At the heart of all gardening and landscaping is the need to live in beautiful surroundings. (GoodSeed Farm photo)
To those of you who follow this column in your local paper, thank you. After 25 years of writing simple, easy-to-understand advice about landscaping and gardening, we’ve decided to scale back our landscaping business and stop producing new content each week for the 19 local papers who carry our column. Read on, and we’ll show you how easily you can access all this information going forward.
We started writing “Let’s Grow” in the early years of our garden center business (closed five years ago). At that time we were new in the community, and the column was a way we could be helpful and make new friends. That goal has succeeded spectacularly. Everywhere we go, and almost every day, we hear from readers who like our column and look forward to it every week. Some folks proudly show us binders full of columns they’ve clipped out.
The Internet is a very difficult place to find simple, helpful information about gardening and plants. There’s sales pressure, popup ads, fancy words. Experts disagree. We wanted to do the research for our readers, add our own years of real-life experience, and offer simple information in as few words as possible. Over the years we’ve compiled a library of over 400 gardening topics, with photos and drawings. You can find them under the “Garden Advice” tab on the GoodSeedFarm.com home page.
There’s a word search box. Type in the topic you’re looking for, and every column we’ve ever written on that subject will load for you to choose from. Not a single popup ad or sales pitch. No ifs, ands, or fancy language. Guidance for the average person, that experts can trust as well. We’re proud of this collection, and we’ll keep it “live” even if we’re no longer producing new content.
Our heartfelt thanks to the local papers who have steadfastly offered our column for all these years. Big papers like the Portsmouth Times, Wilmington News Journal, Ledger-Independent, and Chillicothe Gazette. Local weeklies like the wonderful West Union Peoples Defender, Brown County News Democrat and Clermont Sun, and at least a dozen more. They do it for you, their readers, along with so much more local content we depend on.
Having reached the ripe age of 69, I’ve decided to back up and do less each day. My wife Marjorie has shared me with you for decades; it’s time to pay her more attention. I love our farm and our beautiful Lab pup, Miss Edwina Jane, and daily walks with her on our miles of trails through the woods and meadows. Faced with the choice of fresh air and sunshine, or sitting at my computer, I’ll finally put a priority on the fresh air.
Can I leave you with a guiding thought? It’s about sustainability and non-renewable resources. I believe the most important of those are clean air and water, peace and quiet, and dark at night. Once these are lost you can’t get them back. Words to live by…
Steve Boehme is a landscape designer/installer specializing in landscape “makeovers”. “Let’s Grow” is published weekly; column archives are on the “Garden Advice” page at www.goodseedfarm.com. For more information is available at www.goodseedfarm.com or call GoodSeed Farm Landscapes at (937) 587-7021.
