Friday, July 5, 2013

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.
***
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)

20 comments:

  1. What a lovely story! I'm glad you started this garden blog. It's one of my favourites.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by and for the kind words! :0) David

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  2. Congratulations on three years. It's fun to look back and see just how you got started.



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    1. Thanks, Shirley. Happy Gardening and have fun writing your wonderful blog! David/:0)

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  3. Your garden is looking fabulous David and I loved reading the story of why you started blogging. I think yours is the most similar I've heard to mine. I started because my boss (I was in marketing for an architecture firm) thought it would be a great guerrilla marketing effort for a couple of us to start blogs on a topic we were passionate about and occasionally link back to the company website. That job is long gone but the blog lives on!

    Also thanks for the "hi" sent along to the Fling with Cindy, I wish you could have been there!

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    1. I have always wondered how you got started with your wonderful blog. I admire your creativity and all the fun directions you take your blog. Yes, Cindy is the best. Maybe someday they'll bring FLING back to Texas and I can meet some of my blogging friends like you! That would be terrific.
      David/:0)

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  4. I enjoy the garden blogging community so much. I love seeing how differently everyone gardens, and I learn so much!

    I got started when I kept talking my husband's ear off about gardening, since I didn't really have any friends that gardened. My computer-guru (and non-gardening) husband finally suggested blogging - probably because he wanted me to talk about something other than gardening! :)

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    1. What a fun story! Yes, my wife is the same way....she gets tired of all the plant talk. You are one of my northermost blog friends so it is always fun to see what you are up to there in the Boston growing zone.
      BTW: I loved that potted display for the 4th and that tree stump. Cool!
      David/:0)

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  5. Love your story, here is mine. I have always loved taking photos of my plants, but really did not have an audience for them. I happened to see Rock Rose's blog in Southern Living and I thought, I can do that. I enlisted my teen (yes, the easy way out) and got a blog set up. I hit my 1 year anniversary in April.

    PS Rock Rose and Tropical Texana were the first blogs I followed.

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    1. What a great story. Yes, I am so glad you started blogging. I enjoy all of your plant stories and your fun recipes. Congratulations on ONE year. My that woooshed by, didn't it.
      Best wishes for year 2!
      David/:0)

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  6. Lucky for us that you started blogging those three years ago! I only recently discovered your blog (having been away from gardening blogging for a while) and it's just great -- so fun and informative.

    I began my gardening blog because gardening is a passion and I enjoy the sharing of ideas and information, triumphs and failures. It's a wonderful community -- gardeners are the best!

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    1. Thanks for stopping by. Yes, I know about your garden blog and it is so much fun to see gardens from your part of the world. I love the plants there and your blog. Thanks for stopping by and reading Tropical Texana.
      David/:0)

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  7. Your tropical garden, wow! It looks gorgeous and inspiring David, and lovely story how you got into blogging (same here, I thought the word 'blog' sounded strange at first but there you go...). It's good to share what one is passionate about.

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    1. Thanks as always for stopping by! And your garden is just as inspiring to me! Here's to many more years of your terrific blog over there in England.
      David/:0)

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  8. I found garden blogs on the net years ago when I was starting a new garden in Mobile AL. At night I enjoyed reading them and looking at pictures. Then I realized I could have a blog too-that it wasn't that hard. When I found out I was moving to the Houston Area, I started looking for blogs in this area so I could learn about the gardening conditions and be ready. So now mine is the journey of my Texas garden and other thing I do so my family back home can visit me. Cindy's was one of the first I found, along with yours. Thanks for all the free info!

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    1. I'm so glad you started your garden blog. And what a wonderful reason.
      I see you've started to add movies. I'm envious!!! That is the next thing I've got to figure out. I'll be watching your garden grow on your video clips. What fun! You must be very good at computers. Perhaps I'll get my teenage computer geek son to help me.
      Happy Gardening!
      David/:0)

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  9. Me encanta tu blog y disfrute tu historia...Amo la jardineria

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  10. I am inspired by your brightly painted greenhouse wall of cement block.....and as always by your blog. thank you.

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  11. I LOVE your colorful greenhouse wall -- so fun! But what I really stopped by to say is Happy Blogiversary!

    My own story? I started blogging in 2006 after a year or two of following two very early Austin garden blogs (Soul of the Garden and Zanthan Gardens) and champing at the bit for a blog of my own. I guess you could say I started blogging in order to join the conversation. I'm glad you're here contributing your own special voice as well, David.

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  12. It's so fun to read about other gardening blogs out there! Great pics - looks especially lovely to us Minnesota folks who are knee-deep in the snow about now. Now's the time when we just dream about our gardens! :)

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I always appreciate your comments & questions! Happy Gardening from David/ Tropical Texana