I’ve been reading Anderson’s “Free” yesterday and today and am intrigued with the question of what a writer/creative offers to people when the cost of finding content is pretty close to zero. I’m working on that issue now (it’s probably in the experiential part of the equation).

My two latest projects are moving along. The virtual garden is up and running on the server and I’m delighted with having a backup after I mess it all up. I expect to start bringing a few friends into play with it towards the end of this coming week and give me some feedback. The second project about pushing the limits on information sharing is an interesting experience where the size of the project dwarfs my experience. Good thing I’ve got some good folks doing some thinking on this as well.

I’ve decided to go into semi-retirement with free garden question-answering. I need to claw back some time so I’ve redirected all the Q&A forms on each site to only one. That way, they’re all centralized and I can pick and choose from the questions to answer. Given that less than 1% of folks actually thanked me, I don’t get paid for that service, and that I spent up to a day a week during the gardening season doing this, it only makes sense to drop the majority of those. So I’ll do a few interesting ones every week but if I’ve answered it elsewhere on the site you can find with the search box on every page, it’s going to remain unanswered You can only give-back so much and I’ve reached the limit of my capacity.

I’m going to Holland for the major bulb display this spring. What fun! I’m looking at hauling both cameras with me but trying to figure out how to store all the images and raw video. I can lug the laptop or just pick up some new memory cards. But given the rate of shooting with digital, and the need to edit later, I could wind up needing a few of those tiny wafers. But I’m excited to be going and I’ll likely fill my sites with tons of bulb images when I get back. If the silly ipad were out before I leave, I might pick up one of those to shove in my camera-backpack but I’m not holding my breath for the 3G model out by then. And I’m loathe to get a windows netbook given my switch to the apple system a few years ago- seems kind of silly to have to invest in new tech to take a single trip when my current systems work well for my N.A. based lifestyle.

If you’re running Google Adsense on your sites, you really want to tie your Analytics stats package to your Adsense account. After a month of watching the numbers, it’s fascinating data about what actually makes money and what doesn’t. So far, I’ve removed ads on over half of the pages of the network (they weren’t making money anyway) to improve the reader experience. It’s a user-based strategy that seems counter-intuitive but a happier reader is going to be a bigger reader. And I’m not finished removing ads yet, there are several more sites to be evaluated and whacked.

I’m having my entire image/sites redesigned/rebranded by a pro-level design team. You can expect to see some changes roll out across the board here as I rebuild and bring the sites out of the “oh so 2000″ look as it was described by the designer. Hey, what’s wrong with 2000? Turns out plenty. Stay tuned. I needed it for the iphone app I was looking at so in for a penny, in for a pound. One redesign coming up.

Weight reduction plan on track. I’m feeling pretty pleased with it actually. The Princess is running a tight ship (with my permission and, I confess, sometimes grudging acceptance.) Hit a new low for the last 7-8 years this week. If the video camera makes you look 10 pounds heavier, I’m going to be downright svelte by the time next video-shooting season comes around. Take that jealous reader!

NASCAR started yesterday. My secret addiction to fast stock-cars continues. I like the reduction in rules and the racing it creates. Like real racing instead of the line-em-up and coast stuff. One race does not a season make so we’ll see.

Blog subscribers are a funny bunch. A bunch of you will unsubscribe after this post and a bunch more will subscribe this coming week. The message here to writers is to only write stuff that people like to read or to write stuff that’s good for you to write and damn the reader-subscriber numbers. You can’t do that with a commercial magazine but you surely can with a blog. On the other hand, I’ve never figured out what to write that everybody wants to read (unless it’s how to make easy money or have guaranteed amazing sex every time) so I just write stuff I want to write and if somebody wants to read it- great. But if you unsubscribe – that’s good too. You control the click (a fact that is lost on many traditional publishers and companies).

A bunch of Scottish Rock Garden Seeds rolled in. Oh yeah. Time to think gardening.

And that my friends pretty much sums up the publishable parts of my week. I did almost no writing this past week but did a heck of a lot of work to make reading what I have written a more enjoyable experience. And this coming week is not going to be much different from the look of it.

Stay tuned.

Related posts:

1. Random Thoughts Random thoughts on a Sunday night. The Princess tells me...
2. November is the Cruelest Month With apologies to T.S. Eliot, let me celebrate November. I’ve...
3. Pink Slipped and I Don’t Care Ever notice how there are weeks where your life...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

You there – in the back row – ahh, you’ve only been on the Net for a week now….

For the rest of us – here’s how I now guard against the loss of data. And yeah, I’ve lost more than I want to consider in a recent switch to the Apple system – and various hard drive failures or backup hard drive failures. (The last one was when I took my backup dual hard drive server in for repairs and they wiped the wrong damn disk but told me it was my fault because I was supposed to back up the hard drive before I gave it to them) Huh?

In any case. Here’s my current state of the union.

1) Macs have a wonderful little utility called “Time Machine”. It runs in the background and gives me regular backups automatically to a 1 Terrabyte hard drive that’s permanently connected and travels with me. I’m sure Win users have a similar system somewhere they can install. I note when traveling for more than a few days, this drive goes with me but before I leave home I always take a backup and leave it at home in a separate drive (yes, I have two separate drives for Time Machine. One does the regular job and the second gets used only when I leave home and it’s the emergency-emergency backup if all is lost/stolen on the road.

2) All images are stored on a dual drive RAID server (RAID essentially means that there are two drives and what I put on one is instantly copied to the other) This system ensures that if one drive goes down, the other drive contains all the information. (I just have to get that information to another drive before I take it in for service I now know but I won’t lose the data)

3) I have an Amazon AWS account where I’m storing my images and video clips. This is simple storage costing a few pennies a month and I’m slowly transferring all major files I no longer use (and master files) to this storage.

4) I’m increasingly using Evernote as an ongoing cloud storage system (cloud simply means up on the Net somewhere) that allows me to keep my daily notes, images, videos, pdfs etc on my laptop, my pda and accessible Net website. Password protected, it only costs me 45/year to store 500 mgs a month upload. I’m currently taking a course and the download videos are all now stored up there so I can access them with no issues.

While all this protection may sound like overkill to the average user (the Princess only uses Time Machine) for somebody who depends on their computer for anything more than chatting with family really wants to investigate good backups.

Once tricked – shame on the computer. Twice tricked – shame on me.

photo credit: geerlingguy

Related posts:

1. Random Thoughts on a Sunday Morning Here are a few random thoughts from my week. I’ve...
2. The Costs of Making Flower Garden Video A fellow garden writer asked me how much I...
3. i-Tree software And I quote: i-Tree is a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Yeah, right. So…

In a study published in Published in HortScience 45: 78-82 (2010) © 2010 American Society for Horticultural Science
by Chengyan Yue and Bridget K. Behe

You can see this summary here.

Men and women prefer different flower colors. Yeah, anybody in the nursery industry can tell you that but here are a few lines from the summary info.

Multinomial logit analysis of single-stem cut flower purchases showed that men and women differed in their cut flower color preferences but that flower color preference also varied with demographic characteristics and by occasion.

The highest percentage of flowers purchased were RedBronze (34%), whereas the lowest percentage of flowers were Yellow (10.01%)

Although women used a more diverse color palette, both men and women were more likely to buy RedBronze flowers for an anniversary and buy PeachPink flowers for Mother’s Day.

Between 1992 and 2005, women were less likely to purchase PeachPink flowers and men were less likely to purchase RedBronze over time.

I just thought you might want to know.

Related posts:

1. A Simple Garden Bench Display The key to the display on this garden bench is...
2. Bird House in the Perennial Garden I love classic birdhouses and I particularly like them when...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

You asked me how my experiment with avoiding Twitter was going and I thought I’d take a few minutes to whip off a well-considered reply (yeah, that’s sarcasm)

Long and short of it all – I’ve discovered the next thing in communication – comes with both hardware and software and I predict it will revolutionize communication as we know it. It’s called a voice – and interestingly enough, when you use it properly, people tend to stop and actually pay attention to what you’re saying. Friggin fantastic.

But no, I haven’t missed Twitter much. I’m sure I’m not missed either – it’s one of those chuck a tiny pebble into a pond thing – you’ll say to the person, we’ll miss you but after a few days, the pond closes back in and things go rolling along as normal.

What about all the garden writers there? They’re on Facebook as well so I don’t think I’ve missed anything. Yeah, might have missed the odd tantalizing conversation or passing around of something funky but it’s a small price to pay for clawing back time in the day.

What about all the people who were following you – your twitter audience? Fred, Fred – those people may have been “following” me but they weren’t really doing anything about “following” me. Of the 1000 or so who were there, I’d get maybe 1-2% response rate to any kind of link or note. And they weren’t my readers, they’re cohorts in the media. So I could get a 2% response rate from fellow garden writers. I know Fred, it’s not about the response, it’s about the relationship.

Let me tell you something straight up. I want a relationship with my readers. That’s my primary objective here. If I have a relationship with fellow garden writers, that’s all and good (and some are great friends) but my primary working time has to be spent with my readers and as far as I can tell, they’re not on Twitter. As for business relationships with fellow writers, I’ve tossed out the odd project I was interested in to places such as GWL and got an almost zero response rate on interest or potential partners. And as you know, I’m now chatting with some non-gardening types to explore other projects that do interest me. And yeah, I know I’m a bit of an oddity here given that all my income now comes from the Net – so I’m not looking to impress editors, publishers or anybody other than my readers. I’m at a different stage of my career than others for sure.

End of story – bottom line – say goodnight Twitter.

Will I ever go back. Oh sure, I’m reading the stream once a day – and if I find something I haven’t seen or looks like I need to see, I’ll click through and comment back. But I’m narrowing in on what I need to know and most of it isn’t on Twitter. (a very few exceptions) And those exceptions aren’t worth the time it takes to get them.

So – I am using Facebook and I do think that’s interesting and useful. You can have conversations there in some length and the back-channel email is useful as well. So count me in for FB.

And Fred – really – this voice thing is a great invention – let me suggest you try it one of these days. Give me a call buddy.

Related posts:

1. Twitter Weeding Like my garden over the last few weeks, my Twitter...
2. So Much For Twitter So Miley Cyrus quits Twitter and the Twitterverse goes nuts....
3. Gardening Editors Needed Here’s one of the problems I have with social media...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

i-Tree is a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite from the USDA Forest Service that provides urban forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. The i-Tree Tools help communities of all sizes to strengthen their urban forest management and advocacy efforts by quantifying the structure of community trees and the environmental services that trees provide.

This would be a very useful software set for individuals or community tree folks – note the download button is on the top of the page not on the bottom where you normally would expect it.

I haven’t downloaded it or used it (If you do let me know) and I can’t find data about what computer system it runs on (I’d suspect windows which lets this mac user off the hook)

And oh yeah, it’s free courtesy having been developed with public money. Click here to see the site

Related posts:

1. Social Media for Garden Centers I know there are a great many people telling independent...
2. Backing Up Computers Anybody who hasn’t lost data with a computer crash –...
3. So Much For Twitter So Miley Cyrus quits Twitter and the Twitterverse goes nuts....

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

There are several kinds of writing.

Listen up – there are several kinds of writing and they don’t have the same intent.

The kind of writing my writerly friends think of when they think “writing” is timeless material that will both entertain and inform. Articles that are well-written with a great choice of thoughtful words, sources and plant info.

That kind of writing was stock in trade for newspapers, magazines and the long-ago-web.

It still exists now – but only in the context of creating an audience. If you want to create a brand, create an audience, create a tribe (or any other buzz-word) then you write great stuff.

But the other kind of writing isn’t intended to create audiences, promote a brand or anything else. It’s intended to bring searchers to a site. If they don’t find what they want in the words, they have two choices – the backclick or the ad-click.

The value of the written word has always depended on the advertising value it brings to the publication. Publications with good content could charge good advertising rates. Publications with less good content charged less or went out of business. It was ever thus…

The value of the written word on the Net still depends on the value of advertising it supports. It can either be so good it gets further clicks on the site or it can be so bad it gets ad-clicks or so patently wrong that it generates back-clicks. But the click is what the written word supports and the income it generates is the measure of its worth.

In the case of writing for somebody else online, the cost of your words is likely born by the marketing budget. Let’s do some rudimentary math on this – assume the marketing budget is set at 5% of gross sales (average in an established business is 3-7%). Assume you get paid $100/month for 4 blog postings or $1200/year. This means the gross sales for the company have to be $24,000 to support your blog. You have to bring in $24k for the company to break even with your writing. Are you doing that?

So my writer friends, when you see low word rates for online material, it isn’t because that’s what they want to pay, it’s because that’s what the words will generate in income (and what they can afford to pay with their publishing model).

I challenge you to calculate what your blogs and websites make per page per year and that’s what your writing is worth onlne. There’s no magic here, it’s a simple formula. Gross income derived from or associated with online writing – divided by total number of pages on your own sites/blogs.

You can argue about the publishing model all you like – rail against the fates that dropped you – a writer – into this age of Philistines. But that’s the hand you got dealt.

And now you understand.

Related posts:

1. Garden Writing Options There are days when I know I’ve been doing this...
2. How to write a book Random thoughts on a clear and cold morning because I...
3. Pink Slipped and I Don’t Care Ever notice how there are weeks where your life...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The Green Education Foundation is launching a nationwide program challenging at least 10,000 schools and youth groups to plant indoor or out- door gardens, making it “the biggest youth gardening initiative in history,” running from February to August 2010.

The GEF web site includes instructions and advice for students and teachers, including links between gardening activities and sci- ence, math, and other school subject and you really want to make sure your school, teacher, principal etc know about these resources.

Here’s the resource – what’s stopping you?

Related posts:

1. You Can Run But ya can’t hide anymore… I get regularly approached...
2. Bird House in the Perennial Garden I love classic birdhouses and I particularly like them when...
3. Men and Women on Flower Color Yeah, right. So… In a study published in Published...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

As you can see from the video, I’m building an entirely new kind of garden, one that will allow my friends to visit and hang out – share some information and work on joint projects. I’m at the beginning stages of this right now but the video will show you all that.

Related posts:

1. Blogs and Video Once again, I find myself asking questions about what my...
2. November is the Cruelest Month With apologies to T.S. Eliot, let me celebrate November. I’ve...
3. How to write a book Random thoughts on a clear and cold morning because I...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

One of the handicaps I’m facing in listing these companies is that I have my own company in the basement and I call her the Princess. As the founder of Underwood Gardens, my Princess is a dynamo at saving seed and making sure that heirloom varieties hit our gardens. We have to get more of our neighbors starting seed because we simply have too many to store for too long and this year we’re going to have to grow out quite a few to collect and resave so the seed remains viable.

But that’s a project for another day.

Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, 2278 Baker Creek Rd., Mansfield, MO 65704, http://www.rareseeds.com, phone 417-924-8917 (catalog free)

Bountiful Gardens, 18001 Shafer Ranch Rd., Willits, CA 95490, http://www.bountifulgardens.org, phone 707-459-1925 (catalog free to U.S. addresses, $2 elsewhere)

The Cook’s Garden, P.O. Box C5030, Warminster, PA 18974, http://www.cooksgarden.com phone 800-457-9703 (catalog free)

Fedco Seeds, P.O. Box 520, Waterville, ME 04903-0520 http://www.fedcoseeds.com, phone 207-873-7333 (catalog $3)

Gurney’s Seed and Nursery Co., P.O. Box 4178, Greendale, IN 47025, http://gurneys.com, phone 513-354-1491 (catalog free)

Johnny’s Selected Seeds, 955 Benton Ave., Winslow, ME 04901-2601, http://Johnnyseeds.com, phone 877-564- 6697 (catalog free)

D. Landreth Seed Company, 60 E. High St., #4, New Free- dom, PA 17349, http://www.landrethseeds.com, phone 800- 654-2407 (catalog $5.00)

Nichols Garden Nursery, 1190 Old Salem Rd., N.E., Albany, OR 97321-4580, http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com, phone 800-422-3985 (catalog free)

George W. Park Seed Co., Inc., 1 Parkton Ave., Greenwood, SC 29647, http://parkseed.com, phone 800-845-3369 (catalog free)

Pinetree Garden Seeds, P.O. Box 300, New Gloucester, ME 04260, http://www.superseeds.com, phone 207-926-3400 (catalog free)

Seed Savers Exchange, 3094 N. Winn Rd., Decorah, IA 52101, http://www.seedsavers.org, phone 563-382-5990

Seeds of Change, P.O. Box 152, Spicer, MN 56288, http://www.seedsofchange.com, phone 888-762-7333 (catalog free)

Stokes Seeds Inc., P.O. Box 548, Buffalo, NY 14240, http://www.stokeseeds.com, phone 800-396-9238 (catalog free)

Terroir Seeds LLC (They purchased Underwood Gardens), P.O. Box 4995, Chino Valley, AZ 86323, http://www.underwoodgardens.com phone 888-878-5247 (catalog free)

Southern Exposure Seed Exchange, P.O. Box 460, Mineral, VA 23117, http://www.southernexposure.com, phone 540-849- 9480 (catalog free)

Vermont Bean Seed Company, 334 W. Stroud St., Randolph, WI 53956, http://www.vermontbean.com, phone 800-349- 1071 (catalog free)

Thompson & Morgan Seedsmen Inc., 220 Faraday Ave., Jack- son, NJ 08527-5073, http://www.tmseeds.com, phone 800- 274-7333 (catalog free)

Related posts:

1. Gardening Together I’ve known more than one gardening couple – some...
2. Blue Eyed Daisy Blue-eyed daisy (Arctotis venusta) has been one of Mayo’s...
3. Vegetable Seeding Dates This is the everything you ever wanted to know...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

First of all, this is a vegetable gardening app intended to make the life of an iNet generation gardener easy. No problem, I get that. Easy to download, easy to install and relatively easy to figure out. Your basic iPhone app.

Entering my zip code, I wandered into the wonderful world of pocket gardening where the app was about enlighten me on how to run and manage my vegetable crop.

Hmmm.

In messing about with the buttons, I found a very good little section (tap the ladybug at the top of each vegetable info) which listed the common pests of that crop and the remedies. My concern was immediate when it became evident the developers weren’t organic gardeners and had simply copied some chemical companies data on how to nuke insects. Yes, there were some organic remedies there but only in the context of those sold in bottles by big-chem. If we’re trying to educate the iNet generation on environmentally sound gardening (you mean you’re not? ! ) then this has to be fixed in the next generation.

It took me awhile to figure out that I could add individual vegetables to my “own garden plan” (hey, I’m not 13 remember) but once I started doing that, it was pretty interesting to list all the vegetables the Princess was going to have me grow. I can even add my own vegetables to the existing database. This is decidedly a good thing because the info about vegetables in the database doesn’t appear to be either 1) complete or 2) totally accurate or 3) editable.

And this is where any experienced gardener is going to figure out the weaknesses of this software – you can’t treat asparagus (365 days to harvest??) the same as you can tomatoes as you can lettuce. Days to harvest is a problem across the board (asparagus takes two to three years from seed) Tomatoes can be harvested in 85 days but you aren’t getting many if you sow seed in the garden compared to giving them a 48 day headstart in the greenhouse, (yes, you’ll get some but only from that first fruit truss). And lettuce – well, that’s fine because it’s short and sweet seed to harvest. The database running the system can’t handle this kind of complexity in it’s first generation iteration.

Planting dates were generally good although I thought a little enthusiastic for the tender plants (a little early for my garden but hey- it’s all by the book)

The “My Garden” section encourages me to add vegetables on the day I plant them – then it starts counting down to harvest date. It’s a fun guideline but again, a bit of experience quickly tells you that a month of dull, rainy, cold weather (can you say June 2009) is going to beat the heck out of this date. Again, this is where experience comes in but as I said, it’s an interesting countdown.

There’s a section for “Notes” where I assumed I’m going to keep track of what happened and what didn’t happen in my garden. Yeah, right. The survival time for electronics or fancy gadgets in my pockets when I’m working is measured in minutes. So while I appreciate the opportunity to make notes, I’m not likely going to get that far.

Call me old-fahioned. Call me a curmudgeony old gardener but I just don’t get why somebody would take the time/trouble/hassle to make this work.

I do use apps on my Touch (so I’m not totally out of date here) but I just don’t get the real usefulness of this one. And I’m sure they’re going to improve it in next generations.

Bottom line: Fun to play with – only a few bucks to try out – but not going to be part of my daily routine.

Related posts:

1. Gardening Together I’ve known more than one gardening couple – some...
2. Vegetable Seeding Dates This is the everything you ever wanted to know...
3. Number One in Vegetable Gardening There’s a certain satisfaction reaching number one in any endeavor...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Let me give you the model I work on in designing and evaluating my Network (and remember I use this in delivering and evaluating the million pages or so a month I deliver to readers)

The problem isn’t that we don’t have great information or the information about online publishing doesn’t exist.

The problem isn’t that there are improvements in delivery systems or distribution methods or software or darn near anything else you can mention.

This first-level problem is that we don’t integrate all of these issues (and the others) into our planning and strategy. Most folks don’t understand how to target and deliver what they produce. The splintering of the Net attention-stream means a generalist approach to publishing rarely works now – the more specific your niche, the better.

Step One:

In my world of online publishing, there are three basic uses for the Net. I use it for 1) Information 2) Communication 3) Entertainment. Now you can break each of these things down into finer categories and there is some bleeding between these areas but if you want to succeed online, you get to pick one and narrow your focus into that area. If you’re trying to create an audience – then it’s more important than ever to finely target your area and then excel at it.

The problem here is that sometimes I think a venture or post is one thing but as my stats show, what I think an article is may not reflect how my visitors react to it. So you might think you’re “information” but the design and methodology of your content doesn’t work and readers treat it as “entertainment” – or worse yet, they don’t treat it at all. Clicking away and ignoring it because of the mixed message it’s delivering. Keeping things consistent has been an adventure and a steep learning curve.

Step Two:

The second way I distinguish between my Net publishing adventures is by information density. The more senses you use in the course of the information processing, the denser the information being delivered/absorbed. So making love is likely the most dense form of communication we have while reading a pulp-fiction novel in a darkened room might be the least dense experience. (And I generalize again but I’m sure you get the difference)

This illustration pretty much sums up how I differentiate and organize things on the Net. To be quite clear, my focus is Information. And I now run (almost) right up the entire ladder of information providing almost a full range of density experiences for different groups and interests. Again, each of the individual segments in the information-silo is evaluated on an ongoing basis and there is not an equal number of resources put into each density-segment (I produce more pages with images than with video for example). Note that some information wants to be less dense (how far apart do you plant a tomato? ). While some information needs more density to succeed adequately (how to prune) because of the complexity of the information. Again, this is a challenge in learning both what works for readers and what tech I need to learn to provide it.

When it comes time for me to integrate what I do, I prefer to have the bleeding between sectors minimized. I like the information to be both entertaining and provide a way for readers to communicate back (givens in my Net world now) to me but the main thrust is to give them useful information. If there’s mixing, I prefer to have it vertically organized around information transfer (e.g. images, video, graphics, text in a video ) .

As I said, this is step one in my thinking and organizing. Before I launch a new module, website or venture, I have to ask if it follows my main channel (information) or if it’s taking energy away from that main thrust. If it’s primarily entertainment, it’s a different business model than information and won’t fit into my monetization models. I also ask basic business questions such as what content, what traffic, software, hardware, and what monetization model will be applied to the module before I even begin building it out.

So this is how I start evaluating a new Net adventure – does it fit into what I’m doing or how do I adapt it to my Information silo. It works for me to figure out exactly what it is I’m doing.

But it’s step one.

And most importantly, it helps give my readers what they want in a way that benefits us both.

Related posts:

1. Garden Newsletters One of the delights in Internet publishing is watching the...
2. New Landscape Design Website I’m running a new project at the moment – crowd-sourcing...
3. Future of Garden Publishing – and then there were two At the recent garden writers conference, there was a lot...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Related posts:

1. Not Your Basic Bird House I love simple, home-made birdhouses with character. But I also...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Want to write a book? Start with a brand new blog. Disable all comments so nobody can communicate with you. Start writing the book – one page at a time.

Feel free to edit it – but put it out there.

Why a blog? It’s easy to do, it’s a commitment, it’s recordable, and it’s a statement that you’re serious enough to at least “put it out there”. Wanting to write a book but not even starting is just kidding yourself. You don’t need any plugins or functionality other than normal spam protection – you just need that software.

Why disable comments? My take on comments is that they get in the way of writing. If you get a positive comment, you glow and feel good. If you get a negative comment at this beginning stages – it’s like a bucket of cold water. And we tend to remember the negative comment rather than the positive one. You don’t need comments at this stage – you need words on a page. You need the act of writing and getting it out there.

Don’t tell your friends. Don’t tell your mother. Don’t tell your neighbor. Don’t tell your lover (well, maybe tell your lover you’re doing it – but that’s your call).

Just do it.

“What do I do once I finish the book?” you ask.

That’s another kettle of fish – ask me when you’ve written it, edited it and got it as good as it’s going to get.

Related posts:

1. Disable Comments I don’t know about your blog but most of...
2. Blogs and Video Once again, I find myself asking questions about what my...
3. DNFTT In old-Net speak, (coming from forums) this stands for...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

One – Puppies are like little kids- love me, cuddle me, feed me, notice me, or I’ll whine. Pretty easy rule for little kids and puppies – life is simple.

Two – have watched blog stats pretty consistently over the past few years. If the article is a “train-wreck” article where strong (entertaining) views are expressed, outrage is demonstrated on as many sides as possible – then readership (as measured by subscriptions) goes up for several weeks but slowly tails off if nothing but gardening articles are posted. So it’s really easy to spike your traffic and build readership simply by writing train-wreck posts. Nothing new there- wrote about this before but it’s entertaining to see it revisited.

Three – I”m fickle. I love the new idea – the new thought – the new concept – something to get my mind turning over and seeing how that fits into old schemes of doing things. This drives some people nuts (luckily not my Princess who listens patiently) and a great many writers can’t do this. Sorry to say but imho you have to learn to do this if you want to survive as a Net-preneur writer in this coming decade.

Four – I’m no longer worrying about what other writers are doing or why they don’t “get it”. A fellow writer put it succinctly – she wasn’t an entrepreneur, she wanted somebody else to provide her with a writing channel (but she wanted to make good money doing it). Mutually contradictory thinking now. Get over it – the number of “safe” jobs is decreasing rapidly. If you want to get paid for your “talent” you had better have some serious talent there – be one of the 1% that is a true talent. And then you still have to work your butt off because there’s always somebody coming along that’s better. (funny how talent and hard work go hand in hand)

Five – it’s becoming clearer and clearer there are multiple channels and ways to employ the Net to make a living. But it’s a brand new skillset and way of thinking and the multiplicity of combinations of old-new-created channels is staggering. And this is only going to keep on developing. New breed of buggy-whip makers being created as we speak.

Six – Seth Godin said it again It stands on it’s own. I paid attention last time – are you paying attention this time?

Seven – if I have to fail at something, then I want to fail at something that’s at least interesting and challenging. I’m no longer interested in plodding along. Life is way too short now for this kind of status-quo thinking. Consequently, I’m now developing 25% of my working day to brand new projects that may or may not pay off but…

Eight – I have to plant a bunch more trees this year. I got started on it last year but if I want to see a forest on my property, then I had better get my butt in gear. (How’s that for a life lesson to take to other areas of your life!) Hah!

Nine – all of these things may change tomorrow. I may learn something new to change them, something might happen to change my mind of one or all, or a giant flaming fireball might drop onto our ferry as we travel to the mainland. Who knows.

Ten – life’s a giggle.

Related posts:

1. What I’ve Learned in 2009 This has been an interesting year for sure in my...
2. Laptop Gardener The Laptop Gardener Blog is one I’ve been quietly following...
3. Add file to book So here’s an interesting tidbit I learned this week: 1)...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

There are a heck of a lot of what-was and what-will-be posts being published right now. Having done my business planning in November, I can only add this bit of current thinking.

Life is – in all things – finding a balance.

When the “what was” fills your life, you’re at the end of life – no matter how old you are.

Youth is measured in the “what will be” moments.

Life is in sucking the marrow out of “what are” moments.

Real wisdom is in understanding and balancing the differences.

Related posts:

1. Ten New Lessons for Twenty-Teens Jan – 2 – learning stuff already this year… One...
2. Gardening Editors Needed Here’s one of the problems I have with social media...
3. Garden Networks One of the big buzzwords on the Internet has, and...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

I debated about whether I should tell you that there are 15 species in the Cyclamen family and that the Persian Cyclamen (Cyclamen persicum) is the one used as a houseplant. I wasn’t sure you’d be bored by that, but I knew you’d want to know how to keep this wonderful orchid-like plant blooming. This poor man’s orchid will bloom from the middle of fall, right through the depths of our winter and comes in a variety of colours from pinks and whites to reds and purples. There are even a few fragrant varieties.

The real trick to keeping cyclamen flowering all winter is to keep them cool. They love temperatures of 55-60 F. and anything hotter than that will reduce the bloom time. In contrast to this love of cool temperatures, they also like to be kept constantly damp, (not swampy) but never dried out either. Try watering them thoroughly so the water runs out the bottom of the pot and then feeling the soil every day. When the soil is damp, but does not leave moisture on your finger, it is perfect. If the top of the soil starts to feel dry, water again thoroughly. Extra water going out the bottom of the pot is not a problem if you try the following tip.

To keep them flowering heavily, a high humidity is required. Now our houses in winter tend to be quite dry because of our central heating so an indoor gardener can either mist the plant several times daily, never getting the flowers damp, or they can construct this automatic humidity system. Obtain a large clay saucer, large enough to comfortable fit under the plant pot and have several inches of free saucer space sticking out the sides. Fill this saucer with marbles or small rocks of 1/2″ in diameter, and level them so the cyclamen pot sits comfortably and level on the rocks. Now to get the humidity, simply fill the saucer with water. The pot is standing on the rocks and is not soaking up moisture (you didn’t fill the saucer too deep did you?) and with a larger saucer below the pot, the excess water will constantly evaporate up into the leaf surface. This will keep cyclamen and any other houseplant that wants high humidity quite happy with a minimum of work. Simply fill the saucer whenever it gets a bit low on water, excess water from the plant pot can be left in the saucer to evaporate. Gardeners with a few plants in a confined space can construct trays lined with plastic to hold moisture and create humidity around the plant leaves rather than use bulky saucers under each plant. (I note there is some debate in the hort-world whether this water-in-pot-with-pebbles actually works – my .02 is that it can’t hurt and it might help).

If you want flowers, you have to feed the plant. Use a regular liquid houseplant food every two weeks while the plant is in flower. Remember, if you don’t feed it, you don’t get to complain when it stops blooming. This feeding will also help the tuber to grow and as larger tubers give more flowers, feeding is a good habit to get into. Most stores carrying plants or plant supplies will have a general purpose liquid plant food that will do the job.

At some point next spring, the cyclamen is going to stop blooming. This means the plant is ready to go dormant. Move the entire pot to a cool, dark spot but keep the soil slightly damp. Again, do not turn it into a swamp or a desert. The tuber will happily sleep until late next summer. It will not have any leaves on it, but neither is it dead. Simply have patience and during the summer keep checking the tuber; when you see a shoot starting to develop, take the pot out and put it into a bright light with no direct sun. An east or west window is ideal. When the tuber starts to grow again, it is an ideal time to repot it into a container that is only one size larger than its current container. Either repot it or if on inspection the tuber is quite large, it can be split and several cyclamen obtained. These can be added to the collection or used as presents at Christmas time. Use a regular potting soil, if you are feeling benevolent, you can add 1 part of vermiculite to 2 parts potting soil to loosen up the soil mix but this is not necessary.

Having gone through the cycle once, it is easy to repeat it and amaze all your friends and neighbours with your very obvious green thumb. They all think this plant is hard to grow but we know differently, don’t we?

Related posts:

1. Fall Planting Just for the record, here’s my schedule of fall...
2. Potted Tulips There’s a sea of potted tulips in the stores...
3. The Advantage of Northern Gardens You know I really hate to read the Net...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

If we look a bit further, it can be quickly seen that I’m a heck of a lot bigger than this Old English Sheepdog puppy (5-months) but she has significantly more hair. This puppy has hair where I’ve only ever dreamed of having hair and that’s about as far down that road as we need to go.

But beyond the obvious, we run into the really significant differences:

When a Doug comes into the house, he’s expected to put his boots immediately into the cupboard.
When a Dog comes into the house, she gets a cursory wipe of the paws and gushed over because she looks so cute all covered in snow.

When a Doug carries armload after armload of fireplace wood into the house, he’s considered messy when a bit of bark or dirt gets loose in front of the hearth.
When a Dog picks up one stick, chews it to bits and leaves the newly created mulch across the living room, she’s cute.

When a Doug doesn’t put his stuff away or shirts in the laundry, it can become a problem.
When a Dog leaves plushy toys, chewy toys, and squeaky toys strategically located in every room of the house, it’s considered good planning.

When a Doug hasn’t had a shower or shaved in the morning, he’s not considered cute.
When a Dog presents a slobbery, soaking-wet plushy toy onto the lap for playful consideration, she’s considered cute.

When a Doug wants a quick kiss… (see above)
When a Dog wants to lick ears, faces with a tongue that has just been goodness-knows-where, it’s loving.

When a Doug decides to get up really, really early – it’s not so cute if the better half is disturbed.
When a Dog decides to sleep in the bedroom, jangling dogtags and snuffling at any body part within 2-feet of the edge of the bed, it’s cute (and forgiven)

When a Doug goes out for a walk in sub-zero temperatures, he considers a half hour walk a marathon.
When a Dog goes out for a walk in sub-zero temperatures, a half hour is a mere warmup for the main event.

Doug stands up better on ice but will hurt more when he falls.
Dog and puppy paws are not built for wrestling on ice-covered ponds.

Doug throws sticks.
Dog chases sticks and chews them.

Doug doesn’t get sympathy from family when he complains about this mistreatment.
Dog gets instant sympathy when she picks up a burr.

They didn’t call it “A Doug’s Life”.

Frankly, I find it simply amazing what a difference this single vowel can make in your life.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

The showy amaryllis bulb plant was named after a shepherdess – who for some exotic reason was often referred to by the Romantic poets. Milton’s poem Lycidas. “Were it not better done as other use, To sport with Amaryllis in the shade, Or with the tangles of Neara’s hair?” is a perfect example of this reference. Indeed, sporting with Amaryllis in the shade sounds a whole bunch better than working or herding sheep. And indeed, this flower is quite showy and worth a bit of sport to keep it growing and healthy. Luckily, this South African native isn’t all that difficult to grow and convince to repeat bloom.

It grows naturally on the coastal hills and stream banks on the southwestern seabord of Cape Province, South Africa and this is our first clue on amaryllis care. While, in nature it normally thrives in areas where have the taller plants have been destroyed by fire, this simply tells us that it likes full sunlight to grow properly. Growing on stream banks also tells us that this is not a dry-land plant but enjoys a good drink and fertile soil. In the wild, as in your kitchen, the flower stalk will appear first followed by leaves only once the blooming period is done. I note the flowers are wonderful for cutting and often have a slight fragrance to them.

This is a perfect plant for pot culture because the fleshy roots resent being disturbed when the plant is actively growing. So, now that you have your amaryllis bulb newly purchased and it is sending flower stalks skyhigh take the time to enjoy those flowers. They are relatively short lived and the single most important thing you can do to keep them flowering for a long time is to keep the plant warm. This is not a plant for the cool windowsill or back bedroom. The warmer the better and this temperature applies to the entire growing period; remember, this is a South African native.

Once the flowers fade, the amaryllis flower stalks can be cut right down to the bulb. Soon after this fading begins (or even while the blooms are on the plant) thin, strap-like leaves will begin to be produced by the bulb. Your job, if you want to bloom the bulb again, is to grow these leaves as best you can. Here’s the tricks. Full sunlight is necessary, as much as you can give this southern native. Feed it with a balanced houseplant food once a month. This is really important because if you do not feed it or give it enough sunlight, the bulb will not get strong enough to produce flowers for next season. At some point, the bulb will tell you itself, it will have enough sunshine and food produced and the leaves will begin to fade and go yellow. At this point, stop watering.

Now, you’ve been watering the bulb and while not keeping it swamp-like, you’ve kept the soil dampish so the bulb will not be water-starved. But now, when those leaves fade, you hold the water and allow the soil to dry right out – bone dry. You will not water again until the bulb starts to throw a new flower stalk next fall. I note that the length of time the leaves will grow and the length of time of dormancy are controlled by how you grow the plant. Cooler temperatures will lengthen the growing cycle as will reduced sunlight.

Remember that the bulb does not like to be disturbed and flowers best when pot-bound so transplanting into new pots and dividing off bulb offsets is only done every few years when the bulb starts to grow beyond the size of the pot. This is done during the dormant season if and when you have to do it. You can expect multiple shoots and flowers to be produced from mature bulbs (the ones you purchase in stores are never mature) so you don’t want to disturb the bulb until you have no other choice.

There are few pests that bother this plant but you may see some aphids, whitefly or spider mites doing their best to colonize the leaves. If you put the pot outside for the summer, be aware that slugs consider them a delicacy and will quite quickly (overnight!) chomp a plant to the ground. Other than that, most other problems are caused by poor watering habits (usually too much water) or too dry air (next to air registers). Even I can grow this plant indoors and that is saying quite a bit.

So, I’m not sure I’m up to sporting with poets and their Amaryllis but I can tell you I’m delighted to watch my Amaryllis bulb bloom in sunny windowsills.

Related posts:

1. Potted Tulips There’s a sea of potted tulips in the stores...
2. Growing Cyclamen In keeping with the season, it seems reasonable to...
3. Honeywort Honeywort or Cerinthe major is one of those “seed...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

So – yeah, it might look a bit … well, funky … for the next little while as I both learn the software and do a design and then learn how to do the design with the software.

I’ll sort out the issues -get the lines straight – images working – bit by bit – over the next … say 40 years… and someday, sometime, somehow it will all come together in a world of peace and harmony.

Oh wait…. that’s something else.

Blog. Under construction. Enough said.

Related posts:

1. Headway Theme Development As I indicated a while back, I had to upgrade...
2. New Theme – Again Here we go again, it seems I didn’t learn from...
3. Social Media for Garden Centers I know there are a great many people telling independent...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

It doesn’t like full hot sun – preferring a noon shade but lots of light (not direct hot sunshine but lots of filtered light) and this light level of “baking” is where most gardeners get themselves into trouble with this plant. It’s very much like fuschia in that way.

It likes an even moisture level – not swampy and not parched. Let this dry out and it’s going to be very unhappy with you.

Bring it indoors in the fall (it isn’t even close to hardy anywhere there’s a serious frost) and take tip cuttings in the spring to propagate. Optimum growing temperatures seem to be around 55F to 80F.

It isn’t particularly tough to grow although aphids are attracted to it (but then again, what plants do aphids really ignore)

Related posts:

1. Rooting Plant Cuttings Here’s a quick video of my low-cost homemade plant propagation...
2. Potted Tulips There’s a sea of potted tulips in the stores...
3. Fall Planting Just for the record, here’s my schedule of fall...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.