I won the 'Broken Trowel' Award

Plus some changes to this Substack and a reader poll.

By Lisa Brunette

I won GreenPrints magazine’s Broken Trowel Award for the short essay “So Mulch to Learn,” which you can read here as part of their Gardening Mishaps Collection.

If you aren’t already subscribed to GreenPrints, allow me to recommend it as a source of funny, heartwarming stories all centered around gardening—but always about so much more. Or should I say so mulch more?

As I mentioned in this ‘Chain Links’ roundup, GreenPrints used to literally appear in print… but they went online-only this year. That’s a bit sad for me, though the upside is that they’re now publishing monthly instead of just seasonally, and they’re also including narrated pieces.

Schedule changes

I launched Brunette Gardens back in August 2022, and Anthony and I have kept up a post cadence of two to three per week since then. But that’s about to change.

We’re moving to one post per week—with a second only if it’s a narrated version of the first. It’s what Substack itself recommends, and I can tell you that in the weeks when we’ve posted three times, we’ve lost subscribers. So that might be too much for people, and maybe twice is even too much. If you’re like me and subscribe to 60+ ‘stacks, the inbox can feel overwhelming at times, even if you’re using the app, which I do.

The other reason is that I write for a living—you can see a list of some of my career publications here—and keeping up with both this Substack and other writing projects has been pushing me consistently into work weeks that are well beyond 40 hours. I’m also in my fifties now and can’t keep up that pace without it negatively affecting my health. Long stretches at the computer seem to be not at all what the doctor ordered!

Anthony’s been focused on his new job as well and hasn’t had the bandwidth to contribute. I don’t want the quality of this Substack to suffer as a result, so we’ll try weekly writings and see where that takes us.

The post schedule will change, too, from Monday/Thursday to Wednesdays. The podcast versions will post on Sundays.

Please do feel free to let us know your thoughts on these modifications, as we’re writing this for you, our lovely readers.

For those of you with paid subscriptions, I’ve already extended your expiration dates to accommodate the less-frequent publication schedule.

Deep discount

We’re offering a hefty discount on all paid subscriptions now through January 15, 2024, with all membership levels discounted further as well. So there’s never been an easier time to become a paying subscriber.

You can give gift subscriptions, too. So much better than a lump of coal... although with energy costs rising, maybe not?

Reader poll

We’d love to know what you’d like to read here in the future. Here’s a handy poll:

Got some thoughts to share that weren’t covered by the poll?

At breakfast this morning, I held up my glass to Anthony, smiled saucily, and said, “How do you like this dystopian hellscape we call America?” He nearly choked on his homemade granola, he was laughing so hard, and he said that should be a meme. If any of you are good with graphics, have at it.

Thank you so much for your readership of Brunette Gardens. We wish you a beautiful fall and relaxing holiday season full of moments to truly cherish… even while we all cackle together into the coming darkness.