I read Botany photo of the day- from Daniel Mosenquin- from UBC. Because it's west coast, i get to see lots of stuff i wouldn't normally. Funny thing is, they have a carolinas section in their garden- so sometimes it features plants from here! And he does feature stuff from all over, and guest photogs. Lots of great info in the writeups as well.

Adele just emailed me about hers today- speak up missy! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Botany Photo of the Day

Welllll, since you mentioned it Tam. Truth be told I don't feel really comfortable about people knowing it is me doing the blog. That way they can never be sure that I am the idiot that writes it. Though I am very proud of the setup and there are some very nice videos that I put together for Hummingbird Day and other occasions. Its no where near as good or informative as Cameron's. I love hers. I used to do a personal blog for family and friends about the progress I have been making of my blank slate in Carthage. I still have it, just havn't done any entries since I started the one for BB's. Adele

I like looking at this "photo blog" (I guess that is what you call it. It goes through the flowers in this person's garden each season and you watch as some come back and some don't. Kind of like a soap opera haha.

http://roses.toytrains1.com/other_garden.htm

Here is a link that might be useful: and another

Adele, I like your blog. It makes me want to come out there.

I'm glad some of you are enjoying my blog.

My blog came about when one of my sons moved to London to attend grad school. He kept asking me to send him photos of the garden, as he helped create a lot of it. He was writing a blog, so I asked him how to get started. Since I have a technology background, the technology was pretty straightforward.

Since I retired in summer 2006, I was missing out on some of my favorite aspects of my former career --- mentoring others, writing, research and process improvement.

So, my blog writing satisfies some of what I miss from my old job while being passionate about my hobby of gardening. I also have a blog about our home building experience, but I'll probably let that one go away once the readership decreases. I have a travel blog also. In all of my blogs, I do my best to share "best practices" as well as what I've learned not to do.

For those of you who want to write a blog, do it because you really love writing. Photos help a lot. When I use large photos, I get more "fan mail" than when I just use text. I have a worldwide readership of the gardening blog that averages about 50 readers per day. I get about 60% new readers each day. Yes, I run analytics on my blog (that tech background) so I can understand what is most interesting for folks.

For those of you who are curious about the ads...don't count on making money. You get a check only after $100 worth. Across all of my blogs since I started writing a year ago, I've never gotten paid. LOL In other words, there's no money in it.

If you visit the Cottage Garden Form conversations side, you'll see that I am also supporting a Cottage Garden Recipes blog. I wanted to help my friends who were sharing recipes among the threads. For the first week each month, they post their recipes in the "call" thread and I post the recipes, along with any photos they provide.

BTW, that son is now home in Chapel Hill. He's teaching a class at a university, but also working part-time at an interesting garden shop in Carrboro. I never would have guessed that he'd take such an interest in gardening from being around me, but he's really into it. Since he was 10, I was a divorced mom until I remarried when he was 18. We spent a lot of time together and gardening with me made a big impression. So, if you've got children, they may surprise you when they grow up! He comes over once a week to walk around the garden to see what's new and to quiz me about different plants and plant care. He still reads my blog and gets after me if I don't update it regularly. In the winter months, it's often difficult to come up with something useful.

Anyway, blogging is personally satisfying to me. I have the time to do it and if it helps just one person, I'm pretty happy.

Cameron

Here is a link that might be useful: Defining Your Home Garden

Lol, it never would have occurred to me that I could make money from writing a blog.

Cameron thank you for the information about writing a blog.

I mostly live here in GW land during the slow times at work but when I can I always keep up with www.GardenRant.com those ladies are a hoot. From their main page there is a list of links to other blogs and I will click on one to see whats going on elsewhere.

Years ago I started up a printed gardening publication (which failed) so I still own a domain name which I intend to reinvent into a blog/bulletin board for the local gardening scene - not really about me or my garden but I do intend to provide lots of personal details and photos. I have tons and tons of photos. For two years I documented what was going on plant-wise in my yard, the park down the street, and the JC Raulston Arboretum along with numerous garden-inspired trips around the country so I have many file cabinets filled with boxes of printed photos and crates of disks of digitals. It is just a matter of cleaning off my schedule to put the dang thing together.

If I started a blog I would need to work on my grammar first, lol. Really, I can write,or used to be able to, but I make so many mistakes on the computer. However, I'm beginning to think I need someplace to post all of my pictures. Or perhaps this new-camera-take-pictures-everyday-and-post-them phase will burn out.

Adele I am looking forward to reading your blog. I think I'm the only person on the board who has not been to B and B.

I am not sure if it is considered a blog or not, but I have often enjoyed reading the writings of Paghat the rat girl. She is in the PNW and writes about each plant in her yard. Her's is fairly small, so she is selective. If Paghat has it in her yard, then I know it's got to be pretty good. One aspect of her writings is that she includes quotes or poems with each entry, to bring a literary touch to the garden shots.

---Keith

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden of the rat girl

Alicia- you may burn out somewhat, or it may continue. I know for me, it went real strong for about 3 years (about 10000 pix in that time), and has slowed somewhat since (prolly another 8k in the 3 since), but i go through spells where i shoot, shoot, shoot, then lay it down & forget it. Spring is always a hot time for me, by late summer i fizzle some. People tease me i don't go anywhere without my camera. Bet you'd be good at a blog- esp an interactive one. You ask such interesting thought provoking questions.

Im going to ck out the ratgirl site and some of the others mentioned. I love this kind of stuff- adds so much to my day!

I forgot that i do know another blogger- he very occasionally posts on GW, though i don't know his handle. We did a private swap a few years back and have kept loosely in touch since then. His place is absolutely amazing- the location, topography and garden. Anyhow, his blog is below. I think there's 5 or more people who blog through this site- his handle is crinumaniac. Looks like he hasn't entered a new one since the new year, but the old ones are worth reading. He's REALLY into bulbs.

Here is a link that might be useful: another blog

I'm a HUGE fan of David's garden blog at http://leavemealoneimdigging.blogspot.com. He lives in Greensboro and is a terrific writer and hellebore fanatic. His regular commenters are very knowledgeable, and many have good gardening blogs of their own.

I include garden posts on my blog, although it's primarily a birdwatching blog (greensborobirds.com). However, this is my first garden after 20-plus years of living in apartments, and I'm a bit gung ho about it, so I may end up starting a garden blog after all. Blogging can be very addictive!

Here is a link that might be useful: GreensboroBirds

I'm not in Carolina, but close enough to share lots of your climatic and gardening conditions. I started writing this little blog (I try to post weekly, but don't always make it) mainly as therapy. I have early morning insomnia, tons of pictures, and lots of ideas which are probably of interest to nobody but myself. Also, I discovered that it's difficult to eat while blogging, as opposed to when I'm just reading info on the net. I don't think anybody's reading what I write, but it's a nice way for me to document what's happening from week to week in my garden. I'm also hoping for a second (third or fourth, actually...) career in horticulture, and perhaps a compilation of these blog entries can one day serve as a sort of portfolio to which I can refer potential employers.

Here is a link that might be useful: The Transitional Gardener

For those of you who have blogs of your own, if you want to do a reciprocal linking from blog-to-blog, drop me an email from My Page or my blog. I already have some links to forum friend blogs from Cottage Gardening.

Thanks,
Cameron

Tammy I really like the Botany Photo of the Day site. The blog that crinumaniac posts on looks really nice too but you're right, no one has posted since last Nov. That seems like a bit of a shame.

Adele I love your blog. Your descriptions of the plants are excellent and I love the pictures. Alley is hysterical. My family used to have a cat who weighed 12 pounds and could somehow lay down on pansies without ever squishing them. It was as though he had some magical power or was a princess or something.

Alicia i'm so glad you checked it out! I love that site- it brightens my day each day. It's available as a module if you have a yahoo homepage- which makes it really convenient.

I checked in with jay (crinumaniac) and he said he's temporarily stopped blogging cause life got too crazy. He's still shooting pix (because i'm on his list) and he said he'll probably get back to blogging at some point.

I can't wait to check out some of these other blogs. I've really enjoyed the ratgirl's site. beautifully done. I haven't figured out Adele's link yet, so i haven't checked hers out. Alicia, did you look at her personal one (old) or the bb's one?

i found it! I thought i'd go ahead and post a link. Adele- the blog is wonderful! It worked, too- i added some things to my list of must haves! :) As if i needed any help with that! I wish i could have seen more clearly in that video of banding the hummers. And i really wish they'd shown how exactly she caught them to begin with. Oh well- at least it whetted my appetite for maybe going down this fall.

rats- i can't post the link because of the prohibition. argh. so, here is the link- you'll have to copy and paste and fill in the business name after the b.
http://bflowerfarm.blogspot.com/

I started a blog in the fall because I enjoy propagating perennials and woody plants. My background is hort and land arch and have lived in NE, RM, & now the SE, so I have seen the extremes. I enjoy perusing Cameron's blog especially the winter scenes.

Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Perennials

Bullthistle, your blog looks very interesting -- I'll have to read it more in depth later -- and I bet it's very helpful to you and others too. Sometimes when propagating something I do something just right and then can't remember the next year what I did!

Ratgirl's blog looks beautiful too. I still need to look at the other blogs listed here. How does one get started with a blog?

There are a lot of great blogs showing up!

Alicia, here's what I did to start a blog.

Choose where to have it hosted. I chose Blogspot because it's free, easy to use and flexible. It is supported by Google. I created a Google userid to get started. Go to www.blogger.com for information on how to get started, help tips, etc.

You will have options for layout (template, sidebars, title page, etc); permissions (who can access your blog, whether or not you require a password); control comments being left on your blog; how the archive looks; how many posts to show per page; and on and on....

I use Picasa (another free Google product) to store my photos. You can create albums and use the code to insert into your blog, or you can upload to the blog from your computer and Picasa will create an album from your blog photos for you. While I show my photos in my blogs, I keep my photo albums "private" so that folks searching images on the web won't get to my photo albums. I find it is better to compress your photos on your PC with a picture editor before uploading. The resolution will still be good, but the files will be much smaller and faster to upload.

You can compose your text in the plain text editor mode, or in html. I find I have more control of the appearance by using html. For an html cheatsheet, I like using this one: www.webmonkey.com/reference/html_cheatsheet/

If you want to take advantage of "keywords" you can add them in the field at the bottom of each post that you compose. This will build an index that can be displayed as a sidebar to help folks go to posts with that keyword. The best example is to look at the recipes blog that I created for Cottage Garden Recipes. I don't use keywords on my gardening blog because the list would just be far too long to be useful.
www.cottagegardenrecipes.blogspot.com

Hope this helps,
Cameron

I started a blog when I bought my house. Initially I figured it would be more about working on my house, but I do a lot more with my yard, so that is what I write about.

Ingrid C

Here is a link that might be useful: Mill Village Bungalow

I've been wanting to start a blog because I'm on virgin territory here. No professional landscaping and a new house. I'm doing it all myself from scratch. I'm even doing all my outbuildings and hardscapes. It will be a really nice thing to see grow, even if just for my own enjoyment. LOL Any recommendations on good, easy to use and update software? I've got a server/host, but would like to hear what you all like to work with.

I wrote a piece in my garden column about how to set up a garden blog. You can view it at: www.carolinacountry.com/cgardens/thismonth/feb22.html. I interviewed David at leavemealoneimdigging.blogspot.com for the article. I enjoy his blog and also love Greensboro Birds (she put her link above, but here it is again: www.greensborobirds.com). Her photography and writing are superb, and it sustained me through the dreary winter. Other blogs I like are May Dreams Garden (maydreamsgardens.blogspot.com) and Tim Wood's The Plant Hunter (plant-quest.blogspot.com/). My own blog is mainly about gardening and nature, with an occasional off-topic entry. I keep a separate "for my eyes only" blog in which I record rainfall amounts, phenology notes, etc. It works so much better for me than the willy-nilly attempt I've made in the past to keep journal entries in Word. The "labels" feature allows you to neatly file things for easy retrieval later. I really had no idea of the immense offerings of the blogosphere until I set up a blog myself. Now I'm hooked on so many blogs, not limited to gardening. My cat even has her own blog! I highly recommend blogging to any gardener.

Carla/Ratgirl (no relation to Paghat, though I love her Web site too)

Here is a link that might be useful: My Back Yard

Carla! What a small world the Net is! Thanks for the props re my blog. Blogging sustained me through the dreary winter, so I'm glad it helped you out, too. Btw, your March 27 "I spy" entry is hilarious. I'm gonna have to keep my eyes peeled for bullet point #2 in my neck of the woods.

Here is a link that might be useful: See March 27 on My Back Yard for a funny FOTY sighting

Tammy, I've read crinumaniac and Co blog in the past, thanks for bringing it back onto my radar. I like reading blogs from nearby because they relate so directly to what I'm doing ... or trying to do anyway. Lately I've been reading the pbs list regularly and have learned a lot there. It comes to my e-mail in small batches so it's manageable and I don't forget about it even when things get crazy.

Carla, your photos are gorgeous, even - and maybe especially - the compost pile lemons. I'll have to come back and read the text later when I have more time.

Ingrid I like your blog. Your house looks charming and the photos are a nice complement.

Bubba62 I like your blog too. I love the photo of the orchid hanging in the shower and of course the native azaleas. I've often had to adopt the habit of planting them completely above grade and mulching them too.

Gbirds if I start a blog I would love to include birds in it too, but I'd definitely need something beyond my 18-55. You have some great photos on your blog. My place is 55 acres, much of which is in a floodplain and is bordered by a creek, so with all of the water there's also a lot of birds: wood ducks, barred owls, red-shouldered hawks, harriers, prothonotary warblers, herons, turkey, pileated woodpeckers, indigo buntings, tanagers, blue grosbeaks, all kinds of warblers...

Check out these bird photos. Simply amazing.

Here is a link that may be useful: four bird pictures

Great information here on blogs!!! Thanks Ratgirl for your help and info. This looks like it will be a lot of fun!! :-)

Yesirre I have a blog started a month ago and its damn good fun

Here is a link that might be useful: HERITAGE IRISES