Welcome to 2021! Since we all had so much more time than usual last year to think about gardening, plan our gardens, and actually garden, all of our landscapes are picture perfect, right? Well, maybe not quite. But my tool shed is more organized than it ever has been (see picture—shelves!).
Lots of people, many of them in their 20s and 30s, took up gardening for the first time in 2020, and when I read some of the questions in online gardening groups I can’t help but cringe. Yes, December is too early to start tomato seeds. Yes, yellowing leaves from the bottom up are a bad sign. No, houseplants aren’t likely to kill your cat (fight me on it!).
Seriously, though—we have an opportunity now to engage a whole new generation of gardeners. Give your new-to-gardening friends seeds, cuttings, and divisions of passalong plants (but not snow-on-the-mountain, please). Applaud their efforts. And do answer their questions, if you can. But most of all, if you’re lucky enough to have new mentees, let them know that gardening is all about trial and error, not giving up when you’ve killed something, and growing what makes you happy.
You might even buy them a subscription to the UGJ!
Thanks, as always, for reading.
Jane
Jane Milliman, Publisher
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