The March/April issue of Northern Gardener was delivered to most subscribers’ mailboxes this week and will be on newsstands about March 1. This is a fantastic issue to use as you begin planning your gardens for 2015. There’s plenty for vegetable and flower lovers alike.

The cover story by Susan Davis Price with gorgeous photos from John Gregor is about Amy Thielen’s home garden in northern Minnesota. If you are familiar with Amy’s cookbook or her Food Network television show, you know that much of her cooking has its roots in fresh produce and herbs. Amy’s husband, artist Aaron Spangler, is a gardener, too, and their cottage-style gardens seem to emerge from the land around them. The article includes Amy’s recommendations for some of her favorite vegetables for cooking. (I’m definitely going to grow some of the ‘Blondkopfchen’ tomatoes she suggests which she says “melt into a sauce.”)

Elsewhere in the issue, vegetable lovers can check out Susy Morris’ article on growing No-Fail Carrots and the Minnesota Master Gardener vegetable trials.

If you want to make this year’s garden the most beautiful yet, check out Margaret Haapoja’s profile of a butterfly garden that flourishes at a Duluth health center. The garden is maintained by volunteers and has become a source of beauty and peace for the residents and workers at the center. The issue also includes  an article on growing hops by Laura Schwarz, one on how to grow tropical brugmansias in containers and Debbie Lonnee’s annual preview of all the great new annuals that will be in garden centers and nurseries this spring. These are definitely not your grandma’s petunias.