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Re: [GWL]: The decline of garden writing

In my case, I've been told not to send photos with the column I freelance to 
The Indianapolis Star. Editor said she was trying to reduce free-lance photo 
expenses. For awhile, the graphics editor did away with my headshot that ran 
with the column, and any art at all on the page. Now I try to direct the 
editor to art the library might have on file.

The Star has had approval for more than a year to hire a full-time home and 
garden writer but no one has been hired. 

I agree with those who say that we frequently have to talk about fairly basic 
stuff (tulip bulbs 8 inches deep) because there are always new gardeners in 
the mix. And as far as reader interest, I average a half dozen e-mails or 
letters a week from my column. When I worked for The Star fulltime as a 
reporter for 16 years, nothing I wrote about, even if it ran on the front 
page and had really life-changing information, ever received the kind of 
response I get from writing the garden column. Readers feel like they know 
you, for one thing. When I meet them at garden talks, etc., they always 
comment about something, ask about a plant I wrote about or check the 
progress on the re-do of the landscape I've written about.

I wrote about how a found puppy tore up my yard and got 18 letters from 
people congratulating me for rescuing a dog and assuring me the puppy would 
stop digging, eventually. And when my older dog, Moon, died and I wrote about 
planning a moon garden in his honor, I again got lots of mail. That kind of 
connectedness to the public is really hard to come by in most other writing.

Jo Ellen Meyers Sharp
Indianapolis Zone 5

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