  In Ottawa County, the difference was not as dramatic, but it was still there (2005 - 82.6% of List price on average vs. 2006 - 85.3% of list price.) While it's not raining "hallelujah" yet, things could be a whole lot worse!

 A wonderful Mentor has always encouraged me to look for the trends that "whisper" long before the loud broadcast begins.  We are still in the midst of a correction here in Michigan, but not a bubble.  There is nothing to burst, as we have always had a conservative, balanced increase in our market which averaged between 3-5%.  In December of 2006, single family home sales increased from 605 units to 682, a 12.7% improvement over 2005. 

So, in 2007, let's AVOID the palaver, Realtors on the ground, doing transactions daily are not "peering through a glass dimly" or trying to cajole meaning through the warped frame of a bubble.  We can choose to create a solid reality through our diligence and hard work.  I think that when the weather clears, we will all be surprised to see the changes the wind blew in!

 African tradition also incorporates another very different framework for the word palaver.  It is referred to in the context of the Palaver Tree.  In this forum, the very best of indigenous African culture and oral tradition can be experienced.  The Palaver Tree is the African "tribal council", a forum where the issues and problems of the day are discussed with input and wise guidance from village elders who may be men or women.  In this way, problematic issues find resolution after much discussion and debate.  It seems to me, that the Active Rain Network and Realtown Blogs are modern cyber versions of the Palaver Tree!

Here's the link to the original Palaver Tree Post

Copyright 2008  Audu Real Estate  All Rights Reserved

I thought it was going to be a normal listing appointment.  The call came into the office and went something like this: 

"Hello, may I speak with Lola?"

"Yes, this is Lola with Audu Real Estate.  How can I help you?"

"We noticed you had the home down the street listed and wondered if you could come by and let us know what you think about our home?"

Perfunctory comments completed, the appointment was scheduled and subsequently I found myself sitting in their home presenting my Service Proposition.  Except...there was something odd.  The connection or lack of connection indicated that there was something amiss.

When I'd finished, I asked if they had any additional questions or would like to move forward to list their home.  They indicated they would get back to me.  The next day she did.  But it wasn't what I anticipated or expected to hear.  She indicated that prior to contacting me, she had gone by the home we had down the street and had picked up a brochure.  She wondered if I had seen the brochure? 

Our systems tend to be highly automated and finely tuned.  So, although I don't monitor every brochure or marketing piece, once the standard has been set...I have an expectation about what they should look like.  In this particular case, I had not seen the brochure.  When I did, I understood what she told me next. 

The brochure was an amateur version of a black & white cut and paste of an MLS listing...unlike the kind of marketing which ordinarily defined my marketing pieces.  When I questioned my associate, she indicated she had been in a hurry and had just quickly slapped something together. 

Well, it cost me a listing!  Ms. Potential Seller informed me that they were impressed by my presentation and interview.  But she he had called to tell me WHY they were hesitant.  She indicated that after talking to me, she didn't think I knew about the marketing piece that had my company's name on it.  It seemed out of character.

It was a harsh evaluation, but one which I decided to learn from during our frank exchange. I determined to take action.  It was out of this experience that our Audu Real Estate Transaction Evaluation was born.  Every home which is Sold or Purchased through one of our agents is now graded by the Client on a number of different measures of Service. 

Looking back, it was a necessary wake up call for me to clearly understand that what agents and associates do even when you are not looking is incredibly important to the well being of the entire company.  The evaluation served to put our clients in the driver's seat and allowed us to view the results and the process of the transaction through their eyes.

Two Years later...there was another call.  Time had passed.  We had successfully SOLD several homes in this community.  Circumstances had changed for the potential client too.  They had listed with another agent and had not been very satisfied with the service.  She indicated that she had kept that flyer because she appreciated how I responded to the criticism and wanted to give us a Second Chance.

Well, thank God for Second Chances!  Last month we successfully SOLD and CLOSED on their home. The transaction evaluation was completed and sent  back to us BEFORE the closing.  Her score this time...A PERFECT 10! 

Click on this link to see one example of our Marketing on this home and a comment from the seller... 

To learn more about Audu Real Estate and how we can Successfully Market Your Home in a Competitive Market, please contact us at 616-791-0511.

Copyright 2008 Audu Real Estate All Right Reserved

With Spring just itching to bust loose in Grand Rapids, serious and amateur gardeners in Grand Rapids, Michigan will appreciate the opportunity to learn the secrets of gardening for a well known author and garden designer, Rob Proctor when he is the Featured Speaker at the Secchia Garden Lecture.

The event will be held at the Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park on April 15, 2008 at 7:00.  Admission is FREE to members and non-members or FREE to non-members with paid admission the the Meijer Gardens.  Proctor has written 15 books on gardening, including his latest entitled: "Gardening on a Shoestring."

He will be sharing ways to save money by starting plants from seeds or seedlings and giving tips on how to store less hardy plants in harsh winter conditions.  Rob Proctor is known for his ability to create masterpiece gardens which delight you with their artistry and inspired arrangements. You may also enjoy this recent article by Rob Proctor about selecting the right containers for your potted plants.

April Showers bring May Flowers...or so the saying goes.  Don't miss this opportunity to lean how to make your yard "come alive" in a delightful way this spring and summer.

To RSVP call 616-975-3144 or e-mail skilroy@meijergardens.org.