A guide to making the most out of my Substack Newsletter.

Some background information for those new to Substack

My Leaf, Root & Fruit monthly planting guide and garden update has been sent out to enthusiastic readers every month since October 2014 and has now amassed quite a following. I write about growing food in a temperate climate, with a focus on fruit trees, vegetables and generating healthy garden ecosystems. I have recently transitioned our free monthly planting guide and garden update to Substack.

Substack is a growing online platform for writers to share content with their readers. It is a very popular platform in America and the UK, but I’m finding that it is fairly unknown to our fellow Australians.

The Monthly Newsletter containing my planting guide and garden update will sent directly to your inbox, free of charge and it always will be. However, there are many other features available to our subscribers. Some are free, some require you to start paying a monthly or yearly subscription.

Why am I asking you to support my work?

When I started the Leaf, Root & Fruit business in 2014, I was posting blogs and regularly active on social media. It was a lot of fun engaging with and supporting many of you in growing your own food.

Now, I want to get back to those initial and fulfilling times of regular blogging and connecting with more growers. Behind the scenes, I am drafting a book, and still enjoying facilitating a range of workshops.

I’m living my dream of writing and producing all kinds of helpful guides and information using my experiences in growing food.

In April this year, I wound back most services that the LRF business had offered.

The main avenues that I am currently earning a living is via:

• running workshops

• paid newsletter subscriptions

I’m committing to spending three to four days per week in the office, regardless of cash flow and how many paying subscribers I have. I'm making writing my main occupation.

I am loving it!

I have so many ideas for blog posts that I want to write. For example, I’ve been wanting to write a Guide to Growing Blueberries for about five years, but have never managed to find the time. That time is now!

(I recently wrote and published the Guide to Blueberries).

The blog posts and updates will be a combination of free and paid content. Those in a fortunate enough position to support me financially, will also be supporting plenty of free content to help everyone, including not so financially secure folks, who are equally keen to get growing!

I’m giving myself until mid-spring to make this work. That will be over five months of writing almost full time… I’ll commit to that… regardless of how many paying subscribers I have…

After that, The more paid subscribers I have, the more time I can afford to dedicate to writing.

About the different sections of the Leaf, Root & Fruit Substack page:

Newsletter Archives

As mentioned above, the monthly planting guide and garden update will be sent straight to your email inbox. However, you can also access the newsletter directly from my Substack webpage. Previous newsletter editions are available in the archive section and can be accessed by paying subscribers.

Vegetable Patch from Scratch

This section will be most useful for beginners, but will have plenty of tips for seasoned veggie growers too. I’m covering:

• Analysing your property to find the ideal location for the patch.

• Garden bed design and material choices.

• Improving soil and composting.

• How to sow seeds, raise seedlings and transplant them.

• Planting seasons and what to plant and when.

• Crop rotation and planting succession crops.

• Watering, including irrigation systems for veggie patches.

Most of this guide will be written and published in the second half of 2023 with a few timely follow-up posts next year. There’s a new post sent out every Tuesday morning, directly to your inbox.

Resources

To help sweeten the deal for paying subscribers, I posting plenty of additional resources in this section. It is a random selection of resources to help you in the garden, including:

• Plant lists such as potential understory plants for Edible Forest Gardens

• Multigraft plans for espaliered fruit salad trees

• Fruit Tree Ripening Charts

• Recommended suppliers and contact lists

• Planting plans

• Landscape plans and plant lists specific to our own garden

I’m happy for suggestions of other resources you might find useful and I’ll consider adding them in the future (feel free to post suggestions in the comments section at the bottom of this page). Paying subscribers will receive an email every time one of these resources are added. They can also access them any time via the Substack webpage.

Future plans for content

I have a few ideas for content to be added down the track to our Substack page. As far as I am concerned, the sky is the limit in terms of the content that I can write to help you grow your own food. Your support will enable me to keep on publishing it.

Please add any requests you might have for future directions in the comments section.

Other features of my Substack page

Comments

After each monthly newsletter is sent out, I receive dozens of emailed responses from my readers. Some of them are simple “thank you” emails, others are lengthy garden updates from their own gardens and many are asking for garden advice. I gratefully read all of these emails and enthusiastically respond to them. But wouldn’t it be great if all of those questions and responses were shared with all the other newsletter subscribers? Imagine if someone is having an issue with their lemon tree and asks for advice. When I am able to share that advice publicly, it supports anyone else having the same issue!

One of the fantastic features of the Substack platform is the ability for readers to add comments at the end of any newsletter or post that I create. You can now all share your garden updates, your feedback, your helpful hints and tips and also any questions you may have directly at the end of the newsletter. I’ll do my best to respond to each and every one of them as quickly as possible. Adding comments instead of emailing me directly will still take me the same time to respond to them all. Sharing that effort in the comments section could potentially help thousands more gardeners, that view the response!

It's worth mentioning that the comments are only visible when you view the email on the Substack website. Commenting on the newsletter is usually a feature only available to paying subscribers, but I have tweaked the settings for the first few editions as a trial, to see how well it works for us all.

I’m pretty excited about this feature and look forward to those garden related updates and questions flooding in!

Sharing content

Like my work? Want others to read it? It is easy to share specific posts or newsletters with your family and friends. From the forwarded email, they will be able to easily subscribe to our content.

You also have the ability to gift subscriptions to others. Using this feature supports them to grow great food and supports me to write more content… a double win!

What’s going to happen to my older content on the original LRF webpage?

Don’t worry, all that original content will remain there, free of charge for you and everyone else to access. In fact, I will be aiming to post plenty of new posts on the LRF webpage in the coming months (such as this handy guide on Edible Gardening for Renters). Most of the ‘How to Grow’ and other gardening guides will be posted in the traditional blog rather than here on Substack. It’s important to note though, that writing all those free blogs wouldn’t be possible without the support of our paying subscribers.

A few last hints and tips for those completely new to Substack

I’m finding Substack is a great antidote to the monotonous scrolling of Facebook and Instagram. The more time I am spending on Substack, the less on the other socials that I felt were shortening my attention span. Thanks to algorithms designed to sell ads, those traditional socials no longer offered the more valuable content that I am after.

You can also use the search function to look for new writers to subscribe to. Let me know if you come across anything interesting that I should be checking out!

There’s a Substack app that you can add to your phone or tablet to make viewing the content easier and more enjoyable.

Managing Your Subscription

If you don’t want to receive email with each of the posts from a particular series, that’s ok! Click here where you can mange your subscription settings and elect to opt out of any sections that you would rather not receive as emails. Paying subscribers can always access the content directly from our Substack page if they’d rather avoid a clogged email inbox.

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Thanks for your support… I’m super excited about this change in direction for the business and being able to better interact with and support you all to grow your own food.

Good Luck & Happy Gardening!

Duncan