Some exciting news! Plus my Top 5 unusual bulbs to buy right now
And the nominees are…
Well that was unexpected.
When I launched The Earthworm back in February, with no ready-made audience, and no credentials or contacts within horticulture media circles, I knew I was facing an uphill slog.
I knew that producing a newsletter at least twice a week, and to a standard that I would be happy to put my name to, would require a significant investment on my part: time, energy, commitment, creative brain jus, the lot. I knew that my non-Earthworm work would have to take a back seat, and my finances would take a hit.
It was a risk, and a big one at that, but one that I was happy to take, because I really deeply felt that there was space in the gardening mediasphere for a new voice and an alternative perspective.
The beautiful, nurturing ecosystem that is my subscriber base has – much like my plants – grown organically. Each time a new subscriber joins the fold, or an existing reader leaves a comment, or Substack tells me that a post has been shared (don’t worry, it doesn’t say by or to whom), I am overcome with a warm, fuzzy feeling – which sounds a bit like a rash, but I promise you is far more pleasant and less medically concerning.
If you’re reading these words right now, thank you. If you’re paying to read them, thank you. I am forever grateful for your support, which acts as a much-needed and much-appreciated validation for the gamble that I took in launching this newsletter.
I always suspected – or at least hoped – that there might be an audience out there for this kind of thing. What I didn’t expect to happen was to gain the attention or the recognition or the appreciation of my peers – that is, other garden media folk. After all, I had deliberately set out to do something different. I was an outsider, trampling all over their turf in a pair of heavy Dr. Martens work boots.
And so it came as a bit of a shock to learn that I had been shortlisted at this year’s Garden Media Guild Awards – basically the Oscars of garden journalism. The category? No less than ‘The Alan Titchmarsh New Talent of the Year’ award. There’s a fancy formal do at the Savoy and everything. I’ve got to say, it’s all a bit much, in the nicest possible way.
I have absolutely no idea whether or not I will win – that is in the lap of the GMG Awards judges. But as clichéd as it sounds, just to be nominated is a really huge honour, and a further vindication that The Earthworm deserves its place in the garden media pantheon. Needless to say, I will keep you posted on what goes down at the ceremony.
The GMG Awards take place on 25 November. You can check out a full list of nominees across every category here.
And now for something completely different…
Every Tuesday for the past few weeks I have been bringing you a list of my favourite spring-flowering bulbs. So far, we’ve covered daffodils, tulips and alliums, which in terms of popularity, familiarity and ubiquity have all other bulbs beaten, hands down.
Look a little further, however, than the pre-selected multipacks at your local supermarket, garden centre or nursery, and you will find a wealth of incredible bulbs, more interesting than any tulip, more eye-catching than any allium, more drop-dead gorgeous than any daffodil.
You’ve got Hyacinthus, Muscari, Scilla, Anemone, Camassia, and more, all of which have species and cultivars worthy of a place in a pot on your patio or balcony. But for me, there are five plants that stand head and shoulders (in some cases literally) above the rest of their spring-flowering friends.
And so here you have it, my Top 5 ‘best of the rest’ bulbs.