About On Gardening

My column, On Gardening, has been published in the Monterey Herald since mid-2003. At first, On Gardening appeared every other week, alternating with a column by Martha Stewart. When she experienced an “unpleasantness,” her column ended and mine went weekly.

That situation continued until October 2011, when the nation’s economic recession made it necessary for the Herald to reduce the size of its Home & Garden section and, as part of that action, to drop On Gardening.

I found that the process of writing the column motivated me to organize my thoughts, learn new facts and gain different perspectives. It also justified reading several gardening magazines and collecting gardening books. Plus, I enjoyed communicating occasionally with readers, both in person and by email.

Given those many benefits, I worked with the Home & Garden editor and the Herald’s new publisher to resume On Gardening. They agreed with that intention, but with a shorter than previous length (due to space limitations), and the new weekly series started on the first Saturday of 2012.

I have many ideas for the content of On Gardening. My first thought is to supplement the column with details, web links and other information that would not fit in the Herald’s limited space.

I also intend to provide key words for each on-line column, to aid searches for specific information. Often, newspaper columns that appear on the writer’s website are organized chronologically. This is the simplest form of organization, but it is also the least useful to the reader, in my opinion.

Another strategy is to group the columns by theme, so that, for example, all book reviews would be collected for easy browsing.

Because I enjoy reading periodicals on aspects of gardening, I am planning to include critical comments on selected articles in each month’s issues of several periodicals. While it would not be practical for me (or interesting to readers) to review the entire contents of several magazines, comments on the highlights might be helpful for readers considering their own subscriptions.

Here’s a link to Karwin Brief Resume 4-2013

Tom Karwin

3 thoughts on “About On Gardening

  1. Hello,

    I help run ForestryDegree.net, a website that provides information for people who are passionate about the nature and interested in pursuing a degree in forestry or environmental studies. Recently, we published an article recognizing 101 Handy Sites for Conscientious Wood Use. You can view it here: http://forestrydegree.net/conscientious-wood-use/

    The use of wood is integrally connected with land management and forestry practices. Companies and organizations that use wood in a sustainable way, while also eliminating waste help protect our greatest resources for future generations.

    We believe the list of sites will help prospective/current forestry students and professionals learn about the best in conscientious wood use. If like the list, and feel it would be of value to others, I’m hoping you would share it with your readers or anyone else you can think of.

    Please let me know if you have any questions or feedback.

    Thanks so much,
    Alyson

  2. Hello,

    My name is Alyson Clark and I head up the content department at ForestryDegree.net. We have just published a resource on our site titled: 101 Handy Sites for Conscientious Wood Use. To view our resource follow the link: http://forestrydegree.net/conscientious-wood-use/

    Our resource lists 101 informative sites on wood use for your readers to check out. We want to share our resource with you because we think your readers may benefit from it, and we believe it would make great content for your site as well.

    Feel free to share the list with your readers. I look forward to hearing from you. Thanks and have a wonderful day.

    Regards,

    Alyson Clark
    Content Editor
    ForestryDegree.net
    alyson@forestrydegree.net

    • Alyson,
      Thanks for the link to an impressive list of resources for many uses of wood. I will use a future opportunity to bring these resources to the attention of the readers of my newspaper column.
      Tom Karwin

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