In the past I have been told that any good organization needs to have a motto or vision statement. I honestly had not  given much thought to what my vision statement for Urban Harvest would be until this week.

On a Wednesday night every month, a group of entrepreneurs gather to talk about business and the vision we have for our neighborhood and community. We talk about how we can help one another, and what we want to accomplish for our living area too. It’s a great group that has a good collection of big thinkers and dreamers, as well as a good and vocal minority of concrete thinkers. At this past Wednesday’s meeting, we talked about developing a mission statement for our group. Everyone agreed that it was a great idea, but had no real clue of where to start with the time that we had; so, it was shelved until our next meeting.

All of that got me to thinking about my own company and what I would use as my vision statement. I had read Microsoft’s vision statement several years  ago and it has stuck with me. As far as I know, even years after its inception I think that the company still uses this phrase and it is just as viable today as it was when it was created. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the phrase it is, “A computer in every home.” Clear. Concise. Easy to evaluate and to talk about.

With that in mind, here is my vision statement. **Drum roll please**  “A garden in every yard.” Clear. Concise. Easy to evaluate and talk about.

How great would it be to have your own garden? Gardening is an opportunity to gain some responsibility and control over two of the most important aspects of your life; food and money. In my family’s garden, we have 2 raised beds with 4’x8’ dimensions; we have already had close to 25 salads since we planted this spring. Indulge me as I throw out some monetary figures.

A bag of mixed salad greens from a grocery store will cost you on the average, $5. (Our tomatoes aren’t ready to harvest yet so I can’t include them in this scenario, but when they are I will definitely update these figures.) For 25 salads at $5 per bag, that puts the value up to $125. We spent $10 on the seeds/starter plants for our garden. That’s a difference of $115 that we have “saved” since March on our food budget!

There are other benefits to gardening besides monetary ones too, but given our current economy, I thought that I would speak on this one today. Think about what this could look like for you. How much do you spend on “fresh” produce from the grocery store per week or month? Do you eat 10 salads a month? If so, what could a garden provide for you? Healthy food and a substantial reduction in your overall food cost.

No matter how you look at it, gardening makes sense and that is why there should be a garden in every yard!