Weekend Reading 9/29/23

Welcome to Garden Center magazine's Weekend Reading, a weekly round-up of consumer garden media stories meant to help IGCs focus marketing efforts, spark inspiration and start conversations with consumers.

This week: The benefits of native plants for insects and birds, accessible gardening tips, how grief gardening can help people cope with loss, an outer space plant experiment and the closure of the UK’s oldest gardening magazine.

Why You Should Grow Native Plants in Your Garden, Smithsonian Magazine

Entomologist Doug Tallamy explains how growing native plants in your garden can help insects and birds.

Get It Growing: More about accessible gardening, Sequim Gazette

The Clallam County Master Gardeners share tips for accessible gardening, including the need to select a garden site with your specific needs in mind and to garden conscientiously and prevent injuries.

How grief gardening helped two PNWers cope with loss, The Seattle Times

Grief experts report that gardening has various therapeutic benefits during times of distress, including reducing anxiety and providing a sense of comfort, restoration and purpose.

Space Gardening, Prepping Spacesuits, and Descent Training on the International Space Station, SciTechDaily

The outer space experiment aims to help researchers better understand how adaptations of plants in one generation could transfer to the next.

Editor blames high cost of seeds on the cover of Amateur Gardening as the reason why the 139-year-old magazine is closing, Daily Mail

Amateur Gardening, the UK’s oldest gardening magazine, is to close after 139 years. Founded in London in 1884, the weekly magazine had a circulation of 300,000 copies at its height in the '50s and '60s.

Enjoy your reading, have a great weekend and we'll see you next week!