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Re: Yardeners

Hi Duane & all,
I've been a lurker lately with so much going on, but I had to chime in on this since Duane struck a chord. People also tell me that they aren't gardeners, but they always read my column. Like you, Duane, I use a certain amount of humor to hook the readers. I try to make each column entertaining, informative and inspiring. Some columns succeed better than others, but I'm always gratified when someone tells me that he/she was inspired to try something in my column. I think garden writing is, to some extent, sharing our enthusiasm for gardening so our readers can see it as an enjoyable activity. We can have tremendous impact on the way people see gardening through our eyes.

My head is still big over feedback I got last summer from a column I did on our Missouri Botanical Garden. I shared my longtime love of the garden, my favorite places there and some of things I had learned about gardening just from observing. About a month after the column ran, I got an e-mail from the P.R. dept. at MBG telling me that they keep track of visitors by zip code and the gate was up considerably from the areas where my column ran. In fact, a number of people mentioned when they bought a ticket that they were inspired by my column to visit. Gosh, I could become a legend in my own mind!

Linda Krohne Nitchman
'The Heartland Gardener'


Duane wrote: 
My approach to Yardeners is different from yours, Jeff. I deliberately
target those people who don't read conventional garden columns by mixing
entertainment with information. I spend probably half my effort on the
lead with the goal of sucking people in. Once they start reading, I throw
gardening information at them, a mix over time of the elementary and the
exotic. I want people to say, Hey, I could do that.



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