Marvelous March

After the December issue, it is the March issue of Martha Stewart Living that I most anticipate in my mailbox. When it arrives, I know that spring is not far away. It awakens the horticulturalist in me: the houseplant-lover, the produce-seeker and the urban grower. Nature becomes my muse again.

I think the 2010 special gardening issue is one to love and admire. The editors have brought a new focus and energy to the pages, blending a luxuriant mix of cooking, growing, decorating, and even listening, in the pages. The main thrust of the magazine is based on the five senses in the garden: sight, touch, smell, taste and sound. Each sense is given its due time with a creative and informative editorial, embellished with beautiful photography and illustration.

The cover is not my favourite March cover by any means, but I do appreciate and enjoy its bright and organized hit of vibrancy. The editorials are such pleasures to read, including a column written by Martha about her porch at Bedford. The photography is scintillating and engaging, as always, even more so this year, I find. (Perhaps it's the ever-evolving grace of photographic technology.) Also nice to see is a very organic and natural touch of the hand in an article about songbirds. Illustrated in dreamy watercolours by Stan Fellows, the paintings depict some favourite garden birds as well as pictoral instructions on building a standard birdhouse.