The Garden Guy speaks up

Call him Jonn. Or J-Dog. Or the Garden Guy. But whatever you do, don’t call Jonn Karsseboom boring. The maverick owner of The Garden Corner in Tualatin, Ore., has created a devoted Internet following with his winning sense of humor and engaging gardening videos. Whether it’s through the Web or face-to-face encounters, Karsseboom invites all his neighbors to live out their gardening passion.

GARDEN CENTER: Tell us about your tagline: “Live your passion with us.” How did you come up with it?
JONN KARSSEBOOM: It has become a great motto for us in building a substantial Facebook community—and that’s where it really started. We wanted to create a space where gardeners and non-gardeners could come to share and learn as much (or as little) as they needed. However, for our company’s tagline/mission/focus we really wanted something very straightforward and simple, so people could easily see and understand what we really do best.

GC: How do you develop topics for the Garden Corner Show on YouTube?
JK: That’s the easy part. For us, topics don’t have to be earth shattering or need to be the latest, coolest, hottest, smartest, funniest, most entertaining, colorful, most clever topic known thus far in the garden world. It can be a gentle reminder that if your poinsettia starts to look like ‘this’ you may want to do ‘that.’ I have found that sometimes in the gardening realm things aren’t so obvious when you get right down to it. What does “moist to the touch” really mean? Does it mean “Moist, like how your towel feels after you’ve just dried your hair with it?” Or does it mean “Moist, like an un-squeezed wet washcloth?”

GC: What kind of preparation is necessary for the show?
JK: Preparation for a show can be quite different for each episode. Sometimes we can do a few videos on the same subject, but the first video’s prep time took some time to gather the materials, get the equipment, check the sound, lighting, get the folks involved together and so on. Overall, I think the average would be three hours per video. That time includes filming, downloading, editing, writing the description, uploading and posting.

GC: Which episode would you say is your best?
JK: As you can tell, all of my videos are top-rated and tend to be two-thumbs up, riveting, air-gasping funny, edge-of-the-seat thrillers that have a wonderful touch of heartwarming drama. As a bonus, they often leave viewers with feelings of hope, wonder, amazement and well, inspiration.

Here’s the truth in it all: Even now, I’m never unhappy or disappointed to have only 25 views on a video (or when our Facebook fans amounted to 100 or less). My thinking has always been, “What if I had 25 people show up at the store for a three-minute seminar on a Tuesday morning in November?” Would I be disappointed?

GC: Each person in your “crew” has a nickname. Who came up with those?
JK: Our nicknames come from each other. Ryan’s nickname “Sting” came from when he completely wrecked one of our delivery trucks. He managed to hit a lone telephone pole on a straight country road. Turns out he had a bee in the cab of the truck which apparently managed to commandeer the vehicle. Our nicknames, I suppose, are a behind-the-scenes view.

GC: Tell us about your experiences with Facebook.
JK: Facebook—because it’s used by companies in so many varied ways—has become, I think, a wonderful example of the proverbial elephant. One person in an industry is pulling at the tail and describes it as curly like a willow. (See Nordstrom and be surprised.) Another person in a different industry stands near a leg and says it’s like the trunk of a tree. (See Walmart and be even more surprised!) And then there’s a few folks asking questions from behind the elephant like “Does the thing pay?” For us, we understand it as a place where the customer has the ultimate control and can decide if they would like us to be a part of their conversations.

GC: Look out in your plant yard right now. What’s your favorite plant out there?
JK: Winter hanging baskets! Holiday hanging baskets!

GC: How would you describe your customer base?
JK: Our customers like to garden because it’s really fun. They find it ultimately relaxing. They desperately want it to be personally rewarding.

GC: What’s your favorite thing about being in garden retail?
JK: Creating.