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Stay Gardening for Fun and for Life - Chuck Eirschele

Chris Writes about Gardening - The How-to, Make-believe and True-life Stories

More than 30 years ago, Chris began a garden life that has now evolved into her "stay gardening" muse; once from coffee cans used as pots and coleus the only plant she grew.

Chris has moved her gardens and now writes her stories in the low deserts of Arizona. From her native Wisconsin through Midwestern Ohio, Chris has grown potted gardens inside and out, and in planting beds wherever she has lived. She shares shooting photos and a love for orchids with her husband while their Dachshund rambles on through their patio garden.

Chris Eirschele has maintained professional memberships from 2006, with the Garden Writers Association.

Below the fold or following this, all Chris' Suite101 articles are found.

Home Gardens and Horticultural Aspects in a Variety of Media

Chris writes on home garden and horticultural topics with equal enthusiasm. From Ohio Gardener magazine,editor Michelle Byrne Walsh comments, "Chris Eirschele's gardening articles always include lots of specific hands-on information, but the writing is breezy and easy to follow. I enjoy the way she approaches many different topics and ideas." She is a contributing writer; her most recent article was on Calibrachoa.

Chris has been published in a random collection of print magazines. Early in her writing, she was a contributor on garden topics in Ohio's travel magazine, Over the Back Fence. In 2009, two distinctly different takes on St. Luke's Medical Center's healing garden were published; in the December issue of Milwaukee Magazine and on Suite101.com Healing Garden at St. Luke's Hospital Milwaukee for which she received an Editor's Choice Award.

Geared towards horticultural professionals, Chris wrote for Greenhouse Grower in 2011. It brought her in contact with longtime editor, Delilah Onofrey who recently said, "It has been a pleasure working with Chris as an author. I also love her tagline or slogan-- Stay Gardening!" "Overcoming Big Box Obstacles" and "Dill's Greenhouse is Making the Most of a Mature Market" are the result.

To keep the garden life going, Chris created her Stay Gardening Blog, for backyard gardeners and plant collectors alike.

Horticultural Trained Master Gardener Beginnings

"Chris aptly combines her horticulture training, gardening experience and passion, as well as her ability to communicate, in every article she writes. I have watched her develop and grow her career from the first day she sat in one of my horticulture classes and, over the past few years, as she continues to expand her writing portfolio. It's truly a pleasure and honor to have Chris as a colleague in the garden communications field," says Melinda Myers.

Representing Milwaukee County Extension Master Gardeners, Chris spoke to groups like Women’s Health Initiative and senior and veteran groups and at a television-station sponsored demonstration garden. Chris pursued a horticultural education at Milwaukee Area Technical College while working as a private gardener for a Hosta enthusiast and selling plants at greenhouse garden centers.

Her past memberships included Southeastern Wisconsin Master Gardeners, Incorporated, for a time as Program Coordinator. Chris belonged to the Daylily Society of Southeastern Wisconsin and the Metropolitan Columbus Daylily Society. She maintained a membership with the Perennial Plant Association from 2007 through 2011.

Garden Interviews by and About the Writer

Chris has been interviewed about her writing, the life and its challenges:

• Working Writers and Bloggers - Directing Your Brand of Freelance Writing
• Inspired Pen Writing

She has taken many opportunities to interview plant people, including Garden Experts at Milwaukee's Proven Winners Event Muse on Plants, Botanist Author David Brandenburg of Dawes Arboretum in Ohio and Give Back to Gro Recognizes Little Sugar Creek Community Garden.

Editor's Choice Awards from Suite101 A Sampling

• Outdoor Living Local Garden Events Sponsored by Proven Winners
• Indoor Plant Sansevieria Mother-in-law's Tongue for Low Light
• Coleus Plant Winners at a New Trial Garden
• Wildflowers of Wisconsin and the Great Lakes - A Book Review
• Alexander Livingston's Tomato Legacy
• Visit Oriental Gardens at Ashland High School
• Trailing Plants for Suspended Flower Gardens

Variety of Sites Chris' Garden Musing Found

Follow her travels to gardens on BucketTripper.

Her view of the garden life at the blog, A Quiet Simple Life - What Does a Christian Gardener See?

At Untrained Housewife, her start-up advice for beginning gardeners.

Chris was a correspondent with Editor's Choice Awards at Orato.

At theMulch.com she focused on container gardening.

Garden Books to Spend Time With

Chris believes books and gardens naturally go together. She is currently reading Extreme Gardening by Dave Owens. She is rereading Water-wise Plants for the Southwest Garden Book. But, has not let go of Potted Gardens and Paradise Found.

Chris asks that you follow her on Twitter for up to the minute article postings. For gardeners, garden writers and bloggers or those part of the writing life, you are invited to friend her on Facebook.