Re: FW: The Growing Edge Closes its Doors (Sheri Ann Richerson)

**T* A* <t*@growingedge.com>**

Thanks Sheri Ann for your kind words earlier today and thanks for  
writing great articles in the past for Growing Edge. Thanks also to  
Jeff Lowenfels for writing the regular microbe/compost tea column for  
over two years.

The 20 years of publishing the Growing Edge was both satisfying and  
frustrating. I was proud and satisfied that I published quality  
articles with interesting subject matter and useful information. Among  
my target audience of readers, it was frustrating dealing with four  
competing magazines that didn't mention the magic M word directly but  
the wink and nod content of the articles were obviously all about  
it...photoperiod plants, vegetative rooms, flowering rooms, bud and  
leaf trimmer machines, oil extraction, etc. Many old and new  
advertisers went with the wink and nod yet I didn't succumb to the  
temptation of becoming wink and nod too to try and financially salvage  
my publishing operation. I fought the temptation for years and over  
the new year weekend decided to throw in the towel, pull the plug and  
start shoveling dirt on the coffin rather than become just another  
wink and nod publication. I stuck to my original goal and standards of  
changing the image of hydroponics in people's minds.

We succeeded in giving hydroponics a better mainstream image. We  
showed real, everyday people, growing legitimate crops with the  
technology, some as a hobby and others commercially. We showed public  
schools using hydroponics in the curriculum. We were one of the first  
to report on the barge floating off Manhattan that was a living  
farm...I could go on and on with a long list about the topics we were  
the first to write about that then showed up in the "mainstream media."

What was even more frustrating was being considered a "weird oddity"  
by some of my fellow GWA members. The ultimate insult was when I  
submitted some articles on hydroponics to the Quill and Trowel awards  
over ten years ago. The year before, Growing Edge had garnered an  
honorable mention with different articles on hydroponics but the very  
next year was rejected outright with notes on the interesting  
submissions asking, "how is this relevant and related to gardening?"  
Ever since then I have never submitted another entry, since it is  
obvious some GWA members have their head where the sun doesn't shine  
and aren't open to anything but traditional gardens and gardening  
techniques. Now don't get me wrong, I am sure those people are in the  
minority in the GWA since I have met so many quality people in the  
GWA; some are my best friends. That is one of the reasons I go to the  
symposium every year—the large numbers of good people who are there.

After taking some time to relax and decompress, I will attempt to  
build up our online presence into more than it is, GE has had a robust  
web site since 1993. Once I get through the shock of change, and start  
working again, it will contain content that is more than just single  
issue of growing with hydroponics and cover the whole spectrum of  
gardening including sustainability. What some people may not know is I  
am an organic soil gardener on our rural four acres. So sustainable  
soil gardening will be included along with aerated compost tea  
information.

I am finished with paper and ink publishing. In today's world it is  
becoming the current version of the Gutenberg press. The cost to pay  
for paper and ink makes it prohibitive to publish that way anymore. I  
fought it for years and it beat me (to a pulp.) Stick a fork in it.

Anybody who wants a free copy of the final issue for the cost of  
postage, let me know. It has a good report on my trip to an  
International Society for Horticultural Science conference in Peru,  
which is a very interesting and fun country. I highly recommend it as  
a travel spot.

Here are a few hundred photos out of the nearly 2,000 that I shot...

Lima and Machu Picchu
http://gallery.me.com/tomalexander#100062

Puno area
http://gallery.me.com/tomalexander#100070

Lake Titicaca area
http://gallery.me.com/tomalexander#100077

Happy New Year to you all! Spring is on the horizon. And so is mowing  
the lawn and the weeds in the garden...don't you miss it?

Tom Alexander
tom@growingedge.com
www.growingedge.com

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