It fills me with great joy to open the door to May to our travel and outdoor living issue, which features some interesting takes on the topics. This month’s lineup has inspired me, and I hope it does the same for you.
Paige Udermann connects with expert horticulturist Duane Otto from the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum to discuss creating beautiful, lasting cutting gardens. Their conversation fortified my dream to create a cutting garden in our yard. But there’s a problem. A big problem, and it’s shade.
Our backyard’s heavily treed landscape is ideal for keeping an outdoor space cool and comfortable during summer’s hotter days and providing protected conditions for brimming hosta beds, too many ferns to count and smatterings of Jack-in-the-pulpit and lily of the valley. In terms of plotting out a sun-drenched area to nurture blooms, no such luck. (Forget planting much on the side yards. The front yard’s slope is slightly problematic, and much of the garden space is reserved for my first bloomy love: hydrangeas and requisite annuals.) I’ll just continue admiring one of my neighbor’s expansive floral cutting bed, which keeps me florally entertained from late spring to early fall with her cornucopia of colors. Sigh.
When I interviewed Brookie Brandt, I easily related to her travel procurement of memorable items during her many excursions, since I’m one who is drawn to a gift shop like a moth to a flame. Brandt shares her souvenir collection, which doesn’t include what one might think. There isn’t a magnet, T-shirt or snow globe to be found. Curious?
I hope you enjoy the way Ashley Cardona wonderfully shares Alicia Oberg’s thoughts on curated travel excursions. “It’s so much more than exploration, adventure or leisure,” Oberg says. “Travel nudges us toward our fullest human potential.”
Wherever your travels or outdoor living endeavors find you, enjoy this merry month of May, and Happy Mother’s Day.
Until next month,
—Renée Stewart-Hester
