I read a lot of gardening magazines and books. It’s part of my job as a garden writer. For recreational reading, which I seldom get a chance to do, I prefer funny books that make me laugh out loud. My free issue of GreenPrints “The Weeder’s Digest” doesn’t fall into either of those categories. The stories have a gardening theme, but it’s not a “how to” magazine, and there are no take-aways, other than the feelings you get when you read it. I enjoyed and related to several of the stories.
The editor’s son, Nate Stone, wrote a nice article about growing up with GreenPrints. I connected to several of the things he talked about. He said, “I don’t think I actually read the magazine until after I graduated college.” He reminds me of my 2 youngest children. You may have seen the article I wrote for the March 2014 issue of Alabama Gardener titled, “Tablescaping.” I worked incredibly hard on that article. Each centerpiece took about half a day to create and photograph, and that’s in addition to the time it took to write. I was so excited when it arrived in the mailbox and thrilled that my work was on the cover. I proudly handed it to my daughter Leandra. She looked at it for just a couple of minutes before giving it back. “What? You’re not even going to read it?” I asked. She answered, “I read the captions.” I had an almost identical conversation with my son Jesse, but his reply was, “I looked at all the pictures.”
We created some lovely centerpieces for the March 2014 issue of Alabama Gardener magazine, and my favorite is this fall tablescape.
The other thing that resonated with me was when Nate talked about working in the family business. “I (and the rest of my family) frequently got roped into a working relationship with the magazine. Hours and hours were spent around the dining-room table putting together mailing of renewal notices, gift orders, subscriptions, flyers and other assorted pieces of paper.” My parents were also small business owners who ignored minimum wage and child labor laws, but my experiences differ slightly from Nate’s. Whereas his hands may have been ink-stained, mine were dripping in oil.
So men lets wise up or we will lose life force energy. viagra for sale cheap cheapest cialis This is done in fluid medium in the laboratory. As an Affiliate Marketer, viagra sale uk you effectively become the ‘middle man’, you help people online, to find products that they are looking for, so if its done properly, I guess you could call it ‘Targeted Online Supply And Demand’ OK, So How Do I Become An Affiliate Marketer? In the world of aphrodisiacs can be a confusing one. Zenegra simply allows for an order cheap cialis cerritosmedicalcenter.com erection to occur in a particular situation.
My folks owned a small metal stamping company that manufactured 2-prong leather lacing needles, among other things. The needles were about 2 ½ inches long, ¼ inch wide and had a blunt end. – Here’s a link, if you’re curious about what they looked like. – It was the kids’ job to package them. Dad would cover the kitchen table with a thick layer of newspaper. Then he hauled big boxes in from his trunk, holding them carefully by the bottom so the oil soaked packages wouldn’t break apart. After dumping the needles on the newspaper, he’d make a feeble attempt to sop up the grease with a rag towel. Then we would grab big, messy handfuls and organize them the same way you would if you spilled toothpicks on the counter. Nate’s work ended when the magazine began doing well enough to hire employees, but I slaved away until my parents started selling enough to automate.
I can also relate to Marianne Willburn. Her article “Full Circle” is in-part about how her life turned out different than her plan. She wrote, “…that naïve eighteen-year-old not only became a gardener, she became a garden columnist. A person who joyfully does her best every week to communicate the deep pleasure that comes from pursuing a physical connection to the earth.” I know exactly how she feels. After reading her article, I wrote a post on my blog for Alabama Gardener about how I never dreamed I’d be a garden writer and the strange twists my life took to get me here. Here’s a link.
If you are disappointed that I haven’t given good gardening advice or shown pretty pictures or talked about plants, then you probably won’t like the magazine; and you should come back here later, because I usually do that. – Christmas has me feeling a bit nostalgic. And by the way, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and/or Joyful Whatever. – But if you enjoy stories about the human side of gardening, you can follow this link to get your own copy of GreenPrints.