The online correspondence between Ranters Marianne Willburn (in Virginia) and Scott Beuerlein (in Ohio) began in July 2019 with Scott’s column ‘Time for a Grexit’ in Horticulture magazine which grumpily condemned British garden writers and their books. Marianne couldn’t let him get away with it; but chose to answer on GardenRant soil. Scott rebutted. Marianne rebutted his rebuttal, and Scott returned the punch.
Marianne answered with a letter.
What followed has been an edgy, informative, humorous and often intimate portrait of their gardens and lives in very different regions of the country. The letters aren’t managed or edited, and often, readers of GardenRant see them even before Scott or Marianne does.
It’s a gardeners’ correspondence for a digital age. You can find the entire collection of letters below. Enjoy!
Pre-Spring Whirlwind: A Letter From The Midwest
Spring is just around the corner and will spring into its manic business faster than a mouse trap. There's never enough time to observe it. As always, I will just try to buckle up and enjoy what I can of it as I'm hauled variously across it as my own trajectory wobbles like a bottle rocket.
Cochineal and Contrast: A Letter to The Midwest
28 January 2023 Lovettsville, VA Dear Scott, Saturday morning and I’m sitting in the yellow chair I was sitting in when you annoyed me so badly with that Horticulture snark [...]
Compromising on Compromise? Never!: A Letter from the Midwest
So, there I was, rushing around, randomly augering holes right and left and compromising like a son of a bitch. Little thought for siting. No memory for whatever poor, dormant plants I was augering into. Just get ‘em in the ground no matter what.
Of Bulbs, Grandchildren and Christmas: A Middle-Aged Letter To The Midwest
December 28, 2022 Lovettsville, VA Dear Scott, Whew. What a December! I believe I spent the entire month on my knees planting bulbs during the day, and at my desk [...]
The Silver, Gold, and Russets of the Season; A Letter from the Midwest
I'll try harder to greet each morning with a death grip on the positive. I long to feel the clompy green, gold, yellow, brown sweetbay leaves kiss me awake.
Eternal Sunshine of The Creative Mind: A Letter To The Midwest
November 17, 2022 Lovettsville, VA Dear Scott, It says something about my scattered state of mind and work ethic at the moment that I have five half-finished articles up on [...]
Dry and Colorful – A Letter from the Midwest
Thus, years and years of collecting has steadily been undone by an almost equal number of years de-collecting. It was hard at first, got easier over time, and now I remove an ugly plant with a strange grin on my face. It’s a god-like power I wield maniacally.
We’re All Seeking Absolution: A Letter To The Midwest
15 October 2022 Lovettsville, VA Dear Scott, I’m pretty sure you set some name-dropping records per-column-inch in your last letter. After reading it I have no concerns over your ability [...]
Inadequacy, Front, Center, and Heading Off in a General Direction: A Letter from the Midwest
My God! I hate myself. I swear I used to be cool, like the dude in a Fistful of Dollars. Now I’m just Clint Eastwood.
Lions And Tigers and Tropicals, Oh My!: A Letter to the Midwest
1 September 2022 Lovettsville, VA Dear Scott, September dawns and I am completely unprepared for the fact that I was hardly in my garden in August and therefore terribly behind. [...]
Does Absence Make the Heart Grow Fonder? A Letter From The Midwest.
We've been together so much the last two weeks that it's changed everything. We've hung out together here and there before but never with so much quality time. I really feel like I know you so much better now. Although I'm trying very hard not to trust it, all this exposure has not meant I like you any less. This is not at all what I expected.
Strategy and Self-Seeders: A Letter to The Midwest
July 30, 2022 Lovettsville, VA Dear Scott, I sense sarcasm in your last letter. Huge heavy wads of it if I’m not mistaken. The recrimination is deserved. You are correct, [...]