Why Blog?

There is a mini-discussion among some garden bloggers about why they blog. Seems as if it all started with what was probably a completely innocent comment about Garden Voices on Gardening While Intoxicated on May 10, 2006. 1-2-3 Go Garden! responded to the blog comment, and so it went from there (to Just Your Average Garden Variety on May 17, to Dirt on May 19).

What's my excuse? I definitely started as a way to document my garden. Every year I try to keep track in a notebook, but I inevitably fail to keep up with it, usually stopping right after I get the vegetables in the ground. The following year, I end up trying to rely on my spotty memory about what did well, what didn't, and why. After a disastrous year in the garden last year (due to a cold and wet June, pesky four-legged garden pests/predators, and eventual surrender to a year gone bad), I vowed to do better this year. And I believe that I have, to some extent because of the blog.

In addition, I also want to document what blooms when, and what's going on in the little ecosystem around my house. Since I started this blog in March, most of my posts have been about the vegetable garden, because that's what comes first in the spring. However, once the heat-loving veggies are planted, it's all maintenance until about August. At that point - sometime in early- to mid-June, my posts will probably turn toward documenting the flower beds I hope to put in around the house, and the native flora and fauna around the neighborhood.

Of course, it's still May, and hope in the gardener's heart springs eternal in May. I will have to check in with myself in July or August to see if I have kept up with my good intentions.

I am also fascinated with other peoples' blogs. By reading other gardening blogs, I've picked up tips and tricks, marvelled at some beautiful gardens, seen pictures of individual plants I would love to have, and basically felt good about being in a world-wide community of people who care for the land. Right now I'm really into the British allotment holders. (See Allotment 21, At Last I've Got My Plot!, Dig for Victory, and Horticultural for just a sampling.) Their enthusiasm for vegetable gardening is infectious. I just wish more Americans were into growing their own food, but that's a topic for another day.

Comments

[Karen]

And the "controversy" lives on... ;-)

My notes are terrible too. And photos don't always help, I find, especially with a plant like heuchera that changes from year to year. So now I am able to combine both words and pictures on my blog -- and show off my garden at the same time.