A Gardener's Notebook

Kylee Baumle lives and gardens in Zone 5b in northwest Ohio, where she tames the native clay to produce vegetables, fruits, and as many annuals, perennials, shrubs and trees as she can fit onto an acre surrounded by rural farmland. Author of the popular gardening blog, Our Little Acre, Kylee is a freelance writer and photographer who feels fortunate to have a husband who sometimes joins in on her gardening projects and who loves cats as much as she does.

• The Unsung Heroes of the Shade Garden
• Ode To The Bean

• Pressure Washing with the 2700 PSI Pressure Washer

After a lifetime of consciously avoiding helping her mother garden, Jennah started gardening voluntarily in 2007, when she and her husband bought their first home. It came with only a few sad, half-dead bushes and one all-the-way-dead mum. (Things are much better now.) Notorious for moving plants several times before being content with their location, Jennah gardens by trial and error, and attempts not to dwell on the error. She is wife to a deputy sheriff and mom to two cats and one dog, and hopes to one day be as good a gardener as her grandparents.

• Strip Mall Gardening
• Succulents

• Succulents
• Edging with the Troy-Bilt TB144

Cynthia lives and gardens in her beloved native state of Florida only a short distance from the beautiful shores of the Gulf of Mexico. She is a blogger, freelance writer, amateur photographer, Master Gardener, and garden coach. Cynthia specializes in Florida-friendly and native plants, while steadfastly adhering to “right-plant, right place” in her mostly shady garden.  It is her passion to share and teach all she’s learned while gardening in a challenging growing climate and to inspire hopeful gardeners to enjoy their gardens, too.

• From the Ground Up
• Structural Elements to Shape Your Winter Garden
• Gardening Tips for Beginners and Reminders for Veterans

• “Layering” to Create Garden Pathways

Born in the epitome of small town America – New London, Ohio – Douglas Welch spent many summers digging and planting vegetables in his grandmother’s garden or driving a tractor on his family’s small soybean farm.  Computer work called him to the big city of Los Angeles, but he managed to take a piece of Ohio with him. When he and his wife bought their first home, they inherited an overgrown, 10 year old garden. He has spent his years renovating what was a meticulous Japanese garden into a small piece of woodland among the urban cement.  This double life illustrates his belief that balance in this modern world requires a combination of high-tech and high-touch living. Douglas’ gardening column and podcast, A Gardener’s Notebook, began in 1996 and is available at DouglasEWelch.com/agn.

• The Lazy Gardener
• Your garden – inch by inch

• Wine Bottle Edging

Gina lives and gardens in the Chicagoland area, zone 5b. One summer day in 2007, she decided to grow an organic tomato – four years later, most of the yard of her small house has been replaced by vegetable and perennial gardens. While she still considers herself a novice gardener, killing the occasional plant, every now and then, she grows something phenomenal or builds something interesting. Her greatest gardening accomplishments are the cedar pergola built over a weekend with good friends, raised vegetable beds she constructed herself, and the trip to Las Vegas she won in a tastiest tomato contest. Her philosophy is simple – grow, marvel, eat, laugh, persevere. Gina is a part-time freelance writer and the cofounder and vice president of Forest Park Community Garden, a nonprofit 501(c)3 dedicated to educating the community on building organic sustainable food systems. Gina chronicles her gardening and DIY conundrums at her blog My Skinny Garden.

• Starting A Community Garden
• Growing Peppers in Containers
• Plant Zucchini after July 4th to Avoid Squash Vine Borer Infestation

• How To Make Your Own Potting Soil

Mark Clement is a licensed contractor, co-hosts the live radio show MyFixitUpLife with his wife Theresa, regularly contributes to “Extreme How-To” magazine, “Professional Deck Builder” magazine, AOL’s DIY Life, DIYNetwork.com, HGTVpro.com, OldHouseWeb, “Old House Journal,” and has been a featured guest on DIY Network, Discovery Channel, HGTV and PBS.

• MYFIXITUPLIFE Quick Tip: Lawn Repair
• MYFIXITUPLIFE Quick Tip: Growing Greener Grass

• How To Use a String Trimmer as an Edger
• How To Build a Compost Bin