Does blogging make you a better gardener?

I was being a bit reflective today - (it is my birthday and that tends to happen as I think of myself getting yet another year older). I live in a very remote area, and very few people other than the family actually ever see my garden.
The grands love to run around and play and I have to bite my tongue when they pick pretty flowers to bring me.  I do want them to grow up enjoying nature, and knowing where their veggies come from, and enjoy the taste of a sun warmed tomato straight from the bush. I don't want them to think the garden is un-touchable.  I think it is working - my 4yr old grandson loves to garden.




Hence the little friends that share my garden with me...






With blogging though, I bring hundreds of people into my garden - an open garden every day....  I do think that has made me a better gardener.
 I think "oh my angel wing begonias are looking just as pretty as Bernie's"  I love how she has them hanging all in a row!


An orchid flowers and I just know that Desiree will post a lovely comment about it, even though she has a greenhouse full of orchids that seem to flower all year, while mine have a mind of their own.




I start to clean the mildew and moss off the pavers in my path and think of Missy running through the path in "her" garden chasing lizards.  For sure she would slip and slide on these!

I send out cosmos seeds and then see their flowers popping up in everyone's blog - I did warn everyone they could be a little weedy!  They have taken off on the side of the pool fence and formed a cheery border.

Now I have started joining in a few things which keep me accountable and on a bit of a blogging schedule one is the Urban farm handbook challenge that you can read more about here .  I won a pair of gardening gloves in the first month which was rather nice....  Last month we were building up the soil and this month making cheese. I have wanted to make cheese for so long, and this just gave me that extra shove.
Christine from slow living essentials has put out another challenge slow-living-month-by-month- and I have been enjoying doing this.
On the 5th of the month I post my harvest photos and link to garden bloggers harvest day
Then of course on the 15th I am linking to garden bloggers bloom day and then pretty soon after that to follow up foliage.
Suddenly I have a full blogging schedule....Oh dear, am I setting myself up for failure?   I think not - bloggers are very generous and don't come after you with a whip if you don't make the meet up, and I am finding it quite fun to have a few themes, memes or whatever you want to call them.
My first adventure into blogging began when I joined Kitchen Gardeners International, and suddenly there were all these gardeners willing to share their wealth of knowledge.  I posted a few photos and discovered that one could do the same thing on a thing called a blog.  I stumbled around learning how to post photos and follow other bloggers.
What a wealth of information I found out there and such great support cheering me on to become a better gardener, with their advice and support.
 Thank you everyone!
Does anyone else want to share how they started blogging?

Comments

  1. I love your blog and the pix u post. I started blogging as I wanted to share my world and get to know more about what other bloggers do & the world they live in. And I get to do it from my desk top without leaving home. Makes each day something to look forward to...

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    1. thank you, it does open up a whole new world doesn't it? I wouldn't worry about the stats - just enjoy the process.

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    2. Hehehe. Actually, I check the stats just to know that my blog is not boring or even worth visiting...But I am starting to enjoy blogging now and discovering what else I can share with the readers...So knowing that there are people actually reading it makes it all worthwhile.

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  2. I enjoy knowing that there are other bloggers opening my blogs and pages to have a look at my posts and it excites me to see the pageviews increasing but I wish I knew who they are because I have only 1 follower so far. LOL.

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  3. First of all, Happy Birthday! I too think that blogging has made me a better gardener. I learn all kinds of new things by reading other blogs, and also by posting about my own garden, and reading others' comments and suggestions. Participating in memes is a really good way to attract other people to read your blog. I only participate about half the time, but no one seems to mind!

    I started blogging as a way to document my new garden, starting over in a new house. I've made some great virtual friends!

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    1. Alison,
      thank you! Yes I find it very useful to look back on the same time last year and see what I was doing. I often think I should add the weather as I am sure there wasn't this much rain last year!

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  4. Happy Birthday from me as well. I've found blogging to be a great learning journey. I know I started quite by accident and never expected anyone to read what I wrote. I had just wanted to try out this new fangled thing called blogging and when I started three years ago I had no idea how much I would enjoy popping in to visit other gardeners, and I didn't realise just how much I would learn along the way. I think gardening bloggers have got to be the most supportive and helpful community out on the web. I'm so glad I gave blogging a go.
    BTW, I'm so pleased with how those Cosmos seeds of yours have taken off and filled in a huge hole in the garden. Everyone comments how wonderful they look.

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    Replies
    1. Bernie,
      So true, we all seem to have started quite tentatively. I agree with you about how supportive and helpful other garden bloggers are. I am so glad you had a hole to fill with that cosmos as they are always in flower and attract so many butterflies, very cheery.

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  5. Hello, and Happy Birthday to you from me as well♡♡♡
    I am 56 years old and have the same kind of feeling for birthday, haha.
    Oh, what a GORGEOUS orchid!!! I'd love to see in my own eyes, my friend♬♬♬
    And happy for you to know how much blogging worthwhile for you, I realized that the relationship through blogging is really wonderful.
    Lots of love and Hugs to you, xoxo Miyako*

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    Replies
    1. Hi Miyako,
      Thank you, oops I am one year older than you! I am always amazed to see orchids bloom in my backyard.

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  6. Happy Birthday from me to! Your blog is always a joy to visit. Like you I have made so many gardening friends through blogging. I started My Garden & Me in 2010. I belong to another gardening blog Grows on You which I started in 2009 and found a very special gardening friend who goes by the name of Bush Bernie she invited me to read her blog ‘Bush Bernie’s Garden Blog’ She encouraged me to create my own blog and there you are that’s how I arrived in blogger land.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Sueb,
      Thank you, Bernie is wonderful isn't she? I love the fact too that we are all over the world but share that common bond.

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  7. I sure think it does. I have learned so so much from other gardeners. Keep up the good work!

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    1. Clint,
      We can share the trials and also the joys of this wonderful hobby we all share.

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  8. I was a blog reader and then it occured to me that I really liked writing and perhaps I had thngs to share. I am also hopeless at keeping a diary and this seemed like a way of keeping a diary without really keeping one.

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    1. Fiona,
      How true that is - I often start a journal, and then it just fizzles out, something about blogging keeps you going and I think it is because it is so rewarding.

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  9. Wszystkiego najlepszego z okazji urodzin. Blog zaczęłam, żeby "zabić" trochę nudy. Teraz jestem szczęśliwa, że go mam. Wiele ciekawych rzeczy się dowiedziałam. Pozdrawiam *** Happy birthday. Blog I started to "kill" a little boring. Now I am happy that I have it. Many interesting things I learned. Yours.

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    1. Giga,
      thanks, yes I think at first it starts out to fill in a bit of empty time, and then all of a sudden you find it is so much more rewarding than that.

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  10. Happy Birthday!
    I'm like you and never expected anyone except(hopefully)family to be interested in my blog. I've learnt so much from other gardeners, and not just about gardening. I've "visited" places I'd never heard of and met wonderful people. As far as improving my gardening - YES - as well as learning more, I find taking photos to share on the blog is great incentive to keep the garden looking good.

    Oh, and Missy would just love your path.

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    Replies
    1. Roz,
      thank you, Oh I think Missy would slip and slide on that path - one of the jobs I really need to do is work on the slime and mould on all the concrete and pavers. That is assuming it ever stops raining!

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  11. Blogging has absolutely made me a better gardener. The inspiration and motivation I get from reading other blogs, and the advice of some very experienced gardeners giving their wisdom away for free, has meant my garden has improved trememndously in the year I've been blogging. And because I know I'll have to "show and tell", I am more diligent about pulling out those weeds, and also looking more critically at my planting. How and why did I begin? In 2008 I followed a google search (can't remember what I was searching for) to a blog called "Down to Earth" and became hooked on reading it, then excited to try something similar. That first blog was about home life in general, but I lost interest after a few months and stopped. Then last year I re-read some of my posts and realised the ones I was still interested in were the gardening ones. So I began a gardening blog and haven't looked back.

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    1. Hi Lyn,
      Welcome, I can think of so many different applications that I only heard through blogging that I wonder where I would be without it. Rhonda on Down to Earth has inspired many people in so many ways, she is a gem.

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  12. Hi.....I think it is just fabulous how gardeners around the world are connecting through garden blogs.

    My son encouraged me to push my boundries and start a travel blog but I decided that what I really wanted to do was a garden blog about tropical plants because people are always asking my advice about care of plants. I guess this is because I worked in a plant nursery here in Hawaii for 15 years but it really was an on the job learning experience. The blog is a chance to share some of that aquired knowledge and pass it on. Aloha

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    1. Stellamarina,
      Yes I think the idea of all the setting up of my blog nearly put me off. there are actually very few blogs about true tropical gardening that I latch onto any that I find! I thought I was following you - just as well I checked as I am following you now!

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    2. Thank You. I am honoured. aloha

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  13. what a great post! It was so interesting reading everyones' reason for blogging too. I started out after I watched the movie 'Julia and Julia ' (about the chef Julia child and a lady who wrote a blog about cooking all her recipes). For me ... I was thinking 'wow! I have never heard of blogging ...an excuse to write allllll the time ...how cool is that. ' This was probably also a relief for any teacher who got kids absentee notes from me , because I had so much writing pent up inside , an absentee note could end up being a novel .
    and yes it does make you a better gardener. If I say I am planting corn...then I have to produce corn at the end and actually weed and water it. Otherwise I would have planted the corn and let it die.

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    1. Kim,
      I know it turned out to be a fun question to ask didn't it? Oh I really have to watch that movie, by now they might even have it in the library. I love your posts - you are a great writer. Yes, well, I am sure all of us at some stage hope none of our readers notice that we stop mentioning something we had planted with great anticipation. hehe

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  14. Happy Birthday!!!!!
    Love your little friends, your flowers are gorgeous and your garden is so well kept.
    Yes, blogging has made me a better gardener, makes me notice things I never noticed before, makes me keep track of things and stay on schedule.
    I am also learning so much from all the blogs I visit and making garden friends.

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    1. Thank you gardentowok,
      well my potting bench is a bit of a mess right now, but I am keeping it well out of the photos! :)

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  15. Very nice post, i love this blog so much,,, ^_^

    www.balinesehotel.com

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  16. Happy Birthday - sorry I missed it. I love reading your blog even though your plants and climate are totally different to mine. My blogging journey started out through my research of plants for my garden. I found so little information about local gardening but plenty of blogs, so I thought I would try and start my own in the hope that it would encourage others to go Indigenous!

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    1. Hi garden girl -
      thank you - and belated wishes just makes it last longer :) I grew up in JHB so that is very different to this climate too. I love seeing the plants I can't grow on others blogs, and often there are other tropical blogs where I get ideas from. There is a wealth of information out there.

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  17. I like the idea that the blog enhances your gardening experience, rather than - as is an all to common (though possibly valid) criticism of blogging - that we end up spending all our time on the computer, being a slave to the memes and themes we've joined, and forget to actually get into the garden (or whatever 'real' life we have) at all!

    I started blogging so long ago (January 2000) that I can hardly remember what inspired me, though I suppose it was partly the fun of getting into this blogging community (there were no comments on most blogs back then), and partly the fun of learning to create a webpage (from scatch - I didn't discover blogger etc till later!).

    I noticed that you have joined the Linky List at http://sustainablesuburbia.net/sustainable-living-blogs/ - it'd be great if you could put a link somewhere back to the list.

    Thanks!
    Kirsten

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  18. Kirsten,
    oh I don't know if I could have done it from scratch - blogspot makes it very easy to learn. Thanks for bringing that to my attention, I had that link on there it just wasn't showing up.

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