Saturday, January 19, 2008

Garden Blogs

Being new to blogging when I started this blog back in September, I did some research on blogs in general, and also on gardening blogs. I had no idea what a garden blog was, but I knew I like to garden and I like to talk about it, so the two just seemed to go together; like peanut butter and jelly. Now here I am talking about gardening while still gardening! I am sure my classmates in school, friends, acquaintances and complete strangers are happy Tina can talk to her computer about gardening instead of boring them with my garden talk.



Hopefully I don't look and sound too silly when talking about gardening all the time. The only time I felt silly when partaking in my favorite past time was at Austin Peay my first semester. The first night of class saw me parking in the 'back 40' and having to walk around the huge building (Kimbrough). BTW there are some lovely gardens on Austin Peay and Lindsay and her crew are doing a good job. Anyhow, while walking around the building I noticed some hollyhocks growing happily. I resolved to come back and see if there were any seeds later on in the season. There were. I gathered a few and stuffed them in a baggie. Once back in the classroom I was busy separating the seeds from the chaff when my classmates started returning from lunch. You should have seen the looks. Finally, someone asked, "What the heck are you doing and what are those 'things'?". Needless to say, that started me on talking about gardening. Poor classmates, they probably got more information than they needed. Now the blog helps to lessen those situations and I can talk to my heart's content. I must talk quite a bit because the Leaf's editor said she had to cut down this past week's post to make it fit in the newspaper. Sigh. That is okay!


I have already done two posts on blogging in general so I won't rehash those posts. I wanted to share some gardening blogs with you in this post. That is not to say I am encouraging you leave my blog-no, no, no-but I think people might like different points of view on gardening from some other gardeners. There is a whole gardening blogger community and those guys are really smart and technologically savvy.


The directory of gardening blogs I like can be found at the following website: http://www.digindirt.com/ This website is a really cool website and has what seems like hundreds of gardening blogs listed. There are actually a total of 19 web pages of all sorts of garden blogs, in alphabetical order. Under each blog listing is a short description of the blog.




The Digindirt website led me to two other Tennessean bloggers. Dave over at "The Home Garden" is a favorite. He even did some posts on blogging! Go figure! Dave's website can be found at http://thehomegarden.blogspot.com/ and he is a very talented and knowledgeable gardener!



Another Tennessee blogger is Frances at the Faire Garden. Her blog website can be found at http://www.fairegarden.blogspot.com/. There are a lot of great pictures on this website and she is very creative.



I found a Maine blogger for my special Maine readers. It is found at http://gorhamgarden.blogspot.com/ and is a blog I enjoy reading, though I think she should post more often!:) And an additional blog for variety found at: http://thegardenho.blogspot.com/ Obviously the name caught my eye, but she is funny too.

Here is a blog from the Georgia area for my great commenter, Skeeter. This blog is from an author in the Atlanta area and can be found at: http://lynncoulter.blogspot.com/ I was surprised there weren't more listed from Georgia, even Maine had more listed! But truthfully, I did not go through every single blog on this website. Enjoy.



in the garden....hoping my computer is fixed soon.





23 comments:

  1. Good morning and happy weekend to everyone.

    Good info on other blogs. I have gone to Dave's a few times and think he is also a good writer and now I will have to check the Maine one out

    Have a great day everyone.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't think I'd read any other blogs --I like your style of writing. I can read your posts and know what your talking about --you speak the language --lol. (too many hunting shows here, hahaha)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tina, Needless to say I am enjoying your blogs and have learned sooo much! I like the format, no side bars and advertisements. You have been so kind to follow up on any question that I have presented. Keep up the good work.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for the mention Tina! I hope my writing is enjoyable for people to read. For me blogging is a way to talk about gardening subjects and to learn about other ideas. It also serves as a journal to keep myself organized. I'm always open to suggestions for improvement. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. You guys are too kind. I just wanted to share some info on other blogs. I have learned so much from them (and mine too). I do visit them each day as well-and here you thought I only spend time on mine!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Dave,
    You know this blog is a little different from most since it is published through an FTP. I can't add in links and so on, don't track the stats and I can't seem to make the old posts available to readers. That is a bummer for me. Yours is good in that way and I have learned a lot from yours and France's. The whole point is to talk, live, eat, and sleep gardening right? The rest sometimes just gets in the way-at least I have been accused of living life this way sometimes. lol

    ReplyDelete
  7. Good info Tina and you are doing a great job! You keep me coming back for more! I started my first Blog reading with the Pet People with my love and care for animals. Then one of us fur crazy people (Stacey) ventured off to a Veterans Blog that I read and comment on occasionally. I have checked in on Daves Blog also but just dont have that much time to comment as my computer time is more then it should be at times. I have more time now with winter but during warmer weather; I may be less and less on the computer. I will always read though and try to make comments when time permits....

    I only have my experience and no education at all on flowers and plants! I don’t consider myself an avid gardener but more of a slight hobbyist and toy with it a bit. I love color in the yard and therefore, I plant flowers! I have learned so much from you Tina and with my lack of knowledge, I find it fun to stump you at times too... LOL.... Keep up the good work!

    Tina, as you know I post occasionally with the Pet People. I can get to ALL the past Topics written by everyone! You dont have access to that? I also keep a copy of all the post I write in my files...

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey Skeeter,
    You have stumped me more than once and experience sometimes more than makes up for education-especially if you don't know how to use your education. You have a great deal of experience and enthusiam and that is what everyone needs no matter their vocation or passion.

    I have access to all of my posts, but readers don't. Therein is the problem. Most all of the garden blogs have archives (and I think I have read them all-good thing I am a fast reader).

    I have said I would contact the Leaf to see if that feature could be added, but I haven't yet-shame on me. It might not be in the grand scheme of things with the newspaper. It is probably enough if people read our blogs but people having access to previous posts would increase traffic even more. Especially when researching plants or techniques or something like that.

    A copy of each post is emailed to me at another email. Therefore I do have a record of my thoughts and recordings. If I printed everything-omg-I would be awash in paper and have enough of that already. I tried to at first but it was too much.

    I enjoy the pet people blog and so does my mother. She reads occasionally. I don't think other gardeners would regularly check into the other blogs on here, but then readers of other blogs might not check in here either! I love your posts and try to look and comment each time. Sandy is also an excellent writer and I love her weekly posts in the hardcopy paper.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Skeeter,
    Without your comments and help in the beginning, this blog might not still be going. It was frustrating posting and not knowing if it was received or anything. Now I know of course. My anonymous reader had been reading from the beginning-just not posting. That helped very much too once I found out she was reading! Now she is commenting and a big part of the group too! Anonymous or not. lol

    ReplyDelete
  10. Tina I checked the Maine blogs and the one in Gorham was ok but you are right about the post....they are not very regular. The other one I did'nt care for at all.

    Yes I do check the pet blog, just do not comment much. But I do go in about every day. If i miss a day or two I read the ones I had not read, as well with the comments. I do the same with the vetrans blog but it does not seem to have as many posts so only go to once or twice a week. I do like them all but must say....yours is the best!!!! I even think if I were not your mother I would feel the same way. I think being so regular and answering everthing makes a big difference. Besides all that....I think everyone that comments here are very nice people and I enjoy them all very much.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Like Skeeter I have no education and very little experience in flowers and plants. I started when I retired as a hobby. I am 70 years old and find it very rewarding to be in my flowers working at day break during the spring and summer months. I am lucky to be able to tell you the common names (and can't on some of them) so I don't try to remember the botanical names!
    My first project was a hillside, I didn't amend the soil properly so I have had to really work at correcting this. Wish Tina had been around to advise me!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Mom and hi Nina,
    Thanks mom for the compliments as always. I am sure Sandy and Stacey appreciate it you read their blogs. I have a bunch of comments on there today and they are actually conversating with me so you'll have some more to read!

    I try to answer everyone but I like the sharing amongst the 'community' best. Sometimes it is best you all just talk amongst yourselves and share. I feel like we all know each other now. Spring is coming and we all need to get together. Nina, you have already mentioned it. Mom won't be coming down until the winter, Dawn, I don't know when, but Skeeter comes up frequently and anonymous might like to join us. Ginger too and anyone else who reads and might like to meet each other. Maybe we could get together downtown sometime for lunch? The Front Page Deli is a great place for lunch. No hurry, since I don't have a job (boohoo) I am flexible and have lots of time to garden and talk about gardening and meet for lunches!

    You all can see I am in a talkative mood today and hubby is still trying to fix the computer. No luck. So talking helps to alleviate my stress with losing my computer. Too cold to garden though I have walked through a few times already. Gardening also definitely relieves stress and makes me happy-gets endorphins flowing. Anyone who has a surly teenager I will tell you a great secret-make them exercise or garden or walk or anything. It is like night and day afterwards. That is how gardening can affect me when I am not TOO tired and sore to enjoy the feeling. Getting older does that.

    Nina, no problem on your hill. You are an avid gardener and will get it right. I tell you the key is leaf mulch and time. The only special challenge I think hills would pose would be the run off of water and the dryness. You have to work with that and manage it an there are all kinds of things which might work. I will see what I can do to help. There are so many topics I can talk about and cuttings, soil, lawns and many more are just a few of them. I know there are topics you all want to see and I promise I will try to get to them all with whatever little knowledge I have from my own experiences-with a little education thrown in.:) Mostly experience and good research skills.

    Nina-70 years old! You can't tell it from talking to you! Gardening makes you very happy and keeps you young too I bet. That is why I bet your dad benefits from a little splash of your plants and your love for gardening! Keeps him going! Sounds like your hubby likes to garden as well. And by the way-you know your stuff really well, like viburnum dilatum! That is more than most know. I am a geek when it comes to that but common names work well. When someone like Skeeter says "Purple Queen", I can look a little stupid by not knowing what the heck it is so latin names are not always the best. It may seem like I know stuff but I am always learning. That is the point of this blog as I said in my introduction-to share and to learn and we all know we can never ever stop learning. The converse is to admit we know everything and I don't believe there is one single person in this world who knows everything so we MUST continue to learn.

    I can't tell you how much I have learned-viburnum pollinators, purple queen, galvanized trash cans, mountain ashes, pruning, topping, orchards-and these are just gardening topics. They don't include the human part of getting to talk to other and learning about other fine folks. It is hard to do this in person sometimes so why not the web? It is the wave of the future....

    I can tell I am getting WAY too deep...gotta go...talking too too too much today

    Think about a get together gardeners galore. I will be talking about my garden club too so that might be an option. Plant swap coming up in April! That is a big deal and FREE! I will bring lots of plants-unusual and common and am even saving some special ones. More on that later folks.

    I truly need to quit talking and babbling.

    ReplyDelete
  13. WOW!!!!! NINA!!!!! Good for you, you go girl. I think I am doing good being on the computer all the time, then you come along. Computers are not of our generation. And all the gardening and going to the nursing home you do every day every day. WOW!! I am truly in awe of you. And to think I thought I was the ole lady in here but you got me by 7 years.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi Guys,
    I have seen skeeters postings on people and pets, I have also checked in with Dave ever since he blogged here. But a Maine garden blog? I had to see for myself because I thought the only thing to write about would be how to save your hedges from winter snow breakage. That is to pat the shubbery down like a bad perp from some cop show-thats some shake down. No she has different things to post and I will check often.
    Well, I have some toilets to set-later. BTW, football tommorrow.....

    ReplyDelete
  15. Dawn with peaches, I am such a ditz! I got your name confused with Terri-Lynn's. You are probably thinking, "Gee, my name is not the same as Nana's name." Mom pointed out your play on words. Great thinking! Now Joanne should not be too mad at me for not remembering all of my sister's last names! Like Skeeter said, we girls tend to change our names and it is and always been hard for me to keep track of mine (except now) let alone sisters!

    You are so funny with all of your writing. Pat down the perps! I thought you all might enjoy a different point of view. She is not listed on digindirt. Not sure why. You should talk to her as I think gorham is not too far?

    ReplyDelete
  16. oops!! I should have said "almost" 70, but what is a few months when you get this age, right? I didn't mean to tell a lie!
    Just proof that one needs to re-read before sending.

    It is 10 degree here this a.m. Our dog was so happy to sleep in the sunroom last night. He has an insulated dog house, but I was afraid it wasn't good enough.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Yes-close enough Nina. My mother had to call me in astonishment as she thought you were younger-I think she is happy someone her age is on here and computer literate too!

    ReplyDelete
  18. To my Gardening Friends
    The Front Page Deli sounds great.
    I am somewhat flexible.....would enjoy very much to see everybody.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Ginger is on board... anyone else? Skeeter when are you next coming up? Nina? Anonymous? Jennifer? Any other readers want to get together and talk plants or swap seeds or something at the Front Page Deli. Or just hang out?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Dave? You are welcomed to come up from the big city too!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Tina, I'm all for it, just say when! Would love to meet everyone.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Tina, just commented on the previous blog as to why I cannot make it. But will get up there at some point and we can meet again then. Believe me, the way you and I talk when we get together, it is probably best you go the first meet and greet alone anyway! You and I together may not let anyone else get a word in! LOL... Yall have fun and report back to let us all know how much fun you had....

    ReplyDelete
  23. Ginger, please contact me so we can set up our lunch at the Front Page. ramseytina5@gmail.com. I had your email but not sure where it is now. Sorry! i won't let it happen again-i promise!

    ReplyDelete

ALL SPAM WILL BE PROMPTLY FRIED. PLEASE DO NOT LIFT PHOTOS OR WORDS. THANKS!