Today's Garden Center is showcasing Garden Media Group's six major consumer shifts along with several lower level trends that will impact garden purchases in its 2014 Garden Trends Report.

The overall theme, the report says, is finding balance. Each Thursday GROW! will now showcase and delve into a new garden trend of 2014.

Be sure to download the 2014 Trends Report to learn the details and forces behind each trend--and how your business can integrate the 2014 garden trends to grow your business.

In the gardening world, the print catalog has always been a standby.

But, they're expensive and often sent to a broad list of people, who frankly throw it in the trash. 

Instead for your garden brand to gain true, meaningful traction, you need to provide interesting content to the people who crave it.

Enter the new digital, social catalog of 2013--and beyond. Read on to discover how you can create your own innovative, green catalog.

There's a best and worst time for everything. Coffee after 11 pm is not the best idea, nor is hiring a PR firm December 1st to boost Christmas sales.

When hiring a public relations firm, be sure you have the timing right too.

Below are the four worst times to hire a PR firm in the home and garden industry.

Building brand recognition to many small companies means slapping their logo and tagline on absolutely every item that leaves their office.

While logos are certainly one of the most important aspects of creating brand recognition, what happens when people already recognize your brand?

Unbranding is the newest public relations and marketing trend in 2013. It's essentially going beyond the logo and relying exclusively on an image of your product for marketing.

For unbranding to be successful, your garden business first needs to have a winning logo.

Below are our tips for creating a stellar logo to last for the long haul--and tips to go beyond it once your brand has national awareness.

Once you feel like you really, truly know what public relations is, it's time begin looking for the right firm to hire.

The search for the perfect public relations firm can be a bit daunting all on your own, so we're here to help.

Just searching "public relations firms" in Google is not going to cut it. Plus, 20% of the Google firms will only show up because they're close in location to you--not because they're the best overall fit for your business.

To find the public relations firm that is just the right fit, be sure to examine the following criteria.

Public Relations, you know your garden business needs it, but you're not 100% sure why.

Yes, stories will inevitably result from public relations. And, if your business is ever in a crunch, they're there to help you work through a crisis. But, what about the other 95% of the time?

In a nutshell, a public relations firm spends their time building your brand to make your customers fall in love with your company and become loyal consumers who ask for your product by name.

Each Wednesday in August the GROW! Blog will be delving into all your garden business needs to know before hiring a PR firm.

To see if your business is truly ready for a public relations firm, first see what the function of a PR firm is in your business plan--and learn a bit more about the services offered, which go far beyond securing stories.

Branding is a compilation of the choices your business makes. There's no magic formula to crafting an impeccable brand.

In order to build your business's brand, you've first got to establish three words that really encapsulates who your brand is. How are you different than the million of other garden businesses out there?

Once you've established a solid, branding foundation, then it's time to build your brand!

Best way to build your green, garden brand? Read and use these tips below to make your brand UNFORGETTABLE. 

Social media has been a big play for over five years. Whether you’re a public relations professional or a member of the garden industry, you know you have to be on social media.

It’s the absolute perfect blend of advertising and public relations. Plus, it’s FREE. Social media outlets of all kinds let you connect with your key demographic on a daily basis. Here, you get to interact with your clientele in a cool, friendly, funny manner.

Managing social media is without a doubt one of my favorite aspects of the job. But, realistically, it’s also one of the hardest. It seems like there’s always another social media site popping up, and to stay trendy, you and your garden business have just got to be on it.

How in the world can one business, especially a new, small, blooming business, manage all of these sites?

First, load up on social media tools. Next, take the advice of the pros at Garden Media Group to make sure the social media element in your public relations media plan is realistic and effective.

Balancing social media is an act you’ve got to learn to master quickly—before you burn out.

I recycle everything. Why should an item be used only once? One of my favorite necklaces was made with old soda tabs. Recycling is only one aspect of sustainable living, but it is certainly the aspect that translates to public relations best.

We work hard to create thoughtful copy that will be of interest to multiple audiences, so why would we only use it as a press release? Exactly, we wouldn’t; it's just as wasteful as trashing a plastic bottle.

As an innovative company, we’ve got to keep moving forward.

One way to do this is by repurposing content. With oodles of outlets, recycling content looks just as chic as ever.

All your garden business has to do is implement these tips to ensure your content doesn’t look stale.

We all want our clients holding up a sign like the little guy on the right. But, let's be a bit more specific: we don't want our clients to just love PR; we want them to love US as PR professionals.

Anymore, there are a million choices for each small decision. What color toothbrush? Organic or just all-natural snacks? What flowers to plant this spring?

The same can be said for PR firms. Frankly, we need our clients to love what makes our firm an individual entity.

At Garden Media, we’ve got our brand down pat. We’re a boutique-style of public relations because we specialize in garden, horticulture, and home clients. As a company, we strive to make our clients fall in  l-o-v-e with everything that makes Garden Media Group, Garden Media Group.

Below, we’re sharing a few ways you can make your clients and garden consumers fall head over heels in love with you and your garden business.