My Sally Field Moment.

“You like me, you really, really like me.” Like Sally Field when she accepted her best actress award for Places in the Heart, these were my first thoughts upon opening the report on my latest newsletter. A great open rate had me basking in the adulation of a million adoring fans – okay maybe a few thousand but still I felt acceptance and love as my audience clicked through my newsletter. After all, my newsletter was a labor of love. I spent hours trying to create material that was relevant and important. I know all too well how much spam comes through daily and I wanted to make sure that everything I shared was important and would be found to be, in some way, helpful. Favorite plants. Things to do in the garden. Problematic insects. And of course the occasional rant. All woven together to give my subscribers 10 minutes or so of gardening inspiration.

And then I looked at the ‘Unsubscribed’ numbers. Five! What! How could they? Didn’t they like me, really, really like me? Wasn’t my content helpful, insightful? As I looked at the reasons they unsubscribed I was puzzled. Some said they had not signed up for my list. Yes, they had and I had a signup sheet to prove it but in their defense it had probably been a while since I had sent out a newsletter and maybe they had forgotten. “No longer interested” – ouch. Why? But then I came across one subscriber who really didn’t like me. She said that one of my favorite plants was not native. And then she went on and on. True, I had extolled the virtues of aralia ‘Sun King’; it was named by the Perennial Plant Association as the Plant of the Year in 2019 – and my bees love it. Perhaps it’s not native in my area, but I find it a truly garden-worthy addition. I do not use only native plants; I find there is a balance. As a beekeeper I try to make sure my garden is in harmony with nature but I also know that there are some things that I like that might not be considered native and since I am the one paying the bills I incorporate them. It’s all about balance, in my humble opinion. Often we get on such soapboxes that we end up throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

I will continue to garden as I garden and share my opinions as I feel them. It is nice to be liked and appreciated but that is not the end goal. And while some of you like me, you really, really like me the rest might not. And I’m ok with that.