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.
Favorite Flora: Asters
Who art thou, o aster? By Debra Knapke Back in 2003 Neil Diboll of Prairie Nursery in Wisconsin called it the Aster Disaster. Not to bore you with the minutiae of name changes of plants, suffice it to say: in 1994, it was determined that the asters of the New World...
Garden Grammar
Text by Michael Leach; photos by Teresa Woodard The past-tense season is here. More plants in my garden are past their prime than coming into it. However, the future tense promises abundant color for me,...
Favorite Flora: Heirloom Tomatoes
When is a green tomato ripe? By Teresa Woodard Thanks to Master Gardener intern and nutritionist Shirley Kindrick I now know when to pick a Green Giant and other non-red heirloom tomatoes. She says to start by knowing if the tomato plants are early, mid-season or...
Gardening Economics
By Teresa Woodard I recently toured a 7-acre flower farm eager to photograph fields of flowers and hear the back story of the young couple that runs the urban Columbus farm but was surprised to also walk away...
Favorite Flora: Fuss-free Roses
By Michael Leach Roses are back! No way, you might say. But it's true. Many newer roses are distinctly low-care, high-performance plants that are erasing the dreadful popular image of chemically dependent...
Book Notes: Language of Flowers
By Teresa Woodard Step inside the Victorian language of flowers in this beautiful debut novel by Vanessa Diffenbaugh. Here, we meet 18-year-old Victoria Jones on her first day of emancipation from the foster-care system. In her first job at a florist’s shop, she...
Special Topic: Why Garden?
You H.A.V.E to Garden: Feeling Good in the Garden By Debra Knapke As Michael pointed out in his post, You H.A.V.E. to Garden (April 17, 2013), there are many reasons why we have to garden and why we have to spread the word about the benefits of gardening, not only for...
Happy Independence Day!
The red and white and starry blue Is freedom's shield and hope. ~John Philip Sousa
Good Eats: Berry-cherry cobbler bars
By Teresa Woodard I was delighted to return home from a visit to my sister's in Alabama to find ripe cherries and black raspberries in our backyard. Yes, the bluejays beat me to several of the cherries, and I always...