Growing mix company sponsors community gardens in Ohio

People around the nation pulled up their sleeves and dug in the dirt, picked up trash or pulled invasive plants to  celebrate Earth Day April 22.

PRO-MIX joined in the effort the weekend before by sponsoring the Kossuth Street Garden in Columbus, Ohio, April 20. The company partnered with Oakland Nursery to deliver $8,000 worth of growing mixes to the community garden. Sixty people volunteered to rebuild beds, damaged by a driver in February, and planted lettuce. The Kossuth garden was one of many worksites that were a part of Columbus, Ohio’s 7th annual Earth Day 2013: Stand Together.

And they’re working on another Ohio project this Friday.

PRO-MIX is donating $4,000 worth of growing mixes to the Keep Akron Beautiful community garden project May 10, and partnering with Canton Road Garden Center. The site was a defunct WPA project that was never finished, according to PRO-MIX, and is next to a playground. The goal is to transform the vacant lot into a garden and grow food.

PRO-MIX is based in Quebec, Canada, and one of its best markets is Ohio, said Leah Haugh of Garden Media Group. The goal of both projects is to increase brand awareness by exposing people to PRO-MIX during popular holidays – Earth Day and Mother’s Day – and also contribute to the communities involved.

“The most rewarding thing has been giving back to the community,” Haugh said. “And we have aligned the brand with something that means something to the community.”

As part of the projects, Haugh and others reached out to media outlets to spread word about the event and also researched the countless community gardens in Ohio. They said partnering with Columbus’ Earth Day event, which also had sponsors like Chipotle and Jeni’s ice cream, and Oakland Nursery helped the project run smoothly and helped them identify a garden. The same is true for the Akron project.

She said as many business people know, for customers to form brand recognition, it often takes about six exposures to that product for it to stick. Haugh said the team involved in the project will assess the success after it’s complete.

For more information about the upcoming event May 10, visit the Keep Akron Beautiful website.