Maackia 023: This year’s adventure

I’m Nathan Langley and this is Maackia, a monthly newsletter on my plans for the growing season to come!

What a weird winter. The snow is almost completely gone again, and now the bulbs are well on their way to waking up! As a result, my mind has been thinking about the season to come a little earlier than usual: what I want to do with this newsletter, the website, and what my goals will be for the year.

I’ve landed on a (potentially) crazy idea! 😅

Let’s start with the newsletter side of things. After a false start at the beginning of 2023 with the design prompts, this newsletter has grown into more of a personal design journal. I like that it’s rooted around design, and I think the monthly schedule fits. The newsletters are typically around 1000 words, and a broad topic like design means that there is something interesting to share each month as I work and learn new things.

What’s missing, though, is the original intent for this newsletter: sharing stories about creating gardens at my own home in Sudbury. I have lots of excuses that have kept me from this that I won’t bore you with, but I would like to work towards rectifying this missing piece. But I also don’t want to lose the progress I have made developing this newsletter, as I really like the direction it is going in. So, I’ve decided to make another newsletter.

”Ugh, another one!” 😩

Yes — please hear me out! The new newsletter (new new?) will be modelled on what’s called a pop-up newsletter. The basic gist of which is that it has a defined beginning and end. It is seasonal. Once it’s over, it’s over. I will archive the newsletters on the Maackia website when it’s done and the subscriber list will be deleted. The end. (Until the next season, anyway, when I start another one that people can follow along if they'd like.)

The pop-up newsletter is called ‘A promise yet to be fulfilled’. It will begin on April 17th (fingers crossed!) and will be sent out weekly until September 25th (or there about). It will contain several photos and will ideally top out at 500 words. But it will only focus on the progress I have made towards creating a new garden at home.

If you would like to subscribe to this new pop-up newsletter (thank you!), please head over to maackia.ca and update your account (there should be a ‘Sign in’ or ‘Account’ button in the top right corner of the webpage. If you see ‘Sign in’, click it and enter your email address that you used to subscribe to this newsletter. A log-in link will be sent to your inbox that you will need to click on (there are no passwords for your account).

Once you have logged in, click the ‘Account’ button, click ‘Manage’ next to the ‘Emails’ row, and update your preferences for which newsletter(s) you would like to receive.

If you run into any issues, please get in touch! I can manually change your subscriptions on my end too if need be. Unsubscribing will also remain a one click affair at the bottom of each newsletter that you receive (honestly — I won’t keep sending you emails that you don’t want to read anymore).

My shortest newsletter - ‘Muga’ - will continue to be sent bi-weekly (ish) to paid subscribers like last year. The current year’s newsletters will be freely available to read on maackia.ca if you’re curious about it, but all older newsletters will be only accessible if you are a paid member.

Muga will also continue to be just a photograph and a haiku. Nothing heavy — just a small delight for your inbox as a thank you for your support.

As for the website, I aim to keep it simple. You will be able to find archives of past Maackia newsletters, and, more importantly, you will be able to access my garden ‘Design Guide’. It currently includes the following sections:

And that’s (mostly) it! I have a few more things I am working on, but you know how it goes — under promise; over deliver (yada, yada, yada). I think I have enough work set out in front of me for the year already!

I am really looking forward to the season ahead, though. There are lots of gardens in the queue to be installed this year beyond what I want to do at home. And who knows what fun projects will present themselves along the way.

Thanks again for your support and for following along as I make my way forward on this strange path I find myself on.

Happy spring! 🌷