To the Baby Gardeners

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by Adobestock/fotoduets

Hello! My name is Marissa Ames, and I’m the new editorial director for Mother Earth News. In January, Ogden Publications merged with Countryside Publications, where I served as senior editor for four agriculture magazines. As our newly joined enterprises evolve, Hank Will has handed me the editorial baton, and I’ve accepted with zeal. Hank will continue to serve the Mother Earth News audience in other important ways. As for me, I come from a long line of farmers and homesteaders, and I’m excited to work with a magazine that shares this focus.

This past weekend, I showed my compost to a new gardener. As my hands delved deep into the black gold, critters crawled across my wrists. Pillbugs, tiny beetles, and little gray spiders. My friend cringed.

Twenty years ago, I would’ve cringed too. All garden life alarmed me, because of my ignorance. It’s different now.

Back then, I kept an arsenal in my cupboard: Miracle-Gro 24-8-16 to keep food plants going. Carbaryl, Triazicide, and permethrin to kill what I didn’t think should live in that space. Plastic mulches, flimsy tomato cages. All products were bought from the end caps of big box stores because someone told me that’s what I needed.

If my tomato leaves looked a little yellow, I grabbed the Miracle-Gro. I panicked if I saw one hole appear in a basil leaf, and I pulled out the insecticide. Though I believed organic gardening was the best way, I didn’t yet have the knowledge or skills to make it happen, and I couldn’t bear the thought of losing even a small part of this food garden that would feed my family.

  • Updated on May 4, 2022
  • Originally Published on May 3, 2022
Tagged with: Marissa Ames
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