You can always learn something new, and you never know everything. This sense of life long learning was brought home to me a couple of times in the last month. My dad and I had breakfast with an old friend, Rob Rice, a few weeks ago. Rob is a horticulturist and a long time user of our products. It is always good to get to see him and pick his brain, because he has such a wealth of experience and knowledge. I always learn new uses for our products from him, which is incredible. He's always trying things and if they work, he shares his experiences with us. At breakfast that day, we were talking about fall mulching and I said I hated to rake the leaves out of the beds before I mulched, and Rob shared a brilliant idea with us. He said to leave the leaves in place, mulch over them and create lovely compost right in the bed over the winter. It's genius! I took Rob's great idea and made this video about fall mulching, so anyone can benefit from his simple and time saving mulching method.

I met a another life long learner who really inspired me a few weeks ago. Sylvia contacted me about a college project she was doing and asked if she could come visit me. We set up a time to meet and she brought her husband with her. Sylvia and her husband are both retired and she has decided that she wants to pursue a master's degree in landscape architecture, so she can help people with their yards. It's so amazing! She and her husband pulled up stakes, and moved close to the university and she's going to school. When they came that day, they brought me a beautiful pot that her husband had made, and we talked about pottery. I had a lot of questions about clay and glaze and firing. I was mesmerized by their story and wanted to learn all I could from them in the short time they were here. Their message was that it's never too late to start something new. It's always the right time and it's never too late to step out of your comfort zone and add to your knowledge base. Try again. Keep learning.

Listening and learning adds richness to the fabric of our lives. Meeting new people opens up wonderful opportunities to learn their stories and experiences. I love that about life. Maybe we all need a little lesson about stepping out of our comfort zone and learning something new. Learn something new everyday!