I had the opportunity to speak with fellow miniature gardener Kathy from Pennsylvania. Kathy has been a customer of mine forever – literately! She found my first eBay store back in 2003 and has since got hooked on miniature gardening – and the wee conifers too.

Kathy took the time to speak with me about my new You Pick It Miniature Garden Kits yesterday. Here’s a transcript of the fun and informative interview that I would like to share.

“Well hello, Kathy! How’s it growing?”

“Hi Janit, good to talk to you!”

“I noticed that you bought two of the new You Pick It Kits yesterday. I thought you were an old hat at this stuff and wouldn’t need my kits!?”

She laughs, “Ya, I know. But you put it together so nicely, that all I had to do was choose one of each, and I had a complete mini garden. It took no time at all, and everything was there, waiting for me. All the plants were figured out too! And then it was so fun, that I did it again.”

So, let me ask this, since you’re a seasoned mini gardener. Are you going to make two miniature gardens out of these, or “kit-bash” them, so to speak?

[Kit bashing means that you buy a kit for the contents to be used in another project, not to put the kit together as it was originally meant to.]

“Ha! You caught me, Janit! One is for gift that I want to make for friend that keeps complaining that she doesn’t have a garden because she lives in a condo. The other kit, ya, I’m going to break it up and use the accessories for one mini garden and the plants for my big fairy garden I planted out back. It was such a good deal with including the shipping in the price too, Janit.”

“What did you like most about the You Pick It Mini Garden Kit?”

“I liked how all the plants were figured out for me. I put the “sun tree” with the “sun ground cover” like you always say to do. And there were a couple of choices too – so I could really make it my own thing. You’ve really got something here, Janit, a child could order this, it’s so easy!”

“And what do you do with all your miniature gardens that you make?”

“I give them as gifts to people. I make small ones, like one of your blogs said, to make small ones as hostess gifts – they are always surprised too. And, I make some for my church auction sale every spring and fall. They always do well and now that they know me, and my work, the bidding keeps going up year, after year! I just have to laugh. Oh, and I have a bunch around my deck here too. I like to watch them age and grow in. Some I’ve had since finding you, what, six years ago now?”

“Yes, it was. We had our fifth birthday last November."

“Oh that’s right, that was fun! You know, my husband is now thinking of a railroad garden now – I told him to stop eyeballing my mini conifers and get his own!”

“Ha, it sounds like you guys are having way too much fun! So, one last quick question, what is your most favorite conifer?”

“You know that Jean Iseli Dwarf Hinoki Cypress is just a crowd pleaser! I’ve had it for years and when I got it, it was a little ball. Now, my husband calls it the big little tree! It has a little trunk on it and the branches go out like a real tree. It’s maybe eight inches tall now.”

“Aren’t they just fun to grow?”

“The whole idea is fun to grow, Janit!”

… spoken like a true miniature gardener…