Cold Climate Gardening

I just upgraded my version of WordPress. Because I had code in my theme (design) that would no longer work with the new version of WordPress, I needed to edit the theme before I could upgrade the software. I figured while I was at it, I’d expand the width by adding another sidebar, since just about everyone has wider screens. And I tested it out on a local server, and it looked fine.

I have been using a utility in my text editor to compare files, trying to see what file is different between the theme that works on my test machine and the theme that doesn’t on my “real” site. So far I haven’t found it, and I’m beginning to …

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I’m starting a new website to explain blogging and related technical matters in plain English. It’s called Blogging Art and Practice.

There are some things about blogging that involve technical skill or know-how. I call those practices. I strive to use the best practices, to make my blog easier for people to read, for search engines to find. But there is an art to blogging, too. It involves finding your own voice, expressing your view of the world, writing well.

I’d like to help you with both of those. As a start, I’ve added the handout that I developed for the garden blog presentation that I gave at the Garden Writers Association symposium last month. I’m hoping you will …

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I recently added The Occasional Gardener to my garden blog directory, and I have to say it is one of the most aesthetically pleasing blogs I have seen in a long time.

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Thank you one and all for nominating this blog for the Best Design of a Garden Blog category in the first annual Mouse & Trowel Awards. I confess I’ve always been a bit miffed at how garden blogs were so neglected in general blog awards, and I’m glad Colleen has taken the initiative and developed some awards we garden bloggers can call our own.

Voting is now open and will continue to May 11. Note: you don’t have to have a garden blog yourself to vote.

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Colleen of In the Garden Online is starting the Mouse and Trowel Awards, a program “to give recognition to those bloggers, website owners, and retail outlets that add vibrancy, convenience, or pure eye candy to our world.” Nominations are currently being accepted. Finalists will be announced on April 13th, and winners announced on May 13th.

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Boredom isn’t enough to motivate me to redecorate my walls or my website

“Why are you changing your design?” some of my children asked, as I was making preparations for the Big Day. I could have said, for the same reason many people re-paint their walls or buy a new dress: tired of the same old thing. But frankly, that doesn’t motivate me to redecorate my home or update my wardrobe. For me, increasing efficiency and usability was a far tastier “carrot” to compensate for the “stick” of a website overhaul.

My old design (or theme, as it’s called in WordPress circles) looked great, but wasn’t created with the most efficient code even at the time, and being old, couldn’t take advantage of the latest features of the WordPress software. Even worse, with certain operating systems running certain browsers (most notably Windows 2000 running IE), a lot of the type in the old design was so tiny it was illegible. Not good.

So late last fall I went theme shopping.

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I have just upgraded WordPress again. This time it combined link categories and post categories, so quite a few things need to be tinkered with. I will also be changing my theme shortly. Actually, I am going to change the theme first and then tinker, otherwise I’ll be tinkering twice. Sigh. The bottom line is, the front page should be fine, once I change the theme, but the rest of the site might be strange until I tinker with it. Here goes!

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