Gleanings from the Editor

     Well, I'm going to have to do without some of my best gardening buddies this spring. My daughter, Sarah, had the audacity to take my grandchildren and move to Colorado. Elissa and Dylan have been helping me dig and plant for as long as they have been around. They have been an important inspiration in encouraging me to encourage others to keep the environment clean and healthy. And their delight in the earth, the plants and the harvest has compounded my own pleasure. All last summer they shared in the bounty of peaches, tomatoes, peppers, and other goodies from the garden. Elissa has always been partial to blackberries, and she watches them closely until they reach just the perfect state of ripeness and sweet juiciness - then she eats them. No messing around with pies or cobblers or other superfluities. She just pops them in her mouth and lets the juice drop where it may. This fall both of them enjoyed picking their Halloween pumpkins out of the garden and having the only white Jack O'Lanterns on their block.

    Sarah is an excellent gardener and has been a more than excellent proofreader since we began this magazine. Her support here will be missed, but since she is a practically perfect daughter, she will be missed in hundreds of ways.

     On the other hand, I can look forward to really impressive phone bills, and I'm very grateful for email. I'm also grateful that it is spring. Getting out in the garden, planting, pinching, and encouraging is a great way to lift my spirits.

    The garden will also help me understand that it is part of the natural order of things that sprouts sometimes need a little space separating them from the mother plant.
Happy Spring!