WHY DID I START A GARDEN BLOG?

Why do gardener's start garden blogs?

It's now the end of the 3rd year of having this garden blog and

I seem like one of the old timers now.

Actually there are many garden blogs that have been around

for over 8 years and some are even older!

So what makes a gardener want to share their garden on the internet?

I'd love to hear how you got started. Here's my story:

My new greenhouse wall.

I got started for a VERY unusual reason.

As a teacher, I have 'off' every summer.

But what most people don't realize is the fact that most teachers go to summer workshops.

the backyard and tropical chicken coop

After teaching for 30 years, I had reached the point where I did NOT want to go

to any more summer workshops to learn NEW things.

And yet, technology will pass a teacher by if they don't keep at it every summer.

It would take a LOT to get me in front of my computer instead of gardening.

Our tropical garden as seen from the sun room

That's when I found out about these online journals called BLOGS.

BLOGS?

What a terrible sounding term. It sounded like the name for a new monster.

Variegated rubber plant, ferns, and palms

But I persisted in finding out about BLOGS so that I could count this as my computer training for the summer.

I read cooking blogs, travel blogs, nature blogs, how-to blogs, and  viewed beautiful photography blogs.

I also read blogs about how to start your own blog.

One great piece of advice they mentioned was to choose a topic that you absolutely LOVED.

This really got me thinking.

Hmm...I wonder if....there was such a thing as a.......

garden blog?

So I started searching for garden blogs the world over. 

I found gardens everywhere and expert gardeners that were willing to share

their gardens with the world. I found garden blogs with delightful stories and others with magnificent photography. I stayed up WAY TOO LATE

reading garden blogs. My wife started to worry about me. 

Each day I got more and more excited about the possibility of starting my own.

Garden blogs had everything I was looking for.

I enjoyed writing, I loved photography, I love teaching others, and I loved graphic design.

Now all I had to do was force myself to sit in front of THE ROBOT screen

and pretend I didn't want to be outside gardening.

That's where living in Texas came in handy.

It is NOT ALL THAT DIFFICULT to stay inside during the middle of the day

during a Texas summer. 

So I developed my plan.

I would garden in the early morning, learn how to design a blog during the terribly hot part of the day,

then return outside in the evening.

I must admit that I learned a lot about computer systems that first summer. 

I was almost a computer geek with a green thumb! LOL 

And what's funny is....I really never felt I was missing out on gardening.

I made a lot of garden friends that first summer and I continue

to visit as many garden blogs as I can before the

school bell rings again.

The inservice project is over but the garden blog is not. I'll still be gardening and blogging when I'm a hundred years old.....hopefully.

 I love all my gardening friends and all the visitors that stop by.

I could not imagine my garden without a garden blog or without you. 

Gardeners are the BEST people in the world and the world over.

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So thanks again for stopping by!

And if you haven't started your garden blog (or a garden), maybe now is the time.

Happy Gardening from David/:0)