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.
10 Villianous Plants
By Teresa Woodard So, your kind neighbor calls to offer some free plants. Do you accept willingly? Well, that depends. Many well-intentioned gardeners like to share their plants, but often their plants can be more of a nuisance than a blessing as they proliferate...
Fairly simple steps to make your yard party worthy
By Michael Leach For the privileged few, prepping for a backyard party simply means giving instructions to the gardener, chatting about menus with the cook and planning a sweeping entrance at party time worthy of a Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie. The rest us...
10 Must-Have Plants
By Debra Knapke So many choices confront the beginning gardener or the new homeowner, and so many plants seem to be must-haves: must-have trees, shrubs, edibles, perennials and annuals. If I were creating my first landscape and had to limit myself to 10 plants,...
Tips for transforming winter death tolls into garden treasures
By Michael Leach What’s the best approach for handling dead roses and other winter-killed flora? Mourn. Research. Shop. Don’t spend much time tsk-tsking about plant replacement costs. Do you seriously count the expense of fast-food or pizza on those...
Gardening the Rain
By Teresa Woodard Just when you’re ready to dive into a day filled with spring gardening chores, the black clouds roll in threatening to curtail your plans. But before you sing, “Rain, Rain, Go Away”, slip on your rain boots and reshuffle your chore list to take...
Good eats: Strawberries
By Teresa Woodard Can you smell the super-sweet, extra-juicy strawberries ripening in backyards and fields across the Midwest? With names like ‘Jewel’ and ‘Earliglow’, these berries will be in season for the next few weeks, so be sure to enjoy them while they last....
Garden to Drive For: Inniswood
Heartland Gardening was delighted to have high school senior Abby Fullen assist with our blog this spring. Thanks to her writing, photography, copy editing, layout and researching help, we were able...
Plant A Row
By Abby Fullen My dear sister, Emma, is as sweet as pie, but her eating habits can often drive me to insanity. A friend and I even came up with a song to describe her wasteful ways: Sheeee’s get a lotta, eat a little, get a lotta, eat a little, get a lotta, eat a...
Are Gardeners Allowed to Take a Break?
By Michael Leach Putting the white Adirondack chairs on the cozy, brick-paved patio symbolizes spring for me, almost as much as sunny daffodils and fluttering kites in blue skies. While a thorough cleaning remains to be done, these chairs already do nicely for breaks...