[00:00:00] Deanna Kitchen: Every year you're giving 2 - 3000 gifts in your local community. That's absolutely incredible. Can you just imagine how many people are touched and impacted by that kindness?
[00:00:12] Maggie Hartman: This woman was like, you gave me gifts one of your first years, and it means so much to me and like I still think about that and I try to give back.
[00:00:19] Maggie Hartman: Just having that someone caring about me enough to like gimme Christmas is like. With moving to her. She was crying. I was crying. We're all
[00:00:27] Deanna Kitchen: crying now, but truly her saying that you saw me when I was unseen and you helped me when I needed help, as you found that we carry those moments in our hearts forever.
[00:00:39] Maggie Hartman: You don't have to have acres and acres of garden space. You don't have to grow all the beans and flowers. Just do what you can with what you have, and you can do good that way.
[00:00:49] Deanna Kitchen: Hey, friend. Welcome to the Growing Kindness Podcast. I'm your host, Deanna Kitchen, founder of the Growing Kindness Movement. This is a place where we grow together learning to root our lives in kindness, connection, and community.
[00:01:01] Deanna Kitchen: If you've ever wished the world felt a little softer, a little more neighborly, or if you're craving stories that remind you that goodness still grows. You're in the right place. Together with our guests, we'll share stories of generosity and community. Prove that even the smallest acts of kindness from growing and giving kept flowers to everyday acts of care can change lives and connect us in powerful ways.
[00:01:23] Deanna Kitchen: I'm so glad you're here. Let's get started. It is an absolute delight to get to introduce you to our guest today. Maggie Hartman. I have been following along with Maggie's story for the last. Six years and absolutely inspired by her. She is just an incredible young woman, and I am. Just, I can't wait for you to get to hear her story.
[00:01:49] Deanna Kitchen: I know. It'll inspire you the way that has inspired me. Me welcome. Thank you so much for being here.
[00:01:54] Maggie Hartman: Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.
[00:01:56] Deanna Kitchen: So me, we would love to hear a little bit more about you. Can you introduce yourself and share a little bit more about who you are and the corner of the world that you call home?
[00:02:05] Maggie Hartman: Yeah. Hi, I'm Maggie. I am from kind of West Michigan, the Grand Rapids, Holland area, and I own Nike's Flowers. Which we'll get to talk about a little bit more. I am 20 years old. I'll be 21 in January, so it's getting pretty close. And I am in my senior year of college at Hope Village.
[00:02:28] Deanna Kitchen: Excellent. And we were just talking earlier, you're majoring in education, right?
[00:02:31] Maggie Hartman: Yes. Secondary education. Social studies.
[00:02:35] Deanna Kitchen: Amazing. Amazing. Well, me, your story starts with this seed that was planted years and years ago. Can you take us all the way back to the beginning and share how your story, the way that you are just impacting your community with such kindness, how that began?
[00:02:54] Maggie Hartman: Yeah, totally.
[00:02:55] Maggie Hartman: So it starts back when I was five and my family was going on a family vacation to the outer banks in North Carolina. And my grandpa was gonna go hang gliding and I decided that I was also gonna go hang gliding 'cause who wouldn't? But it was a hundred dollars to go and my parents didn't necessarily have that money just for me to do something on a family vacation.
[00:03:18] Maggie Hartman: So we kind of brainstormed like, how could I maybe raise a little bit of money? And I always liked getting flowers, um, at the, you know, farmers market when I went with my grandma and. So that seemed like a good place to start. I'm not really a lemonade person. I'm not really a bake so person, so Flo seemed good.
[00:03:35] Maggie Hartman: So my grandpa made me a stand. I just, you know, got a little package of Xenias from the grocery store and just sold little bouquets for $1. 'cause at five, that was a lot of money. And that year I ended up making $200. So my dad had to go with me. And when we went hang, it was a bunch of fun. And I really, really liked growing the flowers and making bouquets.
[00:03:57] Maggie Hartman: So the next year I was like mom and dad, like I really wanna do the flowers again. And we didn't necessarily have a need for like to fundraise for anything specifically. So we started to brainstorm. And my parents have always said like there was always going to be people in the world who have more than us and any way she or form, but there's also always gonna be people who have less than us, and that's what we need to focus on.
[00:04:19] Maggie Hartman: So. That was the idea. And at six then I couldn't necessarily fathom the fact that people didn't have a house or went without food. That was just like so beyond my 6-year-old brain. But the fact that like some kids might not have Christmas presents was kind of half of the list. So that's what we decided to do.
[00:04:37] Maggie Hartman: And that year we bought 35 gifts for a family, and I really love that. And we've just kind of been doing that ever since. So this is my 15th year of doing Maggie's Flowers and it's just grown from there.
[00:04:51] Deanna Kitchen: Maggie 15. There's so many things to pause and acknowledge in this. I mean, I have tears in my eyes hearing this because just to what a gift that your parents gave you to seed such a beautiful thought so early on that there's always something we can do for another.
[00:05:09] Deanna Kitchen: But also to give you the tools to be able to do it, and then for you to have such a big heart and find something that resonated with you and be able to give in that way. But 15 years. Okay. We definitely need to hear more about this journey. So at your first year when you started out, you were able to fundraise and it sounds like you gave gifts to one family that first year.
[00:05:33] Deanna Kitchen: So 35 gifts to family. I cannot imagine. How pivotal it was for that family and how much it impacted them. And then from there you've continued, I know from following along on social media that you give far, far more than 35 gifts a year. Can you share a little bit more about. How this has grown and evolved over the years for you.
[00:06:00] Deanna Kitchen: So you started with a single flower stand fundraising with that, and then started with supporting one family with Christmas gifts. Can you share a little bit more about how this has kind of evolved over the years? Because I know that it is far and away bigger than 35 gifts.
[00:06:14] Maggie Hartman: It definitely is. So, 14, 15 years later, I instead of one stand now, I have five different stands scattered around my local area.
[00:06:23] Maggie Hartman: Now I do weddings and events and markets, and pretty much anything that needs flowers, I'll do it, which is fun. So that's the business side. And then with gifts, I give away gifts to a bunch of different organizations. So each year I'll give away between two and 3000 gifts. So I to just pause for a moment
[00:06:44] Deanna Kitchen: and acknowledge, every year you're gifting two to 3000 gifts in your community, in your local community.
[00:06:52] Deanna Kitchen: Yes, that's absolutely incredible. Can you just imagine how many people are touched and impacted by that kindness? So tell us more about the process of this to be able to sustain this. This is no small thing.
[00:07:06] Maggie Hartman: No, it's pretty crazy. On the gift side, I give to like a variety of different organizations. So I have actually, it's coming up in a couple weeks, which is crazy.
[00:07:16] Maggie Hartman: I do a big gift event where parents can come. And pick out gifts for their kids so they can pick out three gifts for each of their kids. And we have some lovely volunteer wrappers who will like wrap all their gifts up, put little tags on them, and we have them take them home in big, like black, like industrial garbage bags.
[00:07:32] Maggie Hartman: So like they're black, they're not SeeThrough, no one can see what's inside, that type of thing. So kids won't know. But then they're all set. It's wrapped. They don't have to worry about buying wrapping paper or figuring anything out. Everything is all set. And so that's open to everyone. So I went to everyone in the school district that I.
[00:07:49] Maggie Hartman: I graduated from, I guess now I say, I used to say it was my school district. It's not anymore crazy, but everyone from that district parents can come and get gifts. I also partner with a couple different local organizations, food pantries and different things, and they send their clients over and then we usually just put it out on like the local informed page.
[00:08:07] Maggie Hartman: So if anyone needs gifts, they can come on out and we'll be happy to have 'em, which is great. Then I partner with another local ministry who works with homeless individuals in the area. And so I pick out gifts for all of those kiddos, which is a lot a lot of the time, but it's really, really good and I'm happy that they are able to get things for Christmas.
[00:08:27] Maggie Hartman: We usually keep some of our bigger gifts for that group. I'm always like very particular about what gifts I get, and same thing with that. You just have to think like, I try not to get, give gifts that need batteries, that type of thing. Or gifts that you would need certain things for. I'm just very particular with selecting those gifts, but.
[00:08:44] Maggie Hartman: That one's one of my favorite ones to do. And then I give gifts to a local nursing home. So there'll be like 60 to 70 residents and I'll in the next couple weeks get a list of what kind of sweaters and candies and devotionals and lotions and bird seed that they would like. And so we go Black Friday shopping and get some good deals on gifts for them and wrap them and deliver those.
[00:09:11] Maggie Hartman: And I usually get to go to their holiday party. Watch them all open it, which is really, really special. That one's really special. It's like really great tradition that I have. Like we just go and I can see like I'm glad, like this is the person who I bought that particular sweater for. You know, like I'm just scrolling through Kohls and seeing like, oh, this is such a pretty sweater.
[00:09:31] Maggie Hartman: She's gonna love it. And then to be able to see like she actually did some, it is like so touching. And then another thing that I really love to do, I bring a bunch of gifts to a local alternative school. All of those kids can pick up gifts for their entire family from them, which is also super fun. I get to help them wrap, they all wrap their own gifts, so I get to teach them to wrap gifts and they just have like ownership and the ability to like, I bought this for my siblings, my parents, like that type of thing.
[00:09:59] Maggie Hartman: And so that's always super duper fun. I always do that The last week of school. They're so excited. I'm so excited. It's fantastic.
[00:10:07] Deanna Kitchen: Maggie. The ripples of kindness that are flowing out through this are just, they're absolutely endless. I would love to hear more, I mean, you've been doing this for 15 years and I imagine there are some moments of interaction like you, like you just shared, especially, particularly getting to share with long-term care residents.
[00:10:26] Deanna Kitchen: What are some of the moments that really stay with you of interactions you've either got to witness. Or responses that you've heard from the people who've had the opportunity to receive one of the gifts that you purchased?
[00:10:39] Maggie Hartman: Yeah, totally. Like I said, the nursing home was so fun 'cause they're just so excited.
[00:10:44] Maggie Hartman: There was one year I got a request for a baby doll and I was like, not entirely sure. Like, okay, I'll get you, I'll get you the best a doll. I could possibly get, but I was just like, not quite, that's not usually on the list. And so I got to go and I gotta watch her open it and she was just like holding it and touching it and rocking it.
[00:11:03] Maggie Hartman: And she was just having like the best time and it was so special. Like she was just so excited. And it was amazing to like get to hug some of the parents who were like not sure that they were gonna able to get Christmas and now they found exactly what their kid asked for. Something that we really try to do, we try to buy all of our gifts on like 50 to 90% off so we can get the same like Barbies and Hot Wheels like name brand stuff for these families.
[00:11:32] Maggie Hartman: So like the kids are gonna go to school and say like, I got that exact same Barbie too, or I also got that monster truck. You know, they can go and get the exact same thing as their peers. So some parents when they go and they're like, this is like, my kid got the magazine and circled this exact thing and now I.
[00:11:48] Maggie Hartman: That's really special. Last year or the year before, I brought all of our gifts to the ministry that works with homeless individuals and I, so I just bring bags and bags. We had to take like three loads of gifts there, but there was a woman sitting in the lobby and I've didn't thinking have it. We were just falling bags in and she like, I, I was like, all right, like, all set, good to go.
[00:12:12] Maggie Hartman: And the pastor who runs ministry, he was like, I want you to meet somebody. And it's really like a lot. But this woman was like, you gave me gifts, like one of your first years of giving gifts. And it means so much to me. And like I still think about that and I try to give back. Like just having that, like someone caring about me enough to like gimme Christmas is like with moving to her and like she was crying.
[00:12:35] Maggie Hartman: I was crying clearly, but. I just think about that song. We're all crying right now,
[00:12:40] Deanna Kitchen: but, but truly like what? You know, her saying that like, you saw me when I was unseen and you helped me when I needed help. Like that is, it's a gift that people hold as you've found that we carry those moments in our hearts forever and it's so beautiful that it can be, you know, something so small as a kind word or something, you know, is so impactful as a Christmas gift when you thought there would be nothing.
[00:13:06] Maggie Hartman: I sometimes, like as I've gotten older, I've had kind of a hard time, like there's so many problems in like, I feel like sometimes Christmas gifts, like that's what you decided to like try to help. People are living in poverty, in homelessness, in like don't know where their next meal is coming from. Like why couldn't I pick something is like a need or a necessity.
[00:13:27] Maggie Hartman: But when I think about it, like sometimes like something special for you. Can make a difference even outside of like having your basic meats moved.
[00:13:36] Deanna Kitchen: Absolutely, absolutely. I think really that's kinda the premise, like in Giving Flowers is that flowers, they're not a necessity. You know, we can live without them, and yet there's something that happens when somebody's given something that is beautiful or special or personal, that's just for them, and it's just because we want them.
[00:13:57] Deanna Kitchen: To get to enjoy either that beauty or that thoughtfulness. I mean, clearly you put so much thoughtfulness into the gifts that you select for the recipients and to know that somebody wanted you to get to have that same experience, that same moment, you know, I think the power of. Receiving a gift is knowing that someone thought of you and planned something for you and took effort and attention, you know, to make sure that there would be something for you that was special to you.
[00:14:28] Deanna Kitchen: And obviously you are putting so much thought and care and attention into what you're selecting for these people so that they know that they are seen and remembered and they deserve the beauty of the holidays as well. And it's just. It's absolutely incredible and I just, I think that probably all of us listening, you know, to your story are just so inspired by the work that you're doing and the fact that you've chosen something where you see such a huge impact and just given all that you can to it.
[00:15:02] Deanna Kitchen: So speaking of giving all that you can to this me, this is no small undertaking. Can you share a little bit more about. The process, you know, throughout the year of the work that you do to be able to be ready at the holiday season with these thousands of gifts to give.
[00:15:21] Maggie Hartman: Absolutely. I was actually in a meeting with a professor this morning and she was like, please tell me things have calmed down with flowers with you.
[00:15:28] Maggie Hartman: I'm like, flowers said yes, but gifts are starting up. And she was like, you know, but it's true. Like it's kind of a year-round situation. I at this point do flowers pretty much constantly. It definitely is more heavy between like Mother's Day in the end of September. That's like my main flower season. But I do flowers for the local Chick-fil-A, so that's year round.
[00:15:53] Maggie Hartman: I do special orders wedding sometimes thing, all year round, so that's happening. Same thing with buying gifts. So like I said, I try to buy all of my gifts on a really good sale on clearance and so. The money can spread a little bit farther, but we are out like two days after Christmas stopping 'cause there's always really good deals.
[00:16:13] Maggie Hartman: So literally like a couple days after Christmas, we'll be out hitting the stores, seeing what good deals we can find looking online. January we found is a really big month for big clearance sales. Same thing with July. That one's pretty towards the end of July. You can get some pretty good deals. So pretty much year round, we're at the store two to three times a week, just checking in on our friends.
[00:16:36] Maggie Hartman: And at this point we've gotten to be pretty good at knowing if things are gonna go on more of a sale or when they might go on a sale. So we'll be going down the aisle, we'll be like, we'll buy you at $7, but not while you're 10, which is so much funny. But it's pretty much constantly, and I've kind of taken over various parts of our house.
[00:16:55] Maggie Hartman: The basement is all practically mine. So all year we actually just this. Winter we, it was supposed to be an office. It's not an office, it's just Maggie's gift storage. So we took all the office stuff out and just built like so many shelves so we can store things, which is helpful, but it's just much crazy all year.
[00:17:15] Deanna Kitchen: That is absolutely incredible. Like you are investing so much time and energy and effort ensuring that. The people in your community know that they're seen and cared for and it's absolutely inspiring me. When you say we, is that you and your parents who's a part of the WE team with you?
[00:17:33] Maggie Hartman: Yeah. It's me and my family.
[00:17:35] Maggie Hartman: So I, I'm on my dad. My brother is a huge help. He is a year younger than me, but he. Much taller than me. So he is our muscle. He does the heavy lifting, he does do the heavy lifting. He has, he is a plumber apprentice right now. So he has all the tools and all the things like, here it, I could really use like this, this, and this had my stand.
[00:17:55] Maggie Hartman: And he is like, okay, he'll do it and just does it. He's fantastic. He'll help me out in the garden. He is really a workhorse. I could not do it without him. And my grandma is amazing too. She helps me out. He's great at rapping. She loves doing the nursing home. Her and her cousin make a day of it and they wrap nursing home gifts together and it's just really special.
[00:18:14] Maggie Hartman: But she's amazing. She kind of gave me my love of flowers, so. She's always like, flowers, wish are you gonna plant this year? Like that type of thing. So she's fantastic too. But yeah, my family, I could not do without them. They're amazing.
[00:18:26] Deanna Kitchen: Maggie, this is I've, I honestly, I have no words. It is absolutely incredible and I think every parent listening is probably so inspired to just consider the ways that we can plant.
[00:18:40] Deanna Kitchen: Seeds or encourage the seeds in our children that they're wanting to grow in outreach and serving others and spreading kindness and hope and joy the way that you've been. I know it's your story, so it it probably like you. I just, do you know how incredible this story is like. Do you know how incredible the work that you're doing is like you are doing this.
[00:19:03] Deanna Kitchen: It's absolutely inspiring, Maggie. So what do you think is the biggest thing that you have learned through this experience and how has it shaped who you are today?
[00:19:15] Maggie Hartman: That is a big question. I think that just kind of saying yes, I kind of joke that my parents never told me no growing up and this is the result of that.
[00:19:25] Maggie Hartman: But if you feel led to grow flowers. Or help out a neighbor or do like literally do anything, like do it say yes. And that's kind of what I've learned. It's like, okay, if I'm, I'm feeling a nudge to go do something, then I should do that. And I've learned to be more like receptive and like, okay, I think that's what I need to do.
[00:19:45] Maggie Hartman: Which has definitely grown. But pretty much, yeah, just like knowing what you feel like you should be doing and going, working towards that in any. Way, shape, or form. Shape. I feel that way with like even I felt the nudge to go into education. That was not, everyone kind of expected me to like start doing Maggie's flowers full time and that being my career and then all of a sudden I was like, Nope, I'm gonna be a teacher.
[00:20:09] Maggie Hartman: And that's really like been a crazy wild ride too. So. Just taking everything life throws at you and going with it, I guess
[00:20:18] Deanna Kitchen: that's beautiful. Just say yes. Just say yes. One of the things that I'm really wondering is what have you received? You have given so much. And yet I can see by the smile on your face and the just light in your life, like you have received so much through this experience too.
[00:20:36] Deanna Kitchen: Can you share a little bit more about what this has been for you?
[00:20:41] Maggie Hartman: Yeah. I think when you do something for someone else without, like the entire definition of service is doing something for someone else. Without an expectation of anything else in return. And I think that in doing that, you do receive so much just like, oh, like I can make a difference and people can be impacted.
[00:21:01] Maggie Hartman: And in doing that, like people are so generous, you get to see like the beauty of humanity. And so often we get to see like just awful things like watching news and just thinking about things. But like anytime that I have posted something isn't working right for. Business, like my floral cooler went out and quit working.
[00:21:22] Maggie Hartman: So floral coolers are expensive. Like it just wasn't gonna be an option. My friend's dad was like, oh, like we can take care of that and scrap it for you. I'm like, totally, thanks. We weren't gonna be able to fit that in our car, whatever. But he took it back to his work and his entire work, like came together and fixed it.
[00:21:40] Maggie Hartman: Oh man, and so he delivered it back like just crazy things that you just don't get to experience that type of like community and togetherness and like beauty of everyone taking their gifts and talents and working towards like a goal of helping other people. Until you kind of have this experience, like I've been like, shoot, I'm like $300 short of my goal and someone will send me a check for $300.
[00:22:03] Maggie Hartman: Anytime that like as Maggie's Flowers we've said like, Hey. X, Y, Z is needed. Like we need volunteers, we need like people are just like always willing to help. And that's not necessarily like the narrative that you always hear, so it's really, really to get to like experience.
[00:22:17] Deanna Kitchen: Absolutely. And all it takes though, it does take someone putting out the ask.
[00:22:22] Deanna Kitchen: And when you ask, I've heard before, when you're willing to ask, it allows people an opportunity to serve. So not only are you serving others and spreading so much kindness directly from your efforts, you are creating opportunity for others to come in and be part of that alongside of you. And that is such a beautiful thing also.
[00:22:42] Maggie Hartman: That's definitely something we've had to learn. Me and my mom both are very like, we got it. We can handle it. Don't ask for help type of people. As it's grown, we've meant to ask for help, and that's been a little bit difficult sometimes, like letting people like see kind of the messy side of what we do.
[00:23:00] Maggie Hartman: Mm-hmm. But it like, like letting people come and weed our garden. We're like, we're so sorry. It's a mess. And they're like, literally we came to fix the mess. Like. Don't weed the garden for us to come weed. Like it doesn't make sense, but that's just like natural, I feel like. But being able to like let that go and like allow people to help because yeah, like it, it means something to them to be able to help too.
[00:23:20] Maggie Hartman: So that's definitely also something we've had to learn.
[00:23:23] Deanna Kitchen: That's absolutely incredible. You have so many golden, uh, you're just wise beyond your years, like truly I do have to ask like, are your par, your parents must be very service. Minded in your community and very, they're obviously very thoughtful parents to have influenced, you know, at a young age to help you kind of see other people's needs and consider, has that been a big part of helping you and find this path that you're on?
[00:23:50] Maggie Hartman: Absolutely. I don't know that I would've, especially at such a young age, like developmentally, you're not thinking about other people necessarily at five or six, you know? But they are very like. Like you can't help people. My mom growing up always like made meals for people all the time. She hates cooking.
[00:24:09] Maggie Hartman: She'd always make meals for people. Like my dad is always so willing to go and like help out if someone needs it, and I just kind of grew up with that. So it wasn't a crazy idea. But the more that I've gotten older, the more that I realize what a gift. That is
[00:24:25] Deanna Kitchen: truly, I mean, I just, I wanna interview your parents now.
[00:24:28] Deanna Kitchen: They sound absolutely incredible. I mean, as a parent of. Younger children myself, you know, you're constantly thinking about what are the ways that I can plant seeds to help my children have the eyes to see others, and the confidence to know they can do something to help others. And your parents have clearly helped set you on a path that you now is your path and your journey, but helped you, you know, take those first steps in that.
[00:24:54] Deanna Kitchen: And it's, it's so encouraging as a parent myself, listening and yeah, your parents are clearly incredible, incredible humans. I feel the same way as you though. I feel like the world is really heavy and it's really hard and it can feel like the little bit that we can do feels like it's not enough. And so it's really inspiring and encouraging and helpful to hear a story of someone who's taking, you know, what she can do in doing a lot with it.
[00:25:23] Deanna Kitchen: And obviously like you shared, that didn't start out, you weren't sharing thousands of gifts those first years. It would've been. Overwhelming and probably impossible to start at that level. But you know, over time you've grown to hear where you are by just continuing to do the little bit that you could each year.
[00:25:39] Deanna Kitchen: And those little bits have grown into, you know, significant impacts in your community. So this is just such a beautiful story of the way that something so small and simple, it just learning to grow flowers and use them to raise funds has grown into something really, really incredible. And how flowers have.
[00:25:57] Deanna Kitchen: Continued to be the catalyst that has helped you be able to reach out in your community in such a huge way. I would love to know from the gardener side of things if someone was listening and. Inspired to either start growing flowers, to use them to do something like you're doing to impact their community, or if they're inspired to maybe start growing flowers, you know, to gift them to others as acts of kindness, just the flowers themselves.
[00:26:26] Deanna Kitchen: What would be your practical advice? It sounds like you have over 15 years experience as a flower gardener. If someone was listening today and was new to gardening. What would be one piece of advice that you would want to give them?
[00:26:43] Maggie Hartman: Something that I have learned also is you're gonna go onto Instagram, you're gonna look up people who grow flowers, and you're gonna see bouquets with these like masterful, gorgeous bouquets with so many different flowers and that thing, don't feel like you have to do that.
[00:26:57] Maggie Hartman: Especially starting out, I would say like get some good hearty, like xenias are always like. A tried and true favorite for me. They're so hearty. They're easy. You sprinkle 'em down, maybe give 'em some water occasionally and they'll grow. And they're colorful and they're beautiful. Cosmos are beautiful. So like don't feel like you have to go out right away and make these crazy bouquets with s and Lizzie Anthes and all these crazy flowers.
[00:27:23] Maggie Hartman: They're gorgeous. Definitely go with that. But if don't let, not being able to make bouquets like that be kind of a block and like, oh, I can't do that, so I shouldn't do anything. Like flowers are inherently beautiful. You can't make flowers ugly. Like it's true. Just go get a pack of seats, sprinkle 'em down.
[00:27:42] Maggie Hartman: And do good with it. There isn't really an excuse. You can just like, even if you live in an apartment, have some pots with a few flowers in it on your porch or in a window sill. You don't have to have acres and acres of garden space. You don't have to grow all the fancy flowers. Just do what you can with what you have, and you can do good that way.
[00:28:01] Deanna Kitchen: That is excellent encouragement. I could not agree anymore. I think so often we. Tend to create our own barriers by overcomplicating things. And a lot of times that over complication comes from comparison and looking around and thinking, know I've got to do this, like other people are doing it or it's got to be more, rather than just trusting that if I just start with what I have, that will be enough.
[00:28:24] Deanna Kitchen: And I think your story is such a beautiful picture of that. When we start with what we have it, it is always more than enough. So as a gardener, an experienced gardener in my life, I think you've gardened more years or as many years as I have at this point in your life, Maggie, you know, you, you really are an experienced gardener.
[00:28:41] Deanna Kitchen: What would you say that growing a garden has taught you about patience, renewal, or hope?
[00:28:49] Maggie Hartman: Yeah, I think patience. Obviously, I'm not a patient person, so I've had to learn, like I'll go through the catalog. I buy all the fancy seeds that I like. I have to like, go through all the process of like planting them and starting them and singing to them and watering them and making sure that they grow.
[00:29:07] Maggie Hartman: You know, like, all right, come on guys, let's pull it together and start to grow. But being able to like wait and see that come to fruition is really cool every year and like, it's gotten easier every year because I, I know that like it will be worth it in the end, but having to slow down and be patient and like do a lot of work ahead of.
[00:29:27] Maggie Hartman: Able to able anything come of it was also really tricky. But also like even in 15 years of gardening, it's not easy. I will have great success with a flower one year and then totally not throw anything the next year for who knows why. This year was really tough, like weather wise. We were in such a drought over here that mm-hmm.
[00:29:49] Maggie Hartman: My garden sucked. Like,
[00:29:50] Deanna Kitchen: to be
[00:29:51] Maggie Hartman: honest, it was not
[00:29:52] Deanna Kitchen: good. I think it's real though, to name that, that some years it doesn't. No matter how much experience we have or how many times we've grown that same pack of seeds, it just flopped that year.
[00:30:03] Maggie Hartman: Yeah. It just didn't work. Like half my garden just came up, had little sprouts, and then just died off because it was too hot and too dry.
[00:30:11] Maggie Hartman: Even though we had watered it, I was pretty ticked, pretty upset. Yeah. Like I, I really was excited about that, but I think on the hope side, next year's a new year, and I will have a beautiful garden next year. Mm-hmm. And like, even though it didn't work out this time, like. I had a beautiful garden last year.
[00:30:27] Maggie Hartman: A bunch of things came up. It was gorgeous this year. It didn't work out, but like I have hope for next year that it will be better. And I'm gonna, I'm gonna do a couple things to make it a little better, because you can always speak and change and update. I'm gonna use new fertilizer. Super fancy, that type of thing.
[00:30:42] Maggie Hartman: So there's always hope that like even if it doesn't work out right away,
[00:30:45] Deanna Kitchen: it'll soon. Beautiful. It's a beautiful life lesson. I think the garden teaches us so many big things. It's just a beautiful parallel for our own experiences in life that even if it isn't working out right now, it will someday. So Maggie, when you mentioned that your garden really struggled last year, what happens for you as you're selling flowers, you know, to raise these funds for the gifts when you have a year?
[00:31:10] Deanna Kitchen: When the garden is really struggling, what does that look like and how does that impact you?
[00:31:13] Maggie Hartman: It was a lot, um, really pretty frustrating. Again, going back to kindness like 10 years ago now, one of the local big pine flower growers in the area donated a whole bunch of perennials to me. Now it's been few years, so they're pretty well established.
[00:31:29] Maggie Hartman: So I'm really thankful that I had that great base that like, even though like even they kind of struggled, but I at least had some blooms to go off of from those plants. But my annuals, my, any flower that I grew by from seed, just really half of them came up, to be honest. It was really tough and that really like impacts how many flowers I can grow.
[00:31:49] Maggie Hartman: And even though flowers were really not great this year, I had probably one of the best selling summers in years. It was really crazy. So trying to pump those out, it made me like really nervous. 'cause I wasn't sure if I was gonna have enough flowers to, to demand. But wouldn't, you know literally every single weekend when I had to like make all the stand bouquets and make flowers for the subscriptions that I do?
[00:32:13] Maggie Hartman: I did not ever have an extra Xenia, but I never was short flowers. There was exactly what was needed. Absolutely. And so just trusting I think is important.
[00:32:24] Deanna Kitchen: Mm-hmm. So, as people are listening to your story, Maggie, I know that they're like me going to want to continue following along and continue being inspired.
[00:32:36] Deanna Kitchen: And also as we head into the holiday season. Get to follow along with you behind the scenes. Like I mentioned earlier, it's just been such a joy for me to get to pop in and see, you know, the gifts that you're finding on clearance and the community members that you're rallying or together to help you with these really big gives.
[00:32:56] Deanna Kitchen: Where can people find you to continue following along with your story?
[00:33:01] Maggie Hartman: Yeah, totally. I have a Facebook and I have an Instagram. Both are Maggie Flowers. Super simple. And yeah, we try to update pretty regularly, especially now going into gift season. We'll share the gift events that we have, what we're working on, and then it'll be a little quieter in January and February, but then we'll start posting about starting up the flower season again.
[00:33:19] Maggie Hartman: And it's always fun to see like, okay, now we're posting a whole bunch about. Flowers and now it's get to, now it's flowers. Like kind of have that cycle.
[00:33:27] Deanna Kitchen: Yeah, absolutely. So we will link that in the show notes so that anybody who wants to follow along, and I'm sure everyone will wanna follow along after hearing your incredible story can do.
[00:33:38] Deanna Kitchen: So I think another question that probably many people are wondering at this point in time too, is how can we support you in this beautiful work that you're doing?
[00:33:48] Maggie Hartman: Yeah. So I always take donations. Of gifts of wrapping paper, of just like financial donations too are always helpful. That's like the easiest way.
[00:34:00] Maggie Hartman: I know a lot of like different groups locally, like come and volunteer their time to help organize and wrap or weed the garden, and that's always really sweet. But even just like. Follow and sending encouragement sometimes, and especially like up ahead, like giving away gifts. And then I'll have exams at the same time and just kind of gets really busy and I get kind of like stressed, but then reading someone saying like, this is awesome or like something like that, like really does make a difference.
[00:34:29] Maggie Hartman: So even just a simple like word of encouragement is always so needed and so. I'm always so thankful for it.
[00:34:37] Deanna Kitchen: Well, I can only imagine the exhaustion that probably comes as you head into later December. So we will certainly be your cheerleaders with pompoms up and ready to cheer you on through that because the work that you're doing is truly making a difference in so many people's lives and.
[00:34:56] Deanna Kitchen: It inspires us all to consider ways that we can use what we have to have an impact in our community. So Maggie, this has been an absolute delight to get to hear more about your journey and the path that has led you to where you are today. I would love. To hear what's ahead, what's next for you Aside from, you've got, you've got a really big year coming up with graduating from college and well, it sounds like you'll be starting with student teaching and then graduating from college, and then what do you see ahead for you in terms of make use flowers in, in terms of the gifting that you're doing in your community?
[00:35:36] Maggie Hartman: Especially like as I'm getting to with college and starting my like full-time teaching career in the fall, like a lot of people are like, is this year that you're done? You don't know Maggie's flowers now? I don't think so. I am just planning to continue to grow it. As a teacher, you don't necessarily work during the summer as much, so then I'll have more opportunity to do flowers.
[00:35:57] Maggie Hartman: And at this point, I barely lived life without doing Maggie's Flowers would spend the vast majority of my life. So I don't know that I could really imagine my life without it. So I don't know how much busier it makes me necessarily 'cause it just is. But my goal for every year is just to grow, do more flowers, raise more money, and eventually just give more gifts.
[00:36:17] Maggie Hartman: There's always a need. Once there's not a need I'm through. I would love for there to not ever be a need for me to move on to something else, but I know that just kind of isn't necessarily the case. So being able to reach more people and have more kiddos have a really good Christmas is always the goal.
[00:36:35] Deanna Kitchen: We are cheering for you all the way, Maggie. It's incredible to get to hear. What you're doing and we are cheering for you in all the next steps. I think you are such a beacon of hope and encouragement and a reminder to us all that truly, when we use what we have to share with others, the joy is just multiplies exponentially and our ability to help others just multiplies exponentially.
[00:37:04] Deanna Kitchen: So thank you for being that in the world and for sharing. Your story here with us today. So as we close out our interview today, I think that you have shown us over and over that there is no such thing as a small act of kindness and as a reminder to us all, one thing that I love to do is just ask everybody as we're closing our interview, one question, and that is, what's a small act of kindness that someone has once done for you that you still.
[00:37:37] Deanna Kitchen: Carrie with you in your heart today.
[00:37:39] Maggie Hartman: This is such like a really small one and it's just like in the front of my brain and like people are so kind. So there's like been so many acts of kindness that I could choose. This is just like the most recent, but I recently went gluten-free, which is not my favorite thing, but here we are.
[00:37:57] Maggie Hartman: It's a big change. It's a big life change. It's a big change and it's not. I'm not loving it. I really like bread. Mm-hmm. And one of my friends from school was doing a bake sale and she made cupcakes and she saved one for me and it was like gluten-free vanilla cupcake and she saved it for me and it was delicious and it made my day.
[00:38:14] Maggie Hartman: I had had a really hard week and it was so sweet and it just like made such an impact. And it seems so small compared to other things, but it really just made my week. And so, I mean, that is kind of the epi of just this really small act of kindness that made the day
[00:38:28] Deanna Kitchen: it is. And you're carrying it with you still because she saw you.
[00:38:31] Deanna Kitchen: Yes. And she remembered and she considered what you needed and took that step. And maybe it was a small thing for her to set aside a cupcake, but it made a big difference. And I think it's just a beautiful reminder to us all that we never know what we can say or do today. It may seem like the smallest thing, but it will stay with somebody.
[00:38:52] Deanna Kitchen: It has the potential to stay with somebody and continue brightening their day and warming their heart far, far after that small interaction, whatever it is. So thank you for that beautiful reminder and. Thank you so much for being here with us today. Me, it is truly an honor to get to hear your story, and I know that so many of us are cheering for you and just wanna support you in the beautiful work that you're doing in your community.
[00:39:21] Deanna Kitchen: So sweet. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. This is so much fun. Thank you so much for listening to the Growing Kindness Podcast. It means the world that you take the time to be here every time you show up, every time you listen in. Community grows. If today's episode encouraged you, there are a few simple ways to keep growing kindness with us.
[00:39:39] Deanna Kitchen: First, you can join the team. When you become a growing kindness gardener, you link arms with like-minded like-hearted people from all around the world who believe that small acts of kindness really do make a big difference. As a gardener, you'll receive access to resources, inspiration, and connection to help you grow and give flowers is acts of kindness in your corner of the world, it's for you to join.
[00:40:00] Deanna Kitchen: Another way to get involved is to become a donor. This podcast is made possible by the general. See of our donors kindhearted people who believe just like you, that stories of goodness are worth sharing. If you'd like to help us share more stories, just like today's visit growing kindness project.org/donate to make a gift and keep kindness planning, we'd love to stay connected with you.
[00:40:21] Deanna Kitchen: You can sign up for our newsletter or find us on Instagram at Growing Kindness Project. We'd love to keep in touch and cheer you on as you grow kindness in your community. And finally. If this episode touched your heart, would you share it with a friend? It's one of the simplest ways to spread kindness today.
[00:40:36] Deanna Kitchen: I'm so grateful you're here. Until next time, keep growing kindness. One bloom at a time.
