I’m celebrating! I’ve been a member of Garden Communicators International (GardenComm) for many years – they are an excellent organization that offers multiple opportunities for professional development. A few years ago, I joined a GardenComm Power Circle – a working group of colleagues that helps strengthen skills in various areas, in this case, for filming and editing videos. After several months in the Power Circle, I made a garden video from footage shot in my garden that I had prepared for a group session. When I uploaded it to YouTube, I quickly got over 24,000 views, which was shocking to me, but it encouraged me to make more garden videos and improve my craft. Here’s that early video:

This year was the first time I entered two of my garden videos in GardenComm’s 2025 Laurel Awards competition in the Digital Media: Video category. I was thrilled to find out that both of my videos were chosen for Silver Laurel Media Awards! 

Silver Laurel winners are then considered for a single Gold Laurel award in each category. I attended the awards banquet in July and to my shock and delight, one of my videos won the Gold! It was such an unexpected honor and I am spurred on to explore new ideas and new techniques for future garden videos. I am also attempting to keep my garden “video ready” for those perfect video moments and of course, keep Pixie by my side, as she is the real star of the show.

Here is the Gold Laurel winner:

And here is the Silver Laurel winner:

For all of you who follow me on this blog, I thank you so much for your kind words, friendship, and support over the years.

The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it. ~Hubert H. Humphrey