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!
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, [...]
Grinding Out Another Horror Show Project in, Turns Out, My “Yew” Garden
Part of why the project is so horrible is because much of the point of it is to take space that was already too full of junk and make it capable of holding even more junk. Junk had to be move out of the way, only to be in the way of the next task, and then the next.
Too Many Thoughts from An Airport: A Letter to The Midwest
June 9th, 2022 (for May 29th) Dear Scott, I am writing this from Heathrow Airport on the back of an exotic plant list from Dixter and will type it out [...]
Chickweed & Despair, Hope & Dixter: A Letter to The Midwest
Lovettsville, VA May 7, 2022 Dear Scott, As much as I hate to stress you out with yet another ambiguous deadline by immediately answering your letter, I find I have [...]
Muddy March Gardens, Flagrant Power Tool Violations, Heresy, Arson, & More (Another {Belated} Letter to Lovettsville)
After returning home, I went into a power tool-fired, panic-driven, spring cleanup, trying desperately to wipe ugly out of my garden but, truth is, only some of what I did made anything look even slightly better. The real cure for March is April, and the cure for April is May. Anyway, I went into a string-trimming frenzy, slashing back sedges, grasses, perennials and slinging dirt, sticks, gravel, plant labels, cigarette butts, beer cans, and whatever else all over creation anywhere I went. I consider myself kind of a performance artist when it comes to using a string trimmer. And a pretty innovative one at that. A lot of what I do with it would show up very prominently in the DO NOT section of the operating manual if manual writers had anything like the imagination I've got.
Carex Conundrums and Groupie Gripes: A Letter to The Midwest
Lovettsville, VA 20180 March 17, 2022 Dear Scott, I am glad we agree upon the many joys of Brunnera and Carex, if not the fact that you are clearly affable [...]
Confronting Humor and a Lack of it from Every Angle: A Letter from the Midwest
And dark and mysterious people like me hate being called “affable.” In fact, even affable people even hate being called “affable.” Which, I’m certain you knew. And why you said it. And, guess what, I forgive you. Yes, I forgive you. Because sometimes you’re a good person.
Hackneyed Metasequoia and Other Confessions: A Letter To The Midwest
6 January 2022 Lovettsville, VA Dear Scott, I thought I’d confuse you by preempting your letter with one of my own. No, you are not behind, I am simply ahead. [...]
Hardened Plant Nerd Seeks Horticultural Innocence: A Letter to The Midwest
December 9, 2021 Lovettsville, VA Dear Scott, My apologies for allowing your letter to float gently down through the inbox until it lodged somewhere between a reminder to pay my [...]
Gauging Horticulture’s Place in the General Public’s Consciousness
One of the challenges horticulture faces in proving its importance is that it does most of its best work at the subconscious level.
Austen, Fiona, and The Power of Greening Urban America: A Letter To The Midwest
September 4, 2021 Lovettsville, VA Dear Scott, It is as if Virginia Woolf & Jane Austen came together over a few drinks and birthed your last letter. What a read. [...]
Getting Hosed in the August Garden; Another Letter from the Midwest
But, until I actually get around to planning a reptilian vacation, I'm dragging hoses. And hoses are the work of the devil! Evil, terrible products. Horrendous inventions from the very beginning.