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| CA$H 101 |
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| DO YOU NEED AN EXTRA $10,000 ? DO YOU LIKE TO GARDEN ? Well
here is your chance. I've developed the simplest and
easiest way to earn several thousand dollars every year, right from your
own back yard by gardening. Even if you've never done anything like
this before, my second book, CASH, tells you every detail, including how
to find the most fool-proof customer possible. Check the book out on the
product page and I think you'll
like it. This photo was the start of my second book titled “CASH From Square Foot Gardening,” after the first book became such a big seller. Remember my publisher, Rodale Press, predicted it would sell only 30,000 to 40,000 copies and last three to four years. Fortunately I didn’t pay any attention to them as it has now lasted over twenty years and sold well over one million copies. I fondly remember their answer when I questioned their low estimate. They said “We are gardening book experts and you are a new author with a new method so let us take care of the sales.” Unfortunately they didn’t and still don’t, but it was my PBS television show that sold the million copies, not anything Rodale did. In fact, they refused to spend one dime on the TV show – they wouldn’t even promote it or mention it. No support whatsoever. I had to fund the entire show out of my own book royalties, but that’s another story I’ll tell you later. The TV show did produce an enormous amount of mail – over 1,000 letters a week. Of course they all wanted the free packet of seeds and Mel’s Garden Tips we offered on the air, but many letters told of astonishing results with their new Square Foot Gardens. Many wanted to know if there was any way they could earn some extra money from this new method of gardening. It was a good question and got me thinking. So I spent two years investigating all the possibilities and came up with a method so fool-proof that anyone could earn up to $10,000 a year working just part-time in their own backyard anywhere in the country. The secret was an untapped market at that time along with the efficient Square Foot method that produced so much from so little space.
The Square Foot Gardening Foundation has recently obtained all rights to this second book and has republished it with an update. Check it out on our products page. I think you’ll like it. Well
let’s get back to the photograph. I used that truck almost every
week in my TV show as a prop when answering mail. I dearly love that 1954
red Chevy truck. In fact, all my life I wanted to own an old truck, so
when I retired from my engineering company at the tender age of 42, one
of the first things I did was look for just the right model truck.
You know an American Pie look, as in “drove my Chevy to the levy.” My
Dad was with me when I picked it up, and he said later, “Of all his successes,
I’ve never seen Mel happier then when he drove that old truck away.” Well I used it for all kinds of things and it ran well until I let one of my teenage helpers drive it and he stripped first gear one day. After that you had to get a rolling start either downhill or by pushing so you could start up in second gear (a decided disadvantage for a truck). Soon it just became a prop and a photo opportunity for visitors at our TV gardens. I had another thirty-year-old truck last year in Homestead, Florida. We were starting up our new International Training Center for our Global Gardening Program and I needed a truck to haul compost material but didn’t want to spend a lot of money. Well, $500 bought me a 1970 white ghost pickup. Actually the color was mostly rust but it ran well, and I had a great time driving the back roads of southern Florida looking for all kinds of compost material. It was left with a helper, who later reported the cab top just blew off one day so now it’s an open cab pickup. Any offers? Well you don’t need a truck to do the CASH from Square Foot Gardening. Any car or van will do but a truck is a lot more fun. |
I
wanted to make sure the method worked really well so I tried it out
myself. This photo is of my old red Chevy truck loaded with a harvest
– ready to exchange for a pocketful of cash. That’s also one of
the secrets of the book, you collect in CASH. 