Gardening is big business all over Martha’s Vineyard. To meet this demand, the Vineyard's long-established landscape and garden companies have been joined in recent years by a wave of young gardeners who are willing to work long hours during the season to make a good living.

On Martha’s Vineyard, summer camps abound with options for children of all ages and interests. There are drop-in day camps offering a diverse group of activities guaranteed to delight and tire out even the most enthusiastic child. Weeklong adventures at sea, in the woods, on the farms or on the sports fields help focus attention on a more singular aspect of summer fun.

Beth Kehoe, a lively 86 year old, lives in the Oak Bluffs house built by her late husband. She relies on a variety of local services to assist her each day, from Meals on Wheels lunches to the Vineyard Village volunteers who bring her grocery shopping and to the YMCA, where she swims laps in the pool. Her backstroke is the envy of far younger swimmers.

More than eighty years ago, two Island women knitted six red stockings, filled and distributed them to needy local children, and the Red Stocking Fund was born. Today the fund is still very much a grassroots organization run by volunteers. Every year the Red Stocking Fund provides gifts and warm clothing for 300 to 400 children ages newborn to eighth grade.

Over forty years ago, the Vineyard Gazette fashioned its very first holiday gift guide. An honest-to-goodness mail-order catalogue, the inaugural publication served as a way for Island vendors to advertise special sales and promotions, and connected local goods and services with off-Island consumers leading up to the holiday season. Here we present you with the talents and energies of our Island community in 2016.

Quite suddenly in mid-September, night-time temperatures start to fall, we unpack that feather duvet and a pot of hearty soup simmering on the stove once again is an appealing meal. Yet the pleasure in color, growth, and greenery are perennial and can be enjoyed in various ways, even as the season changes. You can bring the garden indoors as you firmly shut the door to keep the drafts out.

From runway renegades to fashion al fresco, Vineyard designers evolve in style.

How do ideas for a new home or an updated kitchen move from dream to reality? Erin Ryerson goes back to the drawing board with three up-and-coming Island home designers to learn about craft, juggling young families with a budding career, and what it means to work a traditional 9-5 on an Island where seasonal schedules prevail.

Life in the Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association (informally called the Camp Ground) is a unique experience, and never more so than on Illumination Night. Each August the event draws thousands of visitors, as residents adorn their cottages with lanterns in a tradition dating back to 1868.

Seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, the small staff at Island Grown Initiative's Thimble Farm — now doing business as Island Grown Farm Hub at Thimble Farm — tends more than 30,000 square feet of greenhouses.