The Garden Shed newsletter has come a long way since the Piedmont Master Gardeners published the first issue in January 2015. One hundred issues later, it’s important to look back at what we’ve accomplished and assess where we are going as an on-line gardening publication.
WHERE WE STARTED
The concept for the newsletter was born from the notion that there’s a huge market out there for solid, reliable, science-based gardening information and advice. The original plan was to create a calendar of monthly gardening tasks and tips that could be published either on-line or distributed in hard copy. But after much thought and many, many meetings, the calendar idea was expanded upon and ultimately resulted in our current online newsletter format. While retaining the monthly tasks and tips aspect, we chose to provide in-depth articles that would both inform and educate our readers on best practices in three key areas: edible gardening, ornamental gardening, and general gardening. On a lark, we also occasionally threw in some recipes just to keep things interesting and down to earth (no pun intended).
We wanted the articles to be useful for both inexperienced gardeners and seasoned ones alike. Writing for such a broad spectrum of readers is not easy. We addressed the issue by defining terms or concepts to educate inexperienced gardeners, yet providing a depth of expository writing that would appeal to more experienced gardeners.
As we developed the newsletter, we found that a lot of effort and coordination goes into choosing topics to write about, assigning writers, researching background material, checking and double checking our sources, editing the copy, and proofing the final article. Once we check off all those boxes, the final step is to coordinate each article with the Virginia Cooperative Extension service to make sure we got it right.
With so much valuable information in each issue, we wanted the articles to be searchable. So we made it easy to access our archive of back issues published since inception of the newsletter.
OUR TOP TEN ARTICLES
In looking at the history of the newsletter, we explored the kinds of topics that have had the greatest appeal to our readers since newsletter inception. As might be expected, there’s a wide range of interests in all aspects of gardening and horticulture. While this is a moving target, the top 10 most visited Garden Shed articles published to date include:
- “The Pros and Cons of the Eastern Redcedar Tree” by Pat Chadwick
- “Catmint – A Must-Have Perennial” by Pat Chadwick
- “Magical Repelling Powers of Marigolds – Myth or Fact?” by Cleve Campbell
- “Oakleaf Hydrangea” by Pat Chadwick
- “The Vegetable Garden in August” by Ralph Morini
- “Streptocarpella: The Houseplant that Flowers all Year” by Cathy Caldwell
- “What’s Killing Our Oak Trees?” by Ralph Morini
- “Serviceberry” by Pat Chadwick
- “OMG! What’s Eating the Broccoli?” by Ralph Morini
- “Consider a Hornbeam” by Susan Martin
WHAT WE LEARNED
The interesting thing about gardening and horticulture in general is that there’s always something new to learn. As the newsletter team members began working together, we found that each member had a unique perspective, set of skills, or life experience that benefited the group as a whole as well as our readers. Whereas some of our writers are knowledgeable about various edible gardening topics, other writers focus on landscape plants, native species, plant pests and diseases, or ecological and environmental issues. With such a wide variety of experience and writing interests, we find that we continually learn from one another.
We do our best to make the information in our articles as accurate as possible and to provide additional resources to our readers, hence the links and often very long lists of sources listed at the end of each article. Many of the sources listed are “.edu” websites associated with university cooperative extension services around the country. We also rely on other trusted sources such as respected experts in various aspects of horticulture. What we learned from our readers is that the sources included in our articles are invaluable to them as they explore topics on their own.
Our idea was to develop a newsletter that would primarily target the geographical area covered by the Piedmont Master Gardeners and the local Virginia Cooperative Extension, which includes the counties of Albemarle, Green, Fluvanna, Nelson, Louisa and the city of Charlottesville. But we soon learned that once an issue is published on the internet, it knows no boundaries. Anyone anywhere in the country with an internet connection can access the newsletter. As a result, comments on our articles come from all around the U.S. It is a point of pride that organizations from other states reference our articles or request permission to use them.
OUR READERS’ COMMENTS
In addition to learning from each other, we have benefitted from the comments our readers post online. Those comments have, in many ways, influenced our choice of topics as we plan each year’s newsletter issues. We found, for example, that the monthly gardening tasks and tips published each month are very useful at all levels of gardening experience. We learned that our readers wanted to know more about native species and their impact on wildlife. They wanted to know more about invasive species and how to identify and manage them. We learned also that they are interested in protecting the environment, protecting our natural resources, living with wildlife, and learning how to grow their own food.
We receive a great many posts from readers requesting additional information on various topics or sharing their own gardening experiences or expressing appreciation for our articles. Here’s a very small sampling of the many wonderful comments we’ve received from our readers:
“Thank you for your very informative article. It’s the first place that I’ve found all the information I needed in one place….” Eva 7/19/22
“…I found it to be the best and most comprehensive reference for growing milkweed that I’ve read! Saved and tucked away in my gardening files!” Jan 6/14/22
“…thank you so much for this article! We have a small herb garden, which is just about the only thing the deer leave alone in our garden. You’ve given us so many more options and ways to use the plants! Thanks also for all the research and helpful links.” Ginger 6/6/22
“Thank you for this great guide to Fall gardening chores; advice about what’s good to plant now and what isn’t; what’s good to cut back now and what to leave; and all the various informative links…. It’s much appreciated.” Marilyn 10/3/21
“This article is very helpful. It educates all us gardeners to help mitigate climate change. Thank you for sharing this valuable article that really matters. Good job!” Frank 7/3/2021
“Thanks for these tips. I love how you include a lot of things in here. Continue making blogs like this. It is very informative for us. More power to you.” Patricia 9/21/21
LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
We value the feedback we receive from our readers and welcome ideas for future articles so that we can keep the newsletter interesting, educational, and relevant. Our readers have mentioned, for example, that there’s a lot of interest in knowing more about the gardens of experienced master gardeners. So, we look forward to presenting more interviews such as one on vegetable gardening with Extension Master Gardeners Fern and Cleve Campbell in the September 2022 issue: An Amazing Master Gardeners’ Garden. And we hope to provide gardening insights and advice from horticultural experts such as C. Colston Burrell, who was interviewed for the article on Gardening for Beauty and Ecology in the February 2022 issue. While our articles are written almost exclusively by our Piedmont Master Gardeners team, we hope to provide the occasional article written by guest writers such as William Cocke, who wrote Gardening to Save the Planet in the August 2021 issue.
We started out small, thinking we were providing an educational service to our local Albemarle County/Charlottesville area. We had no idea of the impact our newsletter has made throughout Virginia and well beyond, which both surprises and delights us. So it is with great pride that we celebrate this 100th issue of The Garden Shed newsletter and look forward to our next 100 issues with unabashed enthusiasm.
–The Garden Shed Publication Team
