Garden Gate – July 2019
English | 86 pages | True PDF | 53.8 MB

A better place Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote, “To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived—that is to have succeeded”. This previous spring a few of the Garden Gate team and others from our Des Moines office volunteered to cut
and remove invasive woody species from the edge of an overgrown pond in one of our city parks. At the end of a very tiring day, with blisters, scrapes and lots of sore muscles, I think everyone agreed it was worthwhile and amazing to begin the process of a much larger park renovation that will impact tens of thousands of people in
years to come. On page 56 you’ll find an opportunity to leave the garden world and nature a bit better by planting a patch of milkweed, essential plants to the life cycle of monarchs in their 3,000 mile journey each year. Jennifer shares eight regional native milkweed recommendations and gives you tips on collecting and starting seeds if you’d like to pass them along to your gardening friends and family. It’s a small thing that can have an enormous impact on one of our gorgeous winged wildlife species. And if you have success, we’d love to see pictures of your plants and butterflies—share a photo on Instagram of Garden Gate magazine and include #ggmonarchs in the caption.
Happy gardening! – From the Editor