Issue 001
Growing with Lean
Springtime brings to the imagination thoughts of budding rosebushes, fragrant bouquets, and lots and lots of color! But behind much of that beauty is planning and learning from past mistakes.
Coming out of my LSS green belt training in Summer 2023, I had fresh perspective on how to maximize the best parts of my gardening year for the coming growing season. As my garden produced for my family and community, I felt drawn to document our yields, challenges, and thoughts on process improvement for the 2024 growing season. From this data, we determined the best-producing tomato plants for pasta sauce, most draught-tolerant floral varieties that save us time and money (on water bill) and the best and worst times for doing hive checks and coop cleanings to keep our producing critters happy. Although not fully implemented, we did use Lean tools to document types of waste and document current and goal/future states. It was a fun and engaging experience for the family and was something we could share with our neighbors when they asked about our future garden plans.
My favorite tool of the entire process was a modified version of the Voice of the Customer exercise. As the garden yield was shared with friends, family, neighbors, and the students I work with, I took extensive notes and documented texts and emails they sent with positive feedback on what was coming out of the garden. It helped me to maximize the impact of the garden this year with providing them of more of what they loved!
A garden with a wooden trellis
and flowers
A collage of pictures showing a person in a bee suit tending to plants in a garden
Krista Newberry is a Lean Ambassador and a Health Professional Education Specialist with
the UC Davis Office of Medical Education.