April 26th, 2008
Welcome Statesman Readers
Rose ‘Mermaid’ likes to climb trees and its large flat blossoms glow like little moons in the twilight.
If you are stopping by for the first time because of the Statesman article on garden blogging, it’s nice to have you. Don’t be shy about joining the conversation. Bloggers love getting comments. If you are interested in reading about other Austin gardens, check out the links in my sidebar or the latest comprehensive list at Pam/Digging. Austin has more garden bloggers than any other city in the world!
While here, you can explore the archives by category: read the history of my garden both outside and online, check out what’s happening Week by Week, Month by Month, or my latest garden project gone bad. Although I like to try new plants, for some reason the post I receive most comments on is the one on Indian hawthorn–a plant I despise and ripped out of my yard.
Our motto here is research, research, research and then trial by error. Lots of error. If we learn best from our mistakes, I’m on the path to genius. The best thing about garden blogging is that we get to compare notes with other gardeners, people who understand our obsessions, encourage us through our losses, and cheer us on in our successes.
by M Sinclair Stevens
April 26th, 2008
…and you answer almost all the questions about Indian hawthorn, despite your loathing. That’s amazing.
Sometimes I despair but, in the end, the teacher in me comes out. — mss
April 26th, 2008
More related to the actual topic of your post, I was thinking earlier this morning that it would be cool to have an Austin garden weblog portal, that had excerpts from all the Austin (or central Texas) bloggers who registered. Then we could read all the posts from the area in a streamlined fashion, and we’d have an obvious url to point people to.
After spending the day updating my RSS subscriptions and by sidebar, I am wishing there was an easier way. — mss
April 26th, 2008
Congrats on your good press, MSS! And nice photo in the garden with your laptop. I’m sure that’s always how you blog, right? 😉
I do actually write in the garden sometimes–not typically crouching in the meadow (too many ants and chiggers there). We have wifi and our hope was to be able to work from inside the screened-in porch in th garden, protected from mosquitoes and sun. It’s hard to see a laptop screen in bright sunlight. — mss
April 26th, 2008
What fun to see your pic in the paper this morning! Your meadow looks so pretty. The little poppy seedling are STILL alive but exactly the same size. Very odd.
They were planted so late that they probably won’t bloom until next year–if they survive summer. None of mine planted this year bloomed. Remember, California poppies are perennials. — mss
April 26th, 2008
Congrats, MSS!!! Wish you’d post the photo on your blog–sounds like a fun one!
I can’t post the photo of me blogging in my meadow because I don’t own the copyright. It was taken by Larry Kolvoord a staff photographer for the Austin American-Statesman. Thanks, Larry, for making me look thinner and less wrinkly than I am. — mss
April 26th, 2008
You never mentioned that you were having your picture taken! You look great.
Thanks! — mss
April 26th, 2008
It’s a great picture of you and now I can just imagine you out in your garden with your laptop, live blogging for all of us. Loved your quotes, too.
The trouble is getting dirt in the keyboard! — mss
April 26th, 2008
Great article and picture. Glad to have you showing off what garden blogging is all about.
Your next, right? You’ll have to make sure to tell everyone when that Texas Gardener article comes out. — mss
April 26th, 2008
Congrats to all of you on this wonderful article! You deserve all the kudos and attention that comes from the story, and from all your hard work. And next year I hope to get to meet some of you too!
Thanks. I’m looking forward to Chicago. — mss
April 27th, 2008
So I got curious and went to the indian hawthorn page, and dude! Some of those questions! Tortoises? Really? But I did love your tongue-in-cheek suggestion that the landscapers ate the missing hawthorne berries.
Congrats on the article, by the way. It’s given me evil ideas about blogging from the middle of my flower beds. If only my MacBook battery didn’t suck so much, I’m pretty sure I could poach some wifi while literally smelling the roses!
From the questions I get I assume Indian hawthorn is the most disease-ridden, troublesome plant that one could buy. I can’t help but being a bit wry in my replies because it’s so obvious the person posting the comment read neither the original post nor anyone else’s questions and answers. — mss
April 27th, 2008
MSS, I like how you profiled the profile and the part about comments. I always enjoy the conversation with my readers. As to trial and error, don’t we all . . . .~~Dee
With new technologies come new styles. Blogging is more public than writing letters and more intimate than writing newspaper or magazine articles. With blogging you converse with your readers, you develop relationships with some of them, but at the same time have to remember that you are writing in a public forum where anyone can read what you say. So you give up a certain expectation of privacy. I have always tried to maintain the line between my public and private face on the internet, to focus on the garden rather on myself. — mss
April 28th, 2008
Thanks for the link to the Statesman article about garden blogging; it was fun to read. It was also nice to read a bit more about the history of your garden and your garden blog.
Now why am I not surprised that you are into empirical gardening? 😉
I think of myself as being a bit whimsical for a scientist but I always find it fascinating to see what others take away from meeting me. Certainly, I am a collector of data. And a person who spends a lot of time asking why. — mss