Cold Climate Gardening

This is the sixth part in a series about the early days of garden blogging, written to commemorate my four years as a garden blogger. For those just joining us, the the names of the respondents to my email questions, and links to their respective blogs, can be found at the end of this entry. Links to previous posts in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
6. Do you think gardeners comment less than other bloggers?

Popularity: 10% [?]

This is the fifth part in a series about the early days of garden blogging, written to commemorate my four years as a garden blogger. For those just joining us, the the names of the respondents to my email questions, and links to their respective blogs, can be found at the end of this entry. Links to previous posts in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4.
5. Thinking over all of the garden blogging you’ve done and the garden blogs you’ve read since you first started, what has changed for the better? What negatives, if any, have arisen? Do you miss anything from the “good ol’ days” of blogging?

Popularity: 21% [?]

This is the fourth part in a series about the early days of garden blogging, written to commemorate my four years as a garden blogger. For those just joining us, the the names of the respondents to my email questions, and links to their respective blogs, can be found at the end of this entry. Links to previous posts in this series: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

4. What do you think has caused the proliferation of garden blogs in the last year?

Popularity: 15% [?]

This is the third part in a series about the early days of garden blogging, written to commemorate my four years as a garden blogger. For those just joining us, the the names of the respondents to my email questions, and links to their respective blogs, can be found at the end of this entry. Part 1 is here, and Part 2 is here.

3. Did your garden blog accomplish what you were hoping for? Any unexpected benefits? Any disappointments?

Popularity: 8% [?]

This is the second part in a series about the early days of garden blogging, written to commemorate my four years as a garden blogger. For those just joining us, the respondents to my email questions are:
Tamara Galbraith [TG], formerly of Talking Dirty, now publishing Can You Dig It?

M. Sinclair Stevens [MSS], longtime publisher of Zanthan Gardens.

Paul Owoc [PO], observant chronicler of a greenZoo.

Pam Shorey [PS], originally blogging at Outside in the Garden, and now at Rivermantic.

Erica Bess Duncan [EBD], writing at GardenSpot.

Ilona [IL] of Ilona’s Garden Journal.

Doug Welch [DW], keeping A Gardener’s Notebook.

Jennifer Zynischer [JZ], aka the Garden Djinn.

Kathy Purdy [KP], that’s me. I’ll be piping in with my responses. As a matter of fact, I’m the only one who got to see what the others said before writing my own answers, so I have an unfair advantage.

2. Of all the things you could use this technology for, why gardening? How did you see a blog working for you better than more traditional means of garden communication, such as a chat over the fence, a garden club membership, a plant society membership, or a magazine subscription? What problem were you hoping to solve, or what need did you want to fill?

Popularity: 11% [?]

Dogs have dog-years, and the internet has internet-years. Four years on the internet is a long time, and as of today, that’s how long I’ve been blogging. I thought I would ask those gardeners who’ve been blogging longer than I have how they got started, and where they think this whole garden blogging business is going.

First, let me introduce my respondents. In no particular order:
Tamara Galbraith [TG], formerly of Talking Dirty, now publishing Can You Dig It?

M. Sinclair Stevens [MSS], longtime publisher of Zanthan Gardens.

Paul Owoc [PO], observant chronicler of a greenZoo.

Pam Shorey [PS], originally blogging at Outside in the Garden, and now at Rivermantic.

Erica Bess Duncan [EBD], writing at GardenSpot.

Ilona [IL] of Ilona’s Garden Journal.

Doug Welch [DW], keeping A Gardener’s Notebook.

Jennifer Zynischer [JZ], aka the Garden Djinn.

Kathy Purdy [KP], that’s me. I’ll be piping in with my responses. As a matter of fact, I’m the only one who got to see what the others said before writing my own answers, so I have an unfair advantage.

The questions are all ones I’ve wondered about, and I sent the same list to each of the bloggers listed above. I’ll present this as a panel discussion, where the anonymous moderator poses a question, and then we all take turns answering it. I hope you find the answers as fascinating as I did. I originally was going to publish the whole series of questions as one blog entry, but I realized it was becoming far too unwieldy. So I decided to break it up into several parts. The panelists had quite a bit to say about the first question. Click (more…) to start reading.

Popularity: 21% [?]

The previous post about registration not being necessary was prompted by an email I got:

Hi! I registered to be a part of your Zone 1-3 group and I haven’t heard yet
whether or not I was accepted. Last I checked my membership was still pending.
Wondering what is up and what I should do to remedy it. It’s been over a week
by now I believe. Thanks. Love your site!

Since I don’t run a group, I was perplexed as to why I was getting this email. Was it some new kind of phishing attempt? Or if it was a lost soul on the World Wide Web, where should I point them to? I decided to respond on my …

Popularity: 4% [?]