bloggers pic

Heartland Gardening bloggers
(left to right: Michael Leach, Debra Knapke and Teresa Woodard)

Michael Leach, Teresa Woodard, and I were in Indianapolis in 2011 attending a GWA – The Association of Garden Communicators – conference. After a garden writers workshop we went out to dinner. Not an easy thing to do in a city where three other conferences were also in session. Over the second bottle of wine, while waiting for our table, we decided to create a blog together. We not only launched the blog, Heartland Gardening, but developed deep friendships.

In June, 2021, Michael passed, Teresa became more involved with her writing – please look for her book American Roots and her next book, Garden to the Max which will be published in March 2025. And I became involved with projects that focus on care for the Earth and and all who live on it. Teresa and I felt that it was time to let our blog settle into an archive as a beautiful testament to three gardeners who shared their passion for plants, people, and collaboration.

Enjoy.

Catch Us If You Can

Catch Debra at the 36th Annual conference of the Ohio Ecological Food and Farm Association (OEFFA). She will be offering a two hour workshop on Permaculture: Fitting It into the Context of Your Life. There is...

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Catch Us If You Can

  Debra Knapke: On Saturday, tune the radio (WTVN in Columbus or WKRC in Cincinnati) to hear Deb Knapke on In the Garden with Ron Wilson.  She'll be sharing ideas for planting scarlet and gray gardens in celebration of The Ohio State University's football...

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Winter Shadows Fire the Imagination

Finding ways to celebrate a difficult season By Michael Leach Winter sun turns a snowy lawn into a giant geography map. At least it seems so to me. My imagination transforms the shadow of a gnarly old tree into the Nile Delta. On the flip side, it could be the...

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Trendspotting: Bright forecast for 2015

By Teresa Woodard Welcome to the new year and what’s promising to be a bright one for gardeners! According to the Greenhouse Grower’s 2015 State of the Industry Survey, 71 percent of growers report 2014 sales increases over 2013, and that sales growth is spurring...

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Catch Us If You Can

This week, Columbus hosts one of the country's biggest Landscape Industry Trade Shows -- CENTS 2015 -- on January 7-9th.  Debra Knapke will be presenting on two topics: Edible Ornamentals and Complementary Design: Embracing Nature Inside and Out.  In the second one,...

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Incomplete Garden To-Do List?

Don't Fret!  Think about what you accomplished. By Michael Leach Even as the last leaves cling stubbornly to the trees, snowflakes twirl to the ground. Ah the mixture of seasonal icons that is November, one day autumn, the next winter, sometimes both in the same 24...

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Book Notes: Three Old Favorites

By Debra Knapke November is a time when I revisit books that are old, and sometimes forgotten, friends. We’ve all heard the dire pronouncements: books are becoming obsolete, the web is killing the publishing industry and more. Yet, in this time of early evenings,...

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