Salpiglossis

I’ve always liked the annual Salpiglossis. Great blooms that shine out of the garden. I saw this one at Chicago Botanic Gardens last week and thought I’d share it with you.

Full feed or part feed?

So do you put out a part feed or a full feed?

Full feeds let readers read the entire article in their reader. They don’t have to click to your site to get the rest of the article - it’s all in one place for them.

Part feeds are intended to entice you to want to read the first few sentences and then click through to go to the website.

So why do you run part feeds or full feeds?

Interesting stat - readership goes up when you run full feeds. People don’t like having to click through to read articles. So if you’re looking for more readership, full feeds are the way to go.

Some bloggers run part feeds because they want you to click on their link and go to their website where you might click on some advertising and make them money.

But as Rick Klau of Feedburner points out, there’s no difference in response rates between full and part feeds when it comes to visitors clicking through to your site.

Some folks run part feeds because they don’t want their feeds scraped. There are solutions to that as well and here’s a good summary of those. You’ll see the copyright notice on the bottom of each of my posts and I can tell you that this works nicely to identify scraper sites.

My take is that I like running a full feed because I want to make it easier for folks to read my posts. There’s not enough money in blogging to make it a hassle for readers. Make it easy for people to read you.

I had to run a part feed with the magazine format I messed around with but my own feed numbers have jumped over 100 new readers since I switched back to full feeds from the magazine format’s part feed. And still climbing nicely.

Make it easy for people to read you. Did you catch that line above? That’s one of the most important things a blogger or writer can do in today’s Internet publishing world. Otherwise, CLICK

Got an opinion on this one?

Turned Down a Magazine Article Offer

I was offered an opportunity to write a small article for a somewhat prestigious garden magazine the other day.

And here’s the rub. I turned it down.

Why?

Because the editor in charge of negotiating couldn’t guarantee my url would be part of my byline. And the money was a pittance for the work - but according to the editor if I wrote well on this short article, I could get longer articles. Great! Longer articles at the same word rate and I can lose even more money for more hours of my time.

In other words, if I wanted to write for this magazine, I had to pretend I didn’t have a website or blog. The only reason I’d do the work for the small amount of money was the chance to get that url in front of a new audience.

Heck. I’m bigger than they are in terms of readership, I can drive traffic to them rather than them drive traffic to me. After all, the editor found me by searching the Net for the topic she wanted covered.

But magazines don’t get it.

They’re still stuck in a writer-editor-reader model and the information curve is moving away from that. In fact, I think it’s moving away faster and faster now with younger people coming online in our gardening world.

Two thoughts. I’d hate to be a salesman for the advertising department right about now. The data just hit the street that the top 100 advertisers in the US just moved a billion dollars in advertising to the Net and away from traditional advertising. Think about it - you can toss a bunch of money at a magazine or newspaper and not be able to measure your response or you can toss the same amount of money at the Net and get instant results and evaluate the effectiveness of your advertising. You get real feedback and your advertising changes accordingly. No-brainer from a purchaser’s point of view. The big boys are moving - the rest are not far behind.

Second thought. Magazines would be far better off in the long run making strategic alliances with Internet websites and/or finding people who “get” the Net to run their online business. And have their own website compete with their magazine.

But you know the problem with that? The web doesn’t make the same amount of money as the offline operations because it runs on results. Advertisers pay for results, not for prestige and exposure.

A recent release about the online income from the New York Times pointed out two fascinating things. The first was that 90% of the readership views now came from the Net. The vast majority of people reading the Times got it on the Net (worldwide) The only problem with that was it only generated 10% of the revenues. The print version - read by 10% generated 90% of the revenues.

Pareto’s principle is in full effect here; and this is why magazines are having trouble. They can’t move successfully because they can’t transfer their advertising revenues. And the Net is eating their lunch when it comes to those revenues.

Magazines and newspapers are indeed in a tough spot. I’m looking forward to seeing how they all work it out.

The Princess says

That you have to be careful, very careful this week. I’ve started a diet and given up coffee.

The caffeine burn was interesting although that seems to have disappeared tonight. But the desire for a bowl of vanilla ice cream and raspberries hasn’t gone anywhere. (insert huge sigh here)

On the other hand, lose 40 pounds and I’ll be able to move at competition squash speeds again.

But I may not be the easiest person to be around this week and I apologize in print. Ahead of time. To her.

Wanta make something of it?

It’s a tough job but

Somebody has to do it. Last weekend in Chicago was “interesting”. The fire alarm went off in the hotel at 3:30am ( a real fire) and we evacuated. An hour later you still couldn’t stand the plastic smell so we went and had breakfast (beat standing or sitting around outside) At 5:30 we got back into the hotel, picked up our stuff (what’s the point of trying to sleep for an hour when you’re already up and going) and headed off on our happy day.

I wanted to get some early morning shots of the rose garden at Chicago Botanic and this was just a little earlier than planned but what the heck. This is what greeted me.

So I unfurled yee olde brolly and went at it.

It’s a tough life being a garden writer y’know.

Vegetable Gardening Interest on the Rise?

Sometimes I stick my head in the sand and watch the world go by and this is turning out to be one of those weeks. A quick trip to Chicago on the weekend was great but man, that’s a long 12-hour drive. Both Mayo and I were happy to get back on our ferry and head over to the island.

Sticking my head in the sand means I can ignore the nature of the web statistics for another week (Tuesday is normally examine-the-stats-day). One of the interesting things that Judy Lowe reminded me of was the upsurge in growing vegetables. Earlier this spring, the Garden Writers ListServ was bubbling over with the impressions of increased reader questions and overflowing halls at veggie presentations during early spring garden seminars. I tend to take a wait and see approach to many of these things because I rely on my own Net stats and question levels to see what’s happening.

And yup, there was an upswing this past spring in searching for vegetable answers. It’s still not the number one gardening search term for sure but there is indeed more interest in this area. Judy’s article summed up the Yahoo news release much better than I ever could about what gardeners were searching for in the way of vegetables so I won’t repeat it here. If you want to know who’s looking for what - check out her article.

My take on all this is kinda predictable for someone who’s seen it before. Every time the media describes a recession, predicts a catastrophe looming or describes yet another doomsday scenario (for as long as I’ve been in the industry) we have another upsurge in vegetable production on the home scale. And then just as surely as worms love little green apples, these beginner gardeners get a reality check on the work involved and the surge in interest wanes.

What’s driving it this time?

Well, we have the U.S. economy tanking thanks to yet another war - I did see an estimate that this little action had cost the U.S. somewhere between 2-3 trillion dollars - with no end in sight. We can add the mortgage scandal to that tanking effect along with a deficit government spending policy that’s driving national debt ever higher. I’m no economist nor politician and I’m sure there’s arguments in favor of all sides but the net effect is increasing fuel and food pricing.

But those increased fuel prices are a killer for sure on holiday travel. And if you gotta stay home, then you might as well garden a bit.

Let’s hear it for increasing restrictions on travel in the U.S. It’s now officially a pain in the anatomy to travel by air. And when even the maintenance staff at highway areas are dressing up in uniforms with yellow-striped pants and military style shirts, you know the joy in moving around the country is being reduced. Big brother is now officially watching.

You can add in your own take on rising environmental awareness and an increased fear of food safety (can you say tomato scare?) and it’s no wonder that folks are looking to grow their own vegetables.

My take? Been there - seen that. The average North American is spoiled when it comes to food sources and supply. And gardening for enough food to feed a small family is hard work - much harder work than the average person is going to want to do given a choice. Yeah, sure we’ll grow a few tomatoes and a few sprigs of basil but when it comes down to doing all that freezing and canning - it just ain’t gonna happen for the average person. Not at the current pricing of food.

Oh I know the arguments that says we “should” do it because it’s good for the planet etc etc ad nauseum but my reality is that most folks are simply too lazy to do the work given an alternative. And here in North America we have an alternative in our food sources.

And yes, I’ve read other writers saying that the young people are more food conscious than the Boomers (thank goodness) and that will be better environmentalists (thank goodness) and that the tide of things is changing for the better. As I said earlier, I’ll reserve judgment on questions like that till I see the data.

Now the beauty of all this increased awareness is that there will be a few folks who will learn the joy of eating fresh vegetables and seeing their own food come to the table. There will be a few folks who decide it’s important to continue doing this; and they will become gardeners. In my experience, most will not want to do the work.

I well remember when we were able to sit down to a massive family meal on the farm and say that everything but the salt and sugar came from the farm and our own labor. I no longer milk cows, feed chickens or garden on a serious enough scale to feed six people. But Mayo and I will have a full vegetable garden by next year that will feed us year round with food to share with family. That’s because we value our food and our efforts to keep ourselves healthy.

But my take on this renewed interest in vegetable gardening - been there, seen that before. The only way this trend will continue is if conditions continue to deteriorate. In that case you had better invest in the canning jar company again and batten down the hatches.

I really like Chives

I really like species chives but my favorites are the ‘Profusion’ series that don’t self sow around the garden. Divide the clumps in the spring for easy new plants.

The Evil Gardener Strikes Back

Long, long ago in a garden far, far away an evil gardener imprisoned the entire population of the planted Birdseed. Putting them into very futuristic clear glass prisons, the evil gardener then fed them one by one to his evil minions, the flying creatures from the planet Avian. The sole purpose of this evil exercise was to amuse the evil gardener because he liked to listen to the simple Avians sing while they ate.

As you might expect, the garden was outraged by this behaviour and three members of the planet Coon-Coon decided to lead a revolution and free all the imprisoned Birdseeders. They attacked the prison in force and even though the prison was on the very walls of the evil gardener’s castle, they liberated all the prisoners. And the garden was happy.

The evil gardener got a new prison and a new defense system composed of slender iron bars in ornamental loops to confuse the rebels. Those stalwart Coon-Cooners laughed and pushed over the slender metal rods, not once but twice, and the evil gardener was again thwarted as the Birdseeders were all liberated.

Now, the evil gardener has struck back. He has used metal reinforcing rods shaped curiously like his t-fighter boundary stations, driven deep onto the very bowels of the planet. The slender decorative rods were magically attached to the boundary station poles with magic affixer invented at the planted Duct. A landing pad (curiously resembling irrigation pipe - strong enough to support avians but too weak for the bulky Coon-Coons) was similarly attached. And the final defense strategy - a liberal coating of the magic glue Tanglefoot was applied as a primary boundary to the bottom layers of the now-substantial tower in all areas below the landing pads.

The scientific genius of the Gardener has surmised that the Coon-Coons pushed over the pole and because this planet’s population were notorious about keeping their hands clean, they wouldn’t want to get their hands all mucked up with the Tanglefoot. So the pole stands in the evil Gardener’s courtyard, the Avians are eating the poor Birdseeders, singing away and the evil Gardener sits in his aerie smiling.

The evil Gardener has struck back.

Now there is a slim chance that this impenetrable fortress will, once again, be breached by the hardy band and the security forces of the evil Gardener are working up Plan B. The main part of this plan includes trapping the Coon-Coon invaders in a special force field known as a Hav-a-Heart (presumably because it leaves their hearts beating after capture) and then transport and exile to a far-far-away planet where they won’t find their way back to the evil Gardener’s palace. The evil gardener is all for simple execution but the Princess would be upset with this plan as (she says) would be the Avians. The evil Gardener has relented in the face of this opposition and will consider transport to a slave planet instead. He points out however that wherever you move the Coon-Coons to, this place will already have other Coon-Coons that will not welcome newcomers and those being moved will likely die anyway. And usually a slow death from exposure, hunger or predators.

There are some in the garden who suggest that actually feeding the Coon-Coons is a good idea as then they’ll leave the Birdseeders alone to suffer their fate. The evil Gardener scoffs at this idea saying that once you feed a lazy Coon-Coon, their entire planet will move in. The evil Gardener is prepared to allow the munching Rabbiters and bounding Deerfolk to visit the edges of his garden but he is not encouraging Coon-Coons to knock down his entertainment.

There are some other evil Gardeners who use electronic defenses to good stead; wiring up their gardens and coating the wire with delectable treats called Peanut Butter (no known Coon-Coon can resist peanut butter). Apparently the smell of this product, when laid on the wire attracts the rebellious creatures shocking them and convincing them that they should stay out of that particular garden. You see, fencing alone has been particularly ineffective at keeping out these rebels, they are able to happily climb anything with a slender handhold and are quite adept at wiggling through small spaces. The evil gardener in our story has a backup position that depends on solid fencing combined with electric fencing to protect his prisons. He is considering machine gun emplacements at the corners but the Princess is against the display of such force.

There are noxious products the evil Gardener has heard about that contain foul-smelling products (Ropel and Scoot are two such products) and when sprayed on things prevent rebellious Coon-Coons from eating much of the product. This may be good for garbage bags and the garbage in them but not so good for lettuce if the evil Gardener wants to eat it too. The evil Gardener has also heard of putting hot peppers in among the prisoner Birdseeders so the rebels will be less inclined towards liberation.

The evil one has also been told that hanging bars of soap, mothballs, old CD discs and a variety of gucky materials will also repel rebels. This has not been his experience and that of the scientists he consults. There are no repellants registered for this purpose in the Empire.

The next move is up to the rebels. For now though, the Avians are singing, the Birdseeders are disappearing at an amazing rate and the Gardener is happy. In short, there is war in the garden and the evil Gardener has struck back.

MBAB: Your Personal Brand

One of the things I’ve always been fascinated with (for some strange reason) is the entire notion of “branding” a business. Maybe it’s because I grew up during the cowboy movie phase and we ran around shooting and dying in great numbers across countless imaginary plains that never extended beyond the front and back yards.

I’m intrigued with the notion that bloggers (and nurseries, garden centers etc) are their own brand and I think we have a perfect example of that in action over the past week.

I think that branding is one of the most misunderstood concepts on the Net. We all brand ourselves by our writing every day. Your online presence and history creates the image people have of you and that’s your brand. It can be a positive thing or a negative thing but it exists for all of us.

For a commercial nursery, it isn’t solely about tagging and POS posters - it includes that leaky hose lying between the retail benches and the old paint. It’s the late delivery truck and driver who’s not had his “nice” pill. It’s the one flat that doesn’t arrive that’s needed by the store’s most important customer. It’s the entire package that creates the brand in the minds of the customer.

For bloggers, we have our words over time that tell readers who we are and what we stand for. We too, no matter how many readers we have, create our own brands. Susan over at Gardenrant has just outed herself as using language that ranks highly on a cuss-o-meter. “I take full credit responsibility for that, by the way” a “potty mouthed” garden blogger So she’s created her own brand and identified it to the trade and other bloggers. This isn’t up to any of us to decide if it’s good or bad - it’s Susan’s brand and it’s up to her to decide if that’s how she wants editors, readers and other bloggers to see her.

Here’s the implication of branding for any blogger or nursery business.

A good brand buys you a grace period - a mistake or three. A bad brand gets you deleted.

In the publishing business, we’re only as good as our latest book, latest publication, latest issue, latest article or post. And a series of good ones will get you readers and a growing body of folks who will read you and perhaps even reward you for writing (like with cheques) If you have a good brand, a good reputation for providing good articles or good information, the odd stinker won’t hurt you with your audience. But if your brand isn’t stellar, then the tolerance level is lower and the delete button is closer. That “about me generation” isn’t as tolerant of mistakes as older readers.

For bloggers, the issue is one of readership. For retail nurseries, the issue is one of customer retention as more and more customers join the “about me mindset”.

It’s about all your words, your entire operation - and it’s all under your control.

As an end note, I understand that personal brands can be changed over time but it’s like steering an iceberg. Slow going and you can get pretty cold while it’s happening.

A Lesson from Apple

Some readers may recall that last fall I switched from Linux to Apple because I wanted to do graphic work easily. Linux (Ubuntu) is a dynamite operating system but I’m not a big enough geek to run their video software (being a mostly point and shoot videographer).

So today I got some Apple lessons. And it all started with the rather “interesting” popup message that my hard drive was full and we couldn’t do anything else.

So - OK - I’ve taken a lot of pics with the new camera and I’m shooting in raw format and I’ve taken a lot of video too. Let’s clean it all up deleting the files I really wouldn’t use from the download bin too. But I had a tough time believing I had filled up this 100 gig hard drive on my MacBook Pro.

Tons of cleanup this morning. All kinds of downloads I was “saving for a rainy day - old software downloads I didn’t use anymore - same message all day. Not enough memory.

Whacked a bunch of big images and video clips that were second rate - same message.

Giving up - (if in doubt read the instructions) I went to the Apple forums. And whaddya know?

Turns out that there are several major differences between Apple and Linux.

I’ve been using iphoto to manage my images. Turns out that when I delete something in iphoto - it doesn’t delete it off the hard drive. Nope, it only removes it from the iphoto library. iphoto is built on top of the image database and doesn’t interact with it directly other than to shuffle it around for you. So learning this, I figure out how to get to the library itself (not the easiest feat in the world I note.) And start moving images to the trash can.

But nothing happens. I still get the popup warning and I’ve cleared out a lot of deadwood - several gigs worth (about 20 actually)

Nothing.

Do you know that if you don’t “empty trash” in Apple, the darn files stay on the machine? In Linux, you say “delete” and that thing is gone (there’s no trash can). Delete button really does mean *delete*. Apparently not in Apple. Delete means put in trash can and hold the file in memory until the trash is emptied.

Who knew? Not me obviously.

So with over 130,000 files in my trash can, my computer was a pretty trashy place. No darn wonder nothing worked.

Empty trash. Push button. Problem solved about half hour later.

Who knew.

Pumpkin Book Giveaway - We have a winner

Update with winner - Bev - #72 won the contest according the magic number delivered by a team of white-gloved accountants with secret locked envelopes.

She’s been notified.

Stay tuned, there are more books on my desk I need to give away.

For the record, there were 99 folks who entered that contest - best odds outside of bobbing for apples in a barrel.

Basket of Gold - Aurinia saxatilis

This is a weedy little thing in the rock garden but who can get upset wtih it when it looks like this. Mind you, say goodbye to it because it’s on the spot where the backhoe is going to dig up the foundation (insulating for winter heat loss prevention). I’m sure it will volunteer somewhere else (like a ton of other weeds in this garden)

Easy for the full sun or part shade. Blooms in the mid-spring in USDA zone 4/5. Can be short lived (particularly when I hoe it out of cracks here and there) but self sowing in my gardens.

MBAB: It’s all about me

It’s all about me.

Well, not me exactly but you too. Let me digress a moment.

In the good old days, there was a writer, an editor and a reader. The reader pretty much took whatever the writer and editor cooked up and delivered. That content was sandwiched between advertisements and we were pretty much captive readers if we wanted that information.

With television, we started with a few channels and were still pretty much captive audiences. The ads were delivered right alongside the content and we were still captive to the content-ad delivery.

Then somebody invented the boon to all guys - the remote controller. Now we could channel surf during commercials and never have to watch one again. Except that of course all the commercials are pretty much on at the same time. Still captive.

Then we had the 500 channel universe explode on us and combining that with the remote, cable tv specialty channels and a bit of creative taping or tivo, and we never had to watch an entire commercial again. Commercials changed - become more like stories and entertainment in hopes of capturing our attention. But the days of captive audiences had ended.

Now the Internet is the main source of information. And for all intents and purposes, this is an infinite amount of information, entertainment and social networking freely available to all. There is ultimate choice. And the ultimate remote controller is now the mouse.

So how does this tie in to being all about me?

It only takes the average visitor 3 seconds (or less) to decide if your website or blog is “about them”.

If your website is about you, then they leave. If it is about them - then they might stay a bit longer and evaluate your content.

Fact of life #1 on the Net. You no longer control the information channel - your visitor - your customer controls that channel by giving you or removing their attention from your website or product.

If your website is about them - meets their needs - then they’ll reward you with their attention. If it’s about you - and they don’t care about you - then they click away.

And oh yeah, the younger the audience, the worse this phenomena is. If you think older consumers are quick on the mouse - you ain’t seen nothing yet.

When I have that mouse in my hand - it’s all about me.

So what’s that do to your blog or commercial website?

Pansies and Parsley

Who says they don’t go together?

Growing Peonies Make My Garden

The tulips are pretty much over for this year except for one clump of late ones that somehow crept into the garden. They need pruning and the garden needs its first weeding so you can picture me out there this week doing these housekeeping jobs. The mulch is working nicely keeping most weeds down but given this is the first year of this garden being turned from grass to garden, I expect to see a few perennial weeds come back. The old armstrong weed system goes into play this week. I pulled a few this morning to get into the mood (I have to work up to this amount of work) and put half of them in the composter and half right back down onto the mulch to rot there. Mind you, I did hide the weeds behind some plants so you can’t see dead weeds in the garden but I figure there’s nothing wrong with letting the weeds do a little double duty of mulching the good plants while they rot down to enrich the garden.

The peonies are in mid-bloom now. The early species peonies are pretty much finished off while the yellow Japanese-type with its single blossom style is looking fantastic. I do like this plant and I think it’s going to have to be moved into another spot where I can see it better. Right now, it’s tucked into the back of the garden and I”m thinking mid-way would be better. That’s the advantage of perennial plants, they can be moved around until you’re happy with plant combinations and the look of your garden. And with peonies, remember they like to be moved in the fall. Not only that but they don’t like to be buried too deeply or they won’t be enthusiastic about blooming.

If you have a peony that isn’t blooming, then generally either the light levels have changed because a shrub or tree grew up to block the light (move the plant) or the plant is too deeply buried. The trick for being too deeply buried and low bloom production is to dig the peony root up in the fall and replant at the correct depth. I like to have the eyes (the red pointy parts) at or “just” below the soil line. Bury these points too deeply and you’re never going to see blooms on this plant even though you’re getting a ton of leaf growth. Some perennials stop blooming after a few years and want to be dug and divided, but a peony is generally good for 20 years on one spot before it needs attention.

Right about now, somebody is trying to figure out how to prop up those developing buds and dreading a storm about mid-bloom that will drive the heavy blooms to the ground. Here’s my trick. I take a coat hanger - undo it so I have a long length of wire. Make a loop at one end. Wrap the coat hanger wire around the peony at the top of the foliage and stick the straight end into the looped end and turn it back on itself so the length of wire is tight enough to hold the plant upright but not so tight as the peony looks strangled. If the shape of the peony is about the same as when you started, the wire is tight enough to stay up there itself and the buds are above the wire, you’re close to having it right. The wire will disappear into the foliage (unlike ugly string and posts) and will hold the plant upright. So even if you get a storm, it will only bend the blooms over and not let them hit the ground and be wrecked. The wire can stay on for the rest of the season. I forget I wired them and remember only when cleaning up in the fall.

Do this once or twice and you’ll quickly get a feel for how tight to pull the wire and even make a small collection of looped coat hangers to stake up your peony plants. Just when you think you’ve got it straight, you’re going to find the cut flower enthusiast in the house is sneaking those loverly flowers into flower arrangements where they’ll last for a very long time. This is something I can’t help you with although I’d recommend planting some other peonies to make you both happy.

And for the record, ants do not help or hinder peonies opening or closing or doing anything much at all for the plant. They’re up there enjoying a bit of sweet “juice” from the flower bud. It won’t hurt the bud, won’t hurt the plants and will make the ants happy. Given that ants are one of your primary weed seed consumers (ants and mice get over 90% of all weed seed produced) you want to keep them happy. And yes, you can get rid of ants in your paving stones by pouring hot water slowly into the nests. And you can get rid of ants on your lawn by mowing taller; you won’t see them that way.

If I was to summarize how to grow this plant, I’d do it this way. Great gardeners know that a single shovel of compost is all you need to keep this plant blooming from year to year. Beginning gardeners try all kinds of funky fertilizers. Plant it properly, stake it or not depending on your mood, and defend against cut flower fiends. Relax on this plant because if you’ve got it planted properly, toss a shovel of compost and stake it, the two of you are good for the next twenty years.

Or at least the peony is.

Still Think Cell Phones are Fine

Update - apparently I’ve been “snoped”. Thanks Arythrina for pointing this out to me. Damn, normally I check this stuff out and I didn’t this time (color my face red);-) Check out the link in the comments folks.

Update #2 - (June 10/08) A new study hit the news today - a 10 year one that’s just being launched in Europe to get a handle on this question. You can read about it here in this CTV news announcement.

You know - every now and then something comes across my desk that I really want to share (even though it isn’t gardening).

So - the question is - where do you carry your cell phone? And what’s it doing to you if it does this to popcorn?

Lawn Mowing: Let’s Be Safe Out There People

The Consumer Products Safety Commission reported that 210,000 people were treated in doctor’s offices, clinics and emergency departments for lawn-mower related injuries in 2007. Of this number 16,200 were under the age of 19.

My kids all mowed the lawn at one time or other but my commercial grade mower had a kill-switch. You couldn’t get off the tractor to fix the plugged exit-chute without the power to the mower deck being turned off. This is not the case in home lawn mowers of the push variety. There’s nothing stopping these critters from keeping on turning at full power when the chute is plugged.

The deck on our machine would keep spinning and took a minute or so to slow down even when the power was removed. So, I gave them a lesson in hand safety by shoving a big fat stick into the chute and showing them the results as the stick was half-sucked in and chewed up in front of their eyes. The ruie was you don’t put your hand in there under any circumstances and we had a big stick to be used for cleaning out that chute. I sometimes think they shoved the stick in on purpose to see it get whacked but that was a lot better than their hands going in there and I don’t ever recall getting angry for them messing up big fat sticks. At least I knew they were using a stick.

Mowers aren’t toys and a person caught in one of them is going to spend a lot of time in surgery to correct the trauma. Fingers removed by one of these machines don’t go back on.

And oh yeah, if you mow the lawn in flip flops or soft shoes, you’re asking for trouble when that blade whacks a rock, a golf ball or other lawn debris and sends it out the back or under the mower deck. Or if you slip while pulling the machine backwards and it runs up and over your foot. Stranger things have happened to folks and it would be really nice if nothing happened to you.

Enough said.

Book Giveaway Contest - Backyard Giants

Update - we have a winner! Thanks to all who entered.

OK - I’ve had this book and read/reviewed it so now it’s time to give it away. This is the story of crazed giant pumpkin growers and what they go through to grow giant pumpkins. It’s a great gardening read for the story, even if you don’t grow this monster plant and live on a 30th-floor highrise. While you’ll learn something about growing giant pumpkins, it isn’t about how-to do this - it’s about the sweat, pain, surprise, trials and tribulations of achieving the growth of a 1000 pound pumpkin.

One big pumpkin! And one good story.

How to Enter

Simply make a comment below and make sure you include your email address in the comment section. I’ll have a friend give me a random number and we’ll count down (and around and around depending on the number of entrants and the number I’m given) to randomly pick the winner. You’ll have to answer a skill testing queston (like who’s the best looking garden writer you know) but that’s about it.

So - fire up the comments - get yourself a free gardening book.

Offer void where people can’t read blogs.

MBAB: Do these numbers mean anything to bloggers?

Do these numbers mean anything to bloggers?

GWA has released some numbers that say that 23% of “gardeners” read blogs and of these 27% read gardening blogs occasionally and 5% read them frequently.

Let’s run those numbers to see how we’re all doing with our subscriber numbers.

The first challenge is identifying who’s a gardener. Jeff Ball says that he figures there’s about 80-90 million folks who are yardeners (mow the lawn -plant the petunias - go fishing) and perhaps 2-3 million folks who really garden more than this. So let’s take Jeff’s advice because he’s the guy who studies this kind of thing.

Now this is how the math works out (always assuming generously)

Let’s say 3 million gardeners.

Technorati says 3241 blogs about home and gardening and abut half are inactive. That meant about 1500 active garden blogs.

23% of respondents read blogs. That means that 690,000 gardeners are reading blogs. (23% of 3 millioni)

Of these 690,000 blog readers, 27% said they read gardening blogs (combining both the frequent and occasional readers) for a total of 186,300 people reading gardening blogs either frequently or occasionally.

Taking the number of blogs at 1500, then we now know that (on average) every garden blog gets 124 readers.

If we run the number of gardeners at the generally accepted number of 80-90 million that the industry likes to tout, then the numbers change. We know have (roughly 3,470,000) gardeners reading blogs. And of that number 27% read gardening blogs for an average of 2313 readers.

So. If we believe Jeff Ball that there are only 2-3 million real gardeners, then the average blogger is getting about 124 readers. If we go by the industry numbers, then the average blogger gets 2313 subscribers.

That’s quite a range. And like all things, the answer likely lies somewhere in the middle.

And by this kind of math, I’m either doing really well (about a 1000 folks will read this post) or I want to know who’s got my 1313 other subscribers.

The important question then is what is the role and impact of gardening blogs given these numbers?

Convert Your Gas Lawn Mower to Solar

No comment from me - here’s a link for a weekend project that will turn your gas lawnmower into one run entirely by the sun.