About this site

Many years ago, when I was an assistant features editor at The Tennessean, I had the chance to start a weekly column about my hobby, gardening. I called it The Garden Club, and wrote that it was “a place for readers who enjoy gardening to share questions and answers, tips and other items of interest.”

I’m a freelance writer and copy editor now, still a gardener (Middle Tennessee, USDA Hardiness Zone 7a), and still writing about gardening, now in essays and online as a garden contributor at HGTV.com and for the blog at Gardens of Babylon garden center in Nashville.

Gardeners always have something to learn and something to share, so I’m inviting readers to come to The Garden Bench to find answers, discuss problems and share success stories and information.

As I told readers back then, gardening is my hobby; my background is in journalism, not horticulture. But there are plenty of horticultural experts in Middle Tennessee, and I call on them, and reach out to the vast stores of information in books and on the internet, to answer your questions, and some of mine, too.

So if you have questions, just ask. I’ll try to find the answers. E-mail me at gloria@gloriaballard.com.

And if you want to see what’s happening in my garden, click over to my garden journal, Turning Toward the Sun.