COLUMBUS, Ohio -- It's April, and that means the Buckeye Yard and Garden Line is back.
The weekly newsletter, affectionately known as BYGL (pronounced "beagle"), is written by Ohio State University Extension educators and specialists as well as other contributors throughout Ohio, and is supported by the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association.
The first issue of 2012 was delivered on April 5 and is available online at http://bygl.osu.edu. About 1,400 people have subscribed to get the email version of the newsletter. Anyone can be added to the list. Just send an email to Cheryl Fischnich at fischnich.1@cfaes.osu.edu.
Curtis Young, agriculture and natural resources educator for OSU Extension, has been the lead editor of BYGL for three years. He is joined in a conference call each Tuesday morning by about a dozen contributors to discuss current issues in gardening and landscape horticulture. BYGL is distributed every Thursday.
"It's a broad spectrum type of newsletter," Young said. "Just about anyone would find something of interest. We keep readers aware of what they should be watching out for or what they may want to plant.
"We get a lot of instant information out there, and it has some predictive value, too. If our contributors see something happening in the southern part of the state, those in central Ohio can expect to see it within a few days, and those in the northern part of the state can look for it within the week. We have fresh material every week; it's not a rehashing of things we've published in the past."
Young said the BYGL audience is a diverse one, including backyard gardeners, nursery managers and landscape professionals. Extension faculty and staff in other states also subscribe to the newsletter to assist them in answering questions from their own clientele, he said.
"We write the articles so they are not over people's heads, nor are they written in a manner that other professionals might feel are too simplistic," Young said. "And, we write them with a sprinkle of humor to keep the interest going."
The newsletter is split into sections: "Plants of the Week," "Hort Shorts," "Bug Bytes," "Disease Digest," "Turf Tips," "Industry Insights," "Weather Watch" and "Coming Attractions."
"Our readers rely on BYGL for valid and current information," Young said. "Not only do we share our observations, but we have the research to back up our statements. This is trustworthy information people may not be able to find anywhere else."
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