Dig This

Diana Miller, a long-time reader of The Gateway Gardener, is also a fan of one of our advertisers (well, hopefully more than one). The Missouri Department of Conservation ran a series of ads for several years under the “Trees Work” banner designed to promote the benefits of trees. The ads featured simple, clever headlines such as “Without trees . . . we’d be up a creek without a paddle.” And “Without trees . . . hammocks would just be blankets on the ground.” But what really appealed to Diana was not the words, but the artwork. The artists from Firecracker Press in St. Louis handcrafted the original artwork using woodblocks made from Missouri native cherry trees, using the woodblocks to print posters from recycled ink, and locally-made paper – some made with recycled t-shirts! Each poster was carefully hand-printed, and the same artwork was used for the magazine ads. Diana liked the ads so much she wanted to frame the whole series and display them in her home. Trouble was she was missing one, so she contacted The Gateway Gardener for a back issue to complete her set. We suggested she could probably get the posters from MDC that might be more suitable for framing (our newsprint may tend to fade over time in sunlight), but she had already framed most of the series and wanted this one to match. So we sent the missing issue to her, taking care to send in a large envelope so we wouldn’t have to fold the magazine. “You are the best,” Diana said in an email after receiving the missing issue. “It’s exactly what I wanted. I’m such a tree hugger…Master Naturalist. Thanks so much for taking the time to make me happy! I’ll send a photo.” And she did! Thanks Diana!

Jo Batzer has recently debuted “Garden-Lou”, a new blog promising to promote “all things garden in St. Louis”. Among other things, the blog plans to feature profiles on St. Louis area “plant geeks”, both high profile personalities as well as everyday home gardeners. She also wants to introduce readers to plants that do well in the St. Louis area that may not be commonly used. The goal is to bring “St. Louis gardens and gardeners together despite constrictions, with distance, busy schedules, or physical limitations,” says Jo. “Garden-Lou shares with those near and far who can’t get enough plants, gardens and the incredibly talented people who tend them. What better place to do that than St. Louis?” Jo has plenty of experience to draw from. After fourteen years at Missouri Botanical Garden, she took her part-time landscape design and maintenance company full time, combining her art background, floral design experience, and horticulture degree (from St. Louis Community College-Meramec, where she and a certain editor were frequently classmates). A former contributing garden writer, Jo also wanted to return to garden writing and saw a local need during the pandemic. You can read and subscribe to “Garden-Lou” at garden-lou.com.