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Editor's Notes Winter 1999
EDITOR'S NOTES
After a winter of confusing weather patterns across the country, we can now see that spring will happen in its usual wonderful way. Gardeners are impatient people when it comes to any new season. Spring is the toughest one to wait for. We want everything to start-preferably right now. Though in some parts of the country we can already see the tips of little bulbs poking their heads above the soil, many more thousands of us are still looking at great lumps of snow disguising those great little plants purchased last year. No fear, they will be fine with the best mulch of all-snow.
With this issue, we are pushing the season and hoping to get you geared up for another round of pleasure in planting and growing. Everyone loves pansies and we've got the inside scoop on growing them plus new ideas on how to use them. We also take a look at the wonders of herbs and what they can do for both body and soul in your garden.
We'd like to thank all our readers for the incredible response to our Fall 1998 issue's survey. We garnered an amazing amount of valuable information from your answers and now have a much better feeling for what you like about the magazine, and which departments that have become your favourites ("Ask Marjorie," "Knowhow" and "Greentalk"). More than half of you said you'd like to see more gardens and more tips. Most of you not only read the food section, you use and love our recipes. You also especially like our upbeat mood and magnificent photography-we seem to have touched a serious vein of inspiration here. We will use the information you've supplied to make Gardening Life an even better magazine in the future.
One of your favourite stories in the Fall issue was "Junk Yards," on garden collectibles. Because of that, we think you'll enjoy our new back page, "Garden Junk," which will feature the objects you love to search out at secondhand stores, junk yards and garage sales. We'll look for the best and most interesting of what's becoming a new passion for gardeners. On the subject of growing passions, for this issue's feature story, "Top Ten," editor Nancy Jane Hastings tracked down the year's major trends in gardening-from favourite plants to hot garden styles-by talking to people across the country who have hands-on experience with what's new. One of the trends that Nancy writes about is an increased interest in heirloom vegetables. We all must think very carefully about what's happening to the gene pool of our vegetables and this is a good way to begin. (If you're interested in learning about the preservation of strong and diverse gene pools, we urge you to join Seeds of Diversity, an organization dedicated to this cause.) We also learned a lot about you from our survey: You sound like an obsessed lot who garden all year round and spend between five and14 hours in the garden every week. Most of you are organic gardeners, and have gardens of less than 1,000 square feet. It's fascinating getting to know you better.
Copyright Marjorie Harris, 2005
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