EDITORletter

Your editor at the McKee-Beshers WMA. Photo taken by Amanda Cash.

Outstanding in the Field

The trip to see the sunflowers at McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area near Poolesville, MD, is always enjoyable. I must have more than 300 photos of the various fields over the last several years of visiting there. I am in only a few of them, but this year, I asked intern Amanda Cash to snap a couple shots of me for fun. It was a hot and humid July day, and we entered the field just as a rainstorm was ending, so the air was extra thick and muggy. I’m not exactly camera-ready, but I’d rather capture the moment than wait for another time when I’d be perfectly styled, because that may never come. If these last few years have taught us anything, they have reinforced our need to seize the day. There is no perfect time, there is only now. Take advantage of the opportunities that come your way and learn to say “yes” more often. Another lesson coming out of the pandemic is to mark our milestones and accomplishments. Not all of us get that chance, so it is with great pleasure that I announce the news that Washington Gardener Magazine received the 2021 Media Awards Silver Medal of Achievement for Consumer Magazine (Circulation < 20K), presented by GardenComm: Garden Communicators International. This national award recognizes individuals and companies who achieve the highest levels of talent and professionalism in garden communications. Recipients of the Silver Medal represent the top winners in each competition category. In other award news, the summer interns and I submitted several items grown in our community garden plot and my home garden to the Montgomery County Fair. We won 17 ribbons total—including a grand prize for a celosia flower that grew from plants that self-sow themselves in the back of the plot each year. I am pretty sure the celosia seeds I originally planted there came from our annual Seed Exchanges, so I have to thank the person who brought them to share there many years ago. As RuPaul says, “You’re a winner, baby!”

Happy gardening, Kathy Jentz Editor/Publisher Washington Gardener 826 Philadelphia Ave. Silver Spring, MD 20910 Phone: 301-588-6894 kathyjentz@gmail.com www.washingtongardener.com Ruth E. Thaler-Carter Proofreader

Jackie DiBartolomeo Amanda Cash Molly Cuddy Interns

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