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Blogger's New Commenting System Catches Spam For You

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 18:11:00 +0000

If your garden blog has been hit by spam you probably resorted to locking down your comments feature to only users with a Google ID or adding comment moderation. But there's good new on the comment front. Blogger is introducing a new spam filtering system. They're integrating Gmail's spam filtering is a sign of easier comment moderation to come.

What's new? A spam filtering tab that catches spam comments and allows you to delete them from your dashboard or mark them "not spam" if they were accidentally labeled spam by the filter. These comments that the filter catches as spam are not visible to readers.

There's also a new comments "inbox" where you can moderate your comments from. Here you can mark your comments as spam or delete them or "remove content." What remove content does is allow you to remove the text.

These updates to how we manage comments will make managing our garden blogs on Blogger a bit easier and allow us to remove the hurdles we put up to block spammers. The new comments system on Blogger is being rolled out and it may take a while before these new features show up for all bloggers. Hopefully the next improvement to the commenting system on Blogger is threaded comments.

You can read more here.

How To Remove a Label From Your Blogger Blog

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:20:00 +0000

Are you the kind of garden blogger that creates posts with lots of labels and then regret it? The Blogger team created this screenr video to show you how to remove labels from your Blogger blog.

Upload Your Own Photo As Your Blog's Background

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 21:17:00 +0000

On Blogger's Facebook Page it was announced that you can now upload your own image as your blog's background if you are using the new template designer. While the new template designer has a lot of great stock images you can choose to use as your background, but this new option is a good step in allowing us to customize our blogs and help them stand out from the rest. To use this new feature you have to log into draft.blogger.com. Similarly, you can also use your own photography to customize your Google homepage.

New Version of AdSense for Search

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 20:56:00 +0000

Do you use an AdSense search box on your garden blog?

The old version of AdSense for search is being retired. How do you know if you're using the old version of AdSense for search? The logo for the older version reads "Powered by Google" and the new version reads "Google Custom Search."

The official AdSense blog gives the following directions for upgrading to the new version:

1Visit your "AdSense Setup" tab and select "AdSense for Search."
2Select the sites you'd like your users to be able to search across.
3Customize the look and feel of your search engine results.
4Update the code on your website.

Make sure you upgrade to the new version before they make the switch so you don't lose any funds.

Katie Calls it Quits

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 01:38:00 +0000

Since recuperating from her health battle this year Katie has discovered that Garden Punk(s) no longer represents her current life and has decided to cease blogging. Although, not without teasing us that the "new" Katie may come back with a blog at some point. We'll miss ya, old Katie. Maybe new Katie will discover she likes to garden too.

Thanks for the fish and the chance to use a new label.

July is Nasty Hot For the SeedGROW Project

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 04:41:00 +0000

A lot of the garden bloggers participating in the seed GROW project are experiencing really hot weather that isn't conducive to happy nasturtium growing. Fortunately, most of the gardeners finally have blooms to show off. Allow me to highlight a few of posts. The 6X8 Garden has the largest nasturtium leaf you'll ever see, Erin is also growing the reddest 'Spitfire' blooms of us all. Most of us seem to have blooms that are more orange than anything. Kylee, at Our Little Acre got a yellow nasturtium in the mix. Jenn at Jenn's Cooking Garden went out into her garden at night to see how the blooms looked in the dark.The Mini Gardener discovered that even though nasturtiums are suppose to hate being transplanted hers didn't seem to mind. Abbie at K-Town Homestead has a pretty thoughtful post on her nasturtiums and growing flowering plants in a potager garden in general. It is interesting to note that Abbie is my neighbor (not literally-miles apart. We live in the same part of Chicago where the streets begin with the letter K.) and her nasturtiums seem to be doing a lot better than mine. Although, I suspect I've had more blooms so far. Need something to do with your nasturtiums? Xan over at Mahlzeit provides us a scrumptious recipe for Nasturtium Dolma. I don't know what Dolma is but it looks tastier than it sounds.

Here is the complete list of seed GROW posts that have been post on the blog or I've come across. If I missed yours please let me know and if you're late, we'll still accept the link to your post.

The Write Gardener~ First Things First.
My Northern Garden~Pretty in Pots.
Gardenfaerie~ Keepin' on Keepin' On.
Miller Time~GROW Project: July Update.
Happy Hobby Habbit~ Grow Project, Post 5.
Life on The Balcony~ A Tale of Two Nasturtiums.
The Garden of Live Flowers~Irrational Exuberance .
In The Garden Online~ July Seed GROW: A Flaw in My Plans.
Our Little Acre~Seed GROW Project: July Update.
The 6X8 Garden~GROW-July Update.
Cheesehead Gardening~Seed GROW Project July Update.
True Epicure~ Hot.
Mahlzeit~ Nasturtiums are not just for salads.
The Home Garden~ Grow Project Hangin' in There.
Read Between the Limes~ July Seed GROW Project.
Garden Mom29~ Month of Extremes.
Garden Girl~ Nasties on the Move.
The Indoor Garden(er)~ Seed GROW project #4.
K-Town Homestead~ Flowers in Vegetable Garden.
Brown Thumb Mama~ Seed GROW Project: Baking in the Sun.
Jenn's Cooking Garden~ Getting your Nasties on at night! A nighttime look at the "spitfire"
Get in the Garden~ Seed GROW Project: Spitfire-works in July.
Gardening in my Rubber Boots~ Maybe Nasturtiums Like Torrential Rains.
The Mini Garden Guru~ SeedGROW Project #3-Planted and Blooming.
Really Rose~ My Spitfires
MrBrownThumb~ Will be combing July's post with August because he's the organizer and can do that.

"I'm growing Nasturtium "Spitfire" for the GROW project. Thanks, to Renee's Garden for the seeds."

UPDATE: Seed GROW participants: There's a book review offer available to you here.

Blogger Introduces "Blogger Stats"

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 05:53:00 +0000

Over in Blogger's Blogger in Draft blog they just posted an announcement about a new native stats feature for Blogger. I already use Google Analytics and you may already use something similar to see where traffic for your garden blog is coming from, but the new feature from Blogger looks pretty neat. The stats are almost in real time and they're easier to understand and use than Google Analytics for those who don't need so much information.

You can check out your Blogger blog's features by logging into Blogger in Draft and clicking on the "stats" tab. You get a general overview of your stats, statistics on page views being generated by individual posts, traffic sources, and statistics on where your audience is located and what kind of browsers and Operating system they're using.

Customize Google Homepage With Your Garden Pics

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 02:08:00 +0000

When you're logged into your Google account and visit Google.com in the lower-left corner you'll see a link that reads "Change background image." This is a newish option from Google that allows you to customize the look of Google.com from the plain white background to an image they've preselected or one from your computer. Today, I took a photograph of a bumblebee in my garden that I really liked. I was so enamored with the image that I decided to use it to test this new customization option from Google. You can click on the image for a slightly larger view of the screenshot.

I take so many pictures in my garden that just sit on my external hard drive that it is nice to be able to do something with these photographs every once in a while.

h/t tweetwillrice.

Social Media Buttons For Your Garden Blog

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 22:11:00 +0000

If you're the kind of garden blogger who participates in social media sites adding buttons to your blog that helps your friends and fans share your content is a good idea. Not only does it add a bit of interactivity to your blog beyond the comments section, it can expose you to new readers and friends.

You've probably seen or installed the ShareThis button on your blog or maybe individual gadgets in your sidebar that your readers can use to share across their networks. Some of them aren't very attractive and for some you may even have to tinker with the template of your garden blog. If editing your template has kept you from adding these buttons, there's good news! If you sign into Draft.Blogger.com, click on the "Design" link in the dashboard you'll end up in the "Page Elements" section of your blog. In the lower-right corner of the "Blog Posts" gadget there is the "Edit" link. Click on that and in the window that pops up you'll see the option to add a series of social media buttons to the footer of your posts. The social media buttons show up alongside the comments link and labels. For now the available options are to Email a post, blog a post, or to share on Google Buzz, Twitter or Facebook.

If you're a reader of Mashable and a user of Blogger you've probably wondered how you can achieve a floating column of social media buttons like Mashable's on your blog. While Googling I came across instruction on BloggerMint that I followed to install the floating social media buttons on my blog. I only had to add two pieces of code to my template to get it to work. You can check it out my garden blog, where it is only visible on post pages and not on the home page. Make sure you download and backup your template in case anything goes wrong. If you don't feel comfortable with editing the HTML of your template try it on a dummy blog first. What I like about this option is that the column moves up and down with the scrolling of the reader's mouse and is very prominent.

Do you use social media to promote your garden blog?

A Warning About Using Blogger's New Template Designer

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 21:51:00 +0000

I spent the better part of last night playing with the template for my garden blog. I'm pretty much satisfied with the results and think the new choices are superb. One thing I didn't notice until after it happened was the loss of some template modifications and Javascript I had added. Lost in the transition were my label cloud (not native one), Google Analytics tracking code, my Feedburner feed flare and other bits of code I'd added for various reasons. Surprisingly enough, none of the widgets broke or were lost in the transition to the new template, which I was worried would happen. So, if you're thinking of creating a new template with the Template Designer, just make sure you've saved these pieces of code in something like a notepad file so you can add them after you've made the changes.

Notes: If you switch to a template like Simple and then add all of your snippets of code (like feed flare) then switch to Picture Window, you'll lose the snippets of code in the transition. Decide on a template and when you're sure you'll keep it for a while add in all the code back into the Edit HTML side.

If you've never added anything to the HTML side of your template then just ignore this post and play around with the new templates. They're a breeze to add to your blog and modify.

If you switch to the new Template Designer but want to go back to one of the plain templates go to Edit HTML> and scroll down to the bottom to find the links for the Layout Templates and the Classic Templates.

The Time Seed GROW Broke Blogger

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 04:58:00 +0000

Last Sunday was the first Sunday of the month and that means it was time to post seed GROW project updates. On Sunday Blogger was experiencing technical difficulties and some bloggers couldn't update. Seems like we broke Blogger by posting our seed GROW updates or maybe it had nothing to do with us. Either way, below is a list of the participants who posted their June update. Check out which bloggers are already posting pictures of their Nasturtiums in bloom. If you didn't post your June update there's still time.

Garden Girl~ The Happy Nasties.
In the Garden Online~ Peppers and Nasturtiums.
The Running Garlic~ Gardening Update.
Evolution of a Gardener~Growing Nasturtiums.
Garden Faerie's Musings~ Nasty Companions.
Indoor Garden(er)~ Seed GROW project 3.
Brown Thumb Mama~ Seed GROW project: In the Ground and Growin'.
Really Rose~ Spitfires in my Garden.
Mahlzeit~ Spitfires in June.
Happy Hobby Habit~ Grow Project, Post 4.
Gardening in my Rubber Boots~ It was a Success? Seed GROW Project.
MrBrownThumb~ Damaged Nasturtium Foliage.
The Garden of Live Flowers~ June: Where are the flowers?
Dotty Plants Journal~When the Weather is Hot, Nasturtiums are Not.
The Home Garden~ Grow Project: 'Spitfire' Nasturtiums Take Two.
True Epicure~ Seed GROW: The Spitfires Bloom.
Miller Time~ GROW Project Update.
Our Little Acre~ Not Yet a Climber.
Garden Mom~ Heat Helps.
Life on the Balcony~ Trellis Ideas for Nasturtiums.
My Skinny Garden~ Colors That Command Attention.
Cheesehead Gardening~Seed GROW project June update.
The 6X8 Garden~ GROW-June Update.
Get in the Garden~ Seed GROW Project: Miserable May.
That MiniGardener~ Seed GROW Project for June.
The Running Garlic~ Gardening Update.
Jenn's Cooking Garden~ Nasturtiums...The progression of The Spitfire.
K-Town Homestead~ A Twisted Nose.
My Garden Journal~ The GROW project update.
The Write Gardener~ Weather Like This Scares Me!

"I'm growing Nasturtium "Spitfire" for the GROW project. Thanks, to Renee's Garden for the seeds."

Clickable Image That Opens In New Window

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 05:23:00 +0000

Adding an picture to your sidebar or header that when clicked goes to a page in your blog or to another website is really easy. Just go to Layout>Add a Gadget>Picture and upload the picture. Make sure to put in the URL of the website or page within your blog in the space provided.

Simple, right?

Now, what if you want to do the same but you want the link to open in a new window so the reader doesn't leave your blog? You'll need to upload your image to a photo hosting site on the internet then grab the URL of the image. Once you have the URL of your image go into Layout>Add a Gadget>HTML/JavaScript and copy/paste the following code.

<a href="http://www.URLYouWantToLinkTo.com" target="_blank">
<img src="http://www.URLOfYourImage.jpg" />
</a>

Make sure your image isn't wider than the sidebar, header or footer you are adding it to.

Connecting with Gardening Companies

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 05:37:00 +0000

Recently, Lisa, garden blogger at MillerTime, sent me the following question:

I was wondering if you'd be willing to share with me how you approach companies to do reviews. Your blog readership is certainly much more than mine, is that a big pitch point? I looked up my Google page rank and it was 4, which is actually higher than I thought. Would it help me to mention that? Any info would be greatly appreciated.

I've been getting this question a lot lately so I thought I'd turn it into a post where I can just direct future inquiries. The first thing I’d like to point out is that Lisa has been garden blogging as long as I have and considering she’s a more prolific blogger and posts about a wide range of gardening topics her readership is most likely larger than mine. Unless we compare stats from Google Analytics there’s no way of knowing. Second, a couple of years back I stopped using the Google Toolbar and stopped paying attention to page rank. A marketer for a gardening company may feel different about page rank than I do and may be impressed by your page rank. When approaching a gardening company it couldn’t hurt to mention your pagerank, many online marketers live and die by pagerank.

Tell People About Your Blog

My garden blog was something I kept hidden from people I knew in real life for a long time. Once I started talking to people I met at the Chicago Flower and Garden Show or trade shows like the Independent Garden Center Show the small talk lead to being offered products to try, like the Atlas brand of garden gloves. Visiting garden and trade shows may not be feasible for everyone but there’s no reason why you can’t introduce yourself and your blog to a company through Email. The same thing happened recently with Clean Air Gardening and A Garden Patch. I received products from both companies that I’m going to be posting about soon on my garden blog.

Over the winter I contact Ball Horticulture about a video of theirs I saw online that I wanted to do a blog post about. A couple of weeks ago one of their marketing reps sent me a box of their 2010 introductions. The world would be a better place if every time you contacted customer service with a question and then they sent you a box a plants, right?

Social Media

Places like Twitter and Facebook are good places to meet gardening companies. Last year, I stuck my nose in a donnybrook on Twitter and it lead to Michelle Venorsky, who represents Troy-Bilt, to take a look at my blog and decide it didn’t suck and offered me the Lithium ion garden trimmer to review. Check out this post about Troy-Bilt and garden bloggers for some pointers.

Last year Jim Monroe, owner of Hort Couture Plants used Twitter and Facebook to ask garden bloggers and writers to sign up to trial some of their plants. Perhaps you’ve seen bloggers like Jenn writing about them this spring? She heard about the offer that was open to everyone on Twitter or Facebook.

Twitter is where I met the Hudson Valley Seed Library who I traded pictures for seeds and blogged about in this post. There are many gardening companies using social media and either giving away products through it or forming relationships with garden bloggers.

Poaching

This one I haven’t tried but… I sure have been tempted to. If you see a garden blogger post a review of a product- there’s no reason why you can’t contact that same company and casually mention how you read about their product and like it. The response may be something like, “Oh, would you like to review it too?”

Put up a Contact Form

When I added a contact form to my garden blog the offers for products went up, way up. Once marketers had a place to leave me a message without posting their Email in the comments section they started reaching out. The downside of having a contact form, that is primarily for marking purposes, is that people can’t read. I get a lot of gardening questions even though my form says that I don’t answer questions that aren’t posted in the comments of the blog. People still leave them. Use the pages feature to make a contact form for your blog.

Karma

I firmly believe that a rising tide lifts all boats. Over the winter when Allsop Home & Garden offered me some reusable plant tags to try in my garden I asked if I could post the offer here on this blog for other garden bloggers. A few garden bloggers signed up for the offer and have now reviewed several of their garden products. The seed GROW project also came about from my desire to play matchmaker and finding a fun way to introduce Renee's Garden or some garden bloggers. So, when you're approached by a garden company who wants you to review a product why not introduce them to some of your garden blogging friends?

Since I didn't graduate from the garden blogger ethics police academy I won't tell you how to comport yourself when writing reviews or forming relationships with gardening companies. But don't do anything you'd be ashamed of telling your mom about. Also, don't feel bad if a company turns you down or never responds when you reach out. Over the winter the editor of a magazine I wrote an article for suggested I contact a plant grower who was looking for writers to review plants. I never heard back from that person, but I've got plenty of products to write about anyway.

Do you have any tips to add? Anything you've tried that has or hasn't worked?

Compost Tumbler Giveaways

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 21:27:00 +0000

Clean Air Gardening has recently partnered with three garden bloggers to give away some Spin Bin Compost Tumblers. They are currently being given away at In the Garden Online, My Skinny Garden and The Home Garden.

Visit these garden blogs and read the posts for the rules of the giveaways.

Good luck.

Revolt at Dave's Garden.

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Fri, 28 May 2010 20:22:00 +0000

Internet Brands, the publicly traded company listed on the NASDAQ exchange as INET, seems to have a bit of a revolt on their hands. They're the current owners of Dave's Garden, one of the internet's most popular gardening forums. After Dave sold off Dave's Garden he started Cubits.org. A website where people could create websites on a wide-range of topics and split the advertising revenue. Today, a commenter left me a message informing me of the drama going on at Dave's Garden.

It seems that INET served Dave with a cease and desist letter over the creation of Cubits.org. The original thread where the revolt on Dave's Garden is taking place has been taken down or moved, but through the magic of Google you can read the cached version, here, for the time being.

I Haven't found the cease and desist letter with the particulars but from reading the comments it seems like there may be issues involving intellectually property, mainly the code that Dave's Garden runs on and Dave breaking the non-compete clause of his sale of Dave's Garden. Cubits does share that aesthetic Dave's Garden is known for.

Just about every member in the thread is threatening to not renew their membership at Dave's Garden. Members of Cubits.org are upset that the "websites" they created at Cubits will be taken down and lost.

Given how easy it is to create a website or blog, free in most cases, where you can control the content and don't have to split advertising revenue, I don't know why gardeners would've put work into creating a Cubit, they ultimately didn't have full control over.

Feed Scrapers III

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Tue, 11 May 2010 20:29:00 +0000

In the Feed Scrapers guest post by Dave at the Home Garden and in Feed Scrappers II you can find helpful tips that are useful in discovering if your blog is being scraped and republished without your permission. I'll assume you've read those two posts and will not go into detail in this post.

Here is a screen shot of a website I recently discovered scrapping my garden blog's feed. They've also scraped the message (3) appended to my blog's feed that was recommended you add to your blog's feed in one of the posts linked above.

How did I find This?

In one of the previous posts it was suggested that you create Google Alerts for keywords from your blog. Since then, I've been experimenting with creating Google Alerts for the titles of my posts (1) to alert me when

my blog is being scraped.

What they scraped.

Generally speaking, when your garden blog is scraped they will take all the words and images from your post and republish them. Some scrapers are a lot smarter and will only take a paragraph or two, which falls under fair use. Usually, the first paragraph contains important keywords that these scrapers covet for advertising and to help them rank high in search engine results.

So, to combat this, or make scraping my blog pretty useless, I've started inserting the paragraph you see marked as 2. It is nothing but text and links that promote my blogs, feed, Twitter and Facebook page. I add this paragraph of "junk" text into the beginning of every post, then I remove it after a day once I know the scrapers have picked it up.

Here is a screen shot of my blog. 1 shows the title they scraped and 2 shows the "junk" text I inserted to deal with scrapers who only take the first paragraph. Here is what my post looks like now, after removing the "junk" text put there for them.

Using these two new tips I've discovered that it is even easier to find websites that scrape my blog and I think I've discovered a way to make it less profitable for them to scrape me. I don't lose anything by them taking the first paragraph because it is just links to pages I maintain.

Note
Since scrapers will rip out the HTML from the posts I like to write out the full URL to my blogs. If someone comes across a website that has scraped my post they'll see the "junk" text which will not be of much use to them but with the URL text still there they can always copy/paste that to land on my blog.

A Look at the Mouse & Trowel Awards Finalists- #mousie

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Tue, 04 May 2010 03:12:00 +0000

The finalist for the Mouse & Trowel Awards were posted today. First thing that jumped out at me was that vegetable gardening didn't dominate all the categories. I would've bet good money on veggie and edible gardening to sweep the nominations. It seems that garden bloggers, in recognizing their peers, are for the most part bucking the trend here. Out of 14 categories Plants are the Strangest People was nominated in four indicating that houseplant blogging still has a lot of life left in her. I'm having a tough time with the indoor gardening category. It is truly an embarrassment of riches.

Speaking of vegetable gardening... I noticed that the grocery gardening bloggers/authors were shut out of the Best Blog About Growing Food category. Not a single nod to any of their blogs in this category. Although, Kiss My Aster did get a nomination in the Best Company Blog category. Perhaps, book sales aren't an indicator of popularity among the rank and file garden bloggers who are doing the nominating.* When I submitted my nominations I meant to nominate Robin's rant that set off the "ugly gardens" controversy. While I didn't agree with much of it there was no denying that it should've been nominated for Post of the Year. When was the last time a garden blogger set off a firestorm that ranged from feminism in the garden to discussions of the role of class in gardening? You don't get to create an internet wildfire, offend dozens of bloggers, spawn countless retweets and spin-offs of your post and at least walk away with a Post of the Year nom for your troubles.

Then there was that creepy off blog drama that emerged from it, perhaps you read it on Twitter? LOL. While I will probably vote for Garden Punk's Welcome to Crazy for Post of the Year because I'm a sentimental sap (really, I am) Robin's rant about ugly vegetable gardens will be Post of the Year in my heart.

The final nominations are more diverse this year. Social networking sites like Twitter & Facebook appear to have leveled the playing field. There is less clustering and we have a broader selection of garden bloggers to choose from. The memas of garden blogging at Garden Rant were nominated for Best Writing. Not a surprise, on account of it being a popular blog. Since Garden Rant morphed into a depository for guest posts will each guest blogger get a pixel of the winning badge to display on their blog if it wins for Best Writing? A while back Garden Rant turned into the Huffington Post of garden blogging; it doesn't really produce any original gardening content and what little discussion about gardening there is comes from the guest bloggers. Whenever I visit it feels like a garden media blog and a place marketers go to giveaway things to get exposure. Maybe next year Colleen, who created the Mouse & Trowel Awards, can add a Blog Covering Gardening of the Year category and free up the Garden Blog of the Year category for blogs that are, you know, garden blogs.

The Yarden, BG_Garden and Get in the Garden are three garden blogging ladies who have taken social media by storm and their social media prowess is evident by the number of nominations in the categories. I only became familiar with these three social media mavens this past winter and I'm not going to lie; I was surprised by the number of Mouse & Trowel Awards nods they racked up. Garden Bloggers have been put on notice. It will take more than a blue-haired-Mean Girls-clique on Plurk and handful of blogs in your blogroll to get you recognition for your gardening blogging efforts when there's a whole world of social media savvy gardeners who have never heard of you.

Update: Winners have been announced. Our Little Acre dominated the categories. Check out the results.

Winners will be announced on Monday, May 18th. Voting is open until 11:59 PM on May 17th. Head over to Mouse & Trowel.org to vote for your favorite blog.

* You Grow Girl got a few nomination and her vegetable gardening book, Grow Great Grub, is very popular but I think the fact that she's so accessible and friendly on Twitter combined with her book helped.

P. Allen Smith Veggie Gardening iPhone App (Free)

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Sat, 01 May 2010 02:29:00 +0000

Earlier in the week I got an Email offering me the chance to preview the the Grow and Go Together iPhone App by P. Allen Smith and Bonnie Plants that is being launched next week. Unfortunately, my smartphone is more of a got-a-GED-phone so I can't download and use this app. But they're making the app available to garden bloggers who would like to test the app and review it before it goes "live" next week to the general gardening public.

This gardening how-to app is about growing herbs and vegetables and even includes "delicious" recipes that will help you make the most of your gardening bounty.

App features include:

Growing info for 50 vegetables and herbs
50 recipes
Option to sort plants by season so you will know what to plant through the year
Veggie garden projects like building compost bins and cold frames
Veggie and herb gardening combos for container gardens

The person who handle's P. Allen Smith's Twitter account told me that it would be ok if I passed on the offer to garden bloggers. So, you can preview the app here. The password is "Bonnie." It will be available on Wednesday to the general public on PAllenSmith.com and BonniePlants.com and soon afterward on iTunes; unless Steve Jobs is a fan of Paul James "The Gardener Guy" in which case they'll find some reason to reject the app, ha!

2010 #Mousie Nominations End Today

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 19:52:00 +0000

Today is the last day to nominate your favorite garden blog for a Mouse & Trowel Award. Visit Mouse and Trowel and show your favorite garden blog some love.

UK Garden Bloggers Get Together At Malvern Show

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 17:22:00 +0000

For the past couple of years we garden bloggers here in the UK have looked on rather enviously at all the Spring Fling fun over there across the pond. Then last May whilst attending the Malvern Spring Show (a rather lovely major gardening event held in early May for the past 25 years) with Patient Gardener, it struck us that here was the perfect place to arrange our own Garden Bloggers get together.

What could be better? A garden show, centrally located and thus within relatively easy reach for most of our garden blogging friends. Not only that, blog posts last year revealed a number of garden bloggers already were in attendance, some of them even playing a central role in the show's entertainment and show garden arenas. Thus the decision was made: we'd announce our intention to meet up in 2010 and around 10 of our fellow bloggers would join us for coffee and possibly for a meal afterwards in a local restaurant. A rather low key affair, but allowing plenty of time for everyone to see everything that the show has to offer.

Never did we imagine how enthusiastic the response would be. 50 bloggers will be joining us at various times from 6th to 8th May. Not only that, the show's organisers have welcomed us with open arms: offering a half price ticket deal plus an exclusive VIP area close to the show gardens, the Design for Living Theatre, a cafe and the local food market. A prime spot right at the heart of the action.

If that was beyond our imagination, then what came next was a complete shock: not only did many of our UK blogging buddies wish to join us, our friends from overseas were also most enthusiastic about the whole affair. A humourous exchange between myself and Gail (Clay and Limestone) about arranging an international cultural exchange has led to both her and Frances (Faire Garden) embarking on a Transatlantic adventure along with our European friends Yolanda (Bliss) and Ewa (Ewa in the Garden). Thus our first get together will be special indeed.

It promises to be a very different event to the Spring Fling, but at it's heart there'll still be fun, gardening and friendship. It promises to be an absolute blast. I know a number of people who read this blog have expressed sadness that they won't be able to join us. Like the Spring Fling I'm confident that our first get together won't be the last, so there will be other opportunities to meet. And who knows? If Gail and Frances can fly all that way to join us, perhaps some of us may journey across the pond another time.

In the meantime I'd like to suggest a couple of ways you all can join us. The Meet @ Malvern blog (www.malvernmeet.blogspot.com) already has over 50 posts covering all aspects of the show, both past and present. From someone who attended the first event 25 years ago through to exhibitors and designers currently embarked on the exciting stages of the build for their show gardens. We may have just a few weeks to go, but lots more posts are planned in the lead up to the show as well as during the event itself. It would be great if you could join with us via the Comments.

I would also like to extend an invitation for you to meet with us in a virtual way by sending us your greetings to your gardening blogging buddies across the pond. It can take whatever form you wish: a favourite photograph, piece of poetry about gardening or friendship, a simple message or even just your Avatar. I will then collate everything into a 'Greetings Wall' in some way to post on the blog and hopefully to have on display at the show itself. Please send your contributions to malvernmeet@gmail.com preferably by the 1st May so I can collate everything in time for the start of the show.

Looking forward to seeing you - either virtually or for real!

Guest post: Michelle Chapman (aka VP) is an enthusiastic gardener and allotmenteer, who since taking early retirement a couple of years ago can't keep quiet about anything gardening, vegetable or Chippenham related on her blog (www.vegplotting.blogspot.com). She was a finalist in the Blog of the Year category at the Garden Media Guild awards (the UK equivalent of the GWA) last year.

Garden Bloggers GROW Nasturtium Seeds #SeedGROW

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 02:11:00 +0000

The seed GROW project officially kicked off this month. To date 31 garden bloggers have posted updates of how they're growing their 'Spitfire' Nasturtium seeds provided by Renee's Garden for the project.

A number of the garden bloggers provided some useful tips and techniques in starting their Nasturtium, and seeds in general, and I thought I'd share just a few of them.

Life on the Balcony: Did an interesting experiment where she blogged about the different methods to scarify the seeds prior to planting them.

My Skinny Garden: Found a new way of wintersowing.

Garden Girl: Found a warm spot for her seeds.

The Home Garden: Discovered a germinating difference based on the soil used to sow his seeds.

Gardening in my Rubber Boots: Bravely admitted to having less than great results so far.

Check out the whole list of entries:

The Garden of Live Flowers: April: Seed GROW project.
Terra Mirabilis: Growing nasturtiums with the GROW project.
Garden Girl: Seed GROW Project.
The Garden of James: Renee's Garden Nasturtiums.
Cheesehead Gardening: Experimenting with my seed GROW project seeds.
Simple Pleasures: GROW project.
Mahlzeit: In which we welcome the god and goddess.
Dotty Plants Journal: Nasturtiums from the GROW project.
In the Garden Online: Seed GROW project April.
Get in the Garden: Seed GROW project.
The Running Garlic: Nasturtium GROW project.
MrBrownThumb: From Miss C.H. Lippincott to Renee's Garden.
Garden Faerie: Hippy Hoppity, Nasties on the Way.
The Home Garden: Starting Nasturtiums for the Grow project.
Indoor Garden(er): Seed GROW Project, For-Real #1.
The Write Gardener: Starting Easter Sunday.
Our Little Acre: Decisions, Decisions.
The 6X8 Garden: Seed Grow Project Nasturtium Spitfire.
Gardening in my Rubber Boots: Germinating Nasturtium Seeds for GROW project.
True Epicure: Seed GROW Project-April.
K-Town Homestead: Now the green blade rises.
Happy Hobby Habit: GROW Project 2.
Life on the Balcony: Nasturtium Seed Scarification Experiment.
Personal Garden Coach: Renee's Garden, 'Spitfire' Nasturtium & the GROW project.
Brown Thumb Mama: Seed GROW project Milestone.
Horticulture Madness: Seed GROW project: Spitfire Nasturtium.
Jenn's Gardening Spot: Let's GROW together, That's the topic this Easter Sunday.
Miller Time: Seed GROW Project: First Official Post.
The Yarden: Trial by (Spit)Fire.
My Skinny Garden: A New Way of Wintersowing.
GardenMom: Seed Grow Project: Spitfire Nasturtium from Renee's Garden.
Really Rose: Seed GROW project April 2010.
My Northern Garden: Seed GROW project: Spring is Early, I am Late.

If you signed-up to participate in the seed GROW project and didn't list your post please leave it in the comments section for April and I'll add it to the list. You have a whole month to visit your fellow participants and leave a comment and learn from their experiences. If you're on Twitter check out and use the #seedGROW hashtag to share your post or find others.

Nerdy Garden Blogs

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Sat, 03 Apr 2010 02:29:00 +0000

The terms "garden nerd" and "seed nerd" get tossed around very liberally. How many garden bloggers are really nerds or have blogs that would hold the attention of serious nerds? Here are a few garden blogs that go beyond the garden journal format of most garden blogs and cover science or history in the garden.

Early American Gardens.
The Scientist Gardener.
Nature Nerd.
Garden History Girl.
The Garden Professors.
The Almond Doctor.

Nominate Your Favorite Garden Blog For A Mousie

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 03:13:00 +0000

Nominations for the Mouse & Trowel Awards started today. Head on over there and nominate your favorite garden blogs and give them some recognize some excellent blogs. Up to five nominations per category.

Garden Bloggers With "Ugly" Gardens Strike Back

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:31:00 +0000

On Thursday Susan Harris of GardenRant.com posted a guest post by Robin Ripley, her business partner in the new Garden Center Bloggers venture and co-author of Grocery Gardening. In the post titled The Dark Side of Grocery Gardening, Robin argues against “ugly vegetable gardens” that are “giving respectable vegetable gardeners a bad name.” She suggests that gardeners who are going to approach vegetable gardening in a “lackadaisical way” find another hobby.

Almost immediately the comments on Garden Rant turned negative and against the guest blogger. Some in the garden blog-o-sphere have taken issue with the elitist and snobbish tone of the rant. I know I cringed at the reference to tomato cages from Wal-Mart and was puzzled by the tone. When I met Robin last Spring I actually found her to be nicer than then the nice I was expecting. Her "rant" actually came as a surprise to me. The morning of the 19th I awoke to find a new post by Colleen over at In the Garden Online titled Giving Vegetable Gardeners a Bad Name Since 1996. Before I read it I knew that it was a response to Robin’s guest post on Garden Rant.

This morning Gina of MySkinnyGarden published My Name is Gina. My Garden is a Mess, where she too defends “ugly” vegetable gardens. Moments later J-Dog of Dig-it-Yourself published I Love My Ugly Garden!!! All three of the responses have been pretty personal, as they were when garden bloggers were up-in-arms over The Atlantic’s piece they perceived was attacking school gardens. Make sure to read the comments on these blogs to gauge the reactions of other garden bloggers. I’ll update this post if more bloggers post defending their “ugly” gardens. *

It is interesting that Cool Spring Press who published Grocery Gardening earlier this year and who prides itself on being a publishing house tuned into social media has remained oddly silent as this controversy has gained steamed and jumped from Garden Rant onto other blogs, Twitter and Facebook. Similarly quiet are Robin's the three co-authors of Grocery Gardening. I find it hard to believe that someone’s Google Alerts aren’t buzzing over this conversation. In fact, the only person seemingly interested in doing damage control is Katie of TheGardenofWords who has rose to the defense (see Garden Rant & ITGO comments) of her business partner in the Garden Center Bloggers venture.

I pointed out in a comment on Colleen’s blog that it was an interesting marketing tactic to offend potential buyers of the Grocery Gardening book and alienate some of the same garden bloggers who just weeks ago were praising the co-authors of Grocery Gardening.

On Colleen’s post, Jodi of BloomingWriter says in part:

It’s interesting how much passion this has generated. I was puzzled and irked by the original post too, & then wondered how much of it was self serving. (Buy my book! where i’m a co-author given a ‘with’ rather than a ‘by’ I’ll show you how to be a perfect veggie gardener!) Sorry, that was bitchy of me.

On the original guest post someone commenting as Lindsey writes:

Well I was considering buying Grocery Gardening (even though I find the writing lackadaisical) - not anymore. I wouldn't want to disappoint the author(s). I see her point about design for ease of use/maintenance but why say it so rudely? Why push people away when they do make an effort to grow something? The vegetables taste the same either way, weeds or no weeds

“Bitchy” or not, Jodi brings up a good point: This whole meta marketing attempt (business partner allowing business partner to market her book on her blog with a guest “rant”) seems to have backfired, in a big way.

Update: Robin has responded on her blog.

Update #2: Check out the comment by Gayla Trail on Colleen's post.

Update #3: There's a bit of chatter on Twitter now about potagers, primarily because that is the style of garden Robin keeps. I was going to share this link on the BBG website and thought it was funny that this whole thing about ugly and messy gardens came about because of a potager.

In France today, potager design is typically informal, or romantic. Often called the jardin de curé, or country curate's garden, this intimate and sensual style is comparable to that of the English cottage garden, except that it is centered on vegetables rather than flowers. Its inspiration is a complicity with nature rather than a desire to impose order, and this fashion has been fed by the growing influence of organic gardening in France over the last twenty years.

Emphasis mine.

Update #4: As I've noted Cool Springs Press, and Robin's co-authors on Grocery Gardening, Jean Ann Van Krevelen, Teresa O'Connor and Amanda Thomsen have remained silent as the Grocery Gardening "brand" has taken a hit with people saying they will not buy the book because of the original rant. For a publishing house that talks a lot about building and protecting brands it is interesting that they're remained silent on the whole issue. Today, a tipster Emails me with news that could explain why:

Oh, and here's another interesting thing about JAVK: [edited] You notice that she's not involved with the Garden Center Bloggers, even though many of her pals/co-authors are? Yeah, that's because she's working with CSP to cut them off at the knees. They are doing their own version of GardenCenter Bloggers, expecting to do better because they have connections that independent garden bloggers may not have...

So Jean Ann Van Krevelen and Cool Springs are starting a business in direct competition with Garden Center Bloggers that was recently formed by Susan Harris, Robin Ripley and Katie Elzer-Peters. Both of these groups will be creating content for garden centers. Hmmm.

Here is an Email from Jean Ann Van Krevelen that the tipster forwarded to me:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Hello All
From: Jean Ann Van Krevelen <[edited]>
Date: Mon, March 08, 2010 6:53 pm
To: Jean Ann Van Krevelen <[edited]>

I am just back from a whirlwind trip to a couple of states...and
unfortunately during the second half of my trip, I got food poisoning.
I am much better now, but it wasn't pretty. In the haze of last week,
I didn't get everything out to all of you. So, here is the non
disclosure/non compete agreement I sent last week. If you haven't
signed it, please do. If you haven't sent me a bio and headshot,
please do. If you did those things already, then your beautiful mug
was shown around to some very important people last week. :)

The good news is that I think we will have multiple opportunities for
social media marketing and blogging. I should know about at least one
of them by the end of this week...and I suspect the other isn't far
behind. Generally, we will be providing content in a number of
creative ways to garden centers and hort businesses, big and small.
And if you have been keeping your ear to the ground this week, you
will notice that some of our colleagues are doing the same. While I
say good for them, I also know that we have relationships that will
make our effort super successful, so just be patient with me a bit
longer.

If you will all reply to this with your contact information, that
would be great. I want to get a docket going.

thanks again,
JA

Update #5: Jean Ann Van Krevelen published a post today on the Cool Spring Press website today explaining that she was busy this weekend speaking at a horticulture event. I tried to leave a comment on the post but it didn't/wouldn't go through. I'm not sure that the "busy" excuse flies in today's digital age where everyone is connected and the controversy is happening in the same social media tools you are logged into on a daily basis. Also, apparently their "content sharing program" was some kind of secret as the word "leaked" is used in the post. I wonder is it any different than the program written about here on their own website? And as the Email passed on by the tipster today indicates information about the program may have been sent out to people who hadn't even signed the confidentially agreement, as she asks for the forms to be signed and sent in. But it doesn't really divulge anything that you can't decipher for yourself reading this page and this page on the Cool Springs Press website.

Today I heard from someone close to the Garden Center Bloggers program and they don't seem to be too worried about the competition and as they feel they're doing something different than Cool Springs Press. I also get the impression that they think their payment model for garden bloggers and writers may be better. But that is speculation as neither I or the person associated with the Garden Center Bloggers have seen anything about how much Cool Springs Press is going to pay these bloggers and writers who will be creating content for them.

Also, I'm really shocked at the use of personal Email account being used to conduct official business that apparently was suppose to be some kind of secret. Good lord, I didn't know people besides VP candidates from Alaska did that. And there is probably a post in here in how Cool Spring Press has behaved like "old media" in handling all of this. It is sad because up until now I'd seen some really good examples of using social media to sell books.

Have anything new to add? Send me an Email.

*I probably will not posting a picture of my ugly garden because I did it on Facebook on Thursday before the guest post and outrage. I was ugly before it was cool ;0) Here are recent #uglygardens posts. I'll add them as I see them. These are in addition to the posts linked above.

ReadBetweenTheLimes: My Ugly Garden.
Blooming Writer: I may have an ugly garden. Depends on what day you look.
SnarkyVegan: My most embarrassing ugly vegetable garden photos from 2009.
The Kat's Garden: Ugly is in the eye of the beholder.
Happy Hobby Habit: Ugly Garden Silence.

Terra Mirabilis: Is your veggie garden ugly.

Growing The Home Garden: Gardening Rules to Live and Garden by.

Gardening in My Rubber Boots: My Veggie Garden Evolution.
My Northern Garden: Are Ugly Gardens A Feminist Issue?

If you're looking for a good vegetable gardening book minus the elitism, I recommend Grow Great Grub. Yes, this is me shamelessly trying to profit from controversy. :P

Anonymous comments in this thread will be deleted. I don't care if they are good or bad, if you have something to say "sign" and own it. Or go be a coward somewhere else, it is a big internet.

kthanksbai.

Blogger's NEWTemplate Designer

mrbrownthumb@gardenbloggers.com (GardenBloggers.Com) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 19:25:00 +0000

Blogger has launched 15 new, customizable templates that come in one, two and three column designs. The best part is that Blogger Template Designer that gives you control of the look and feel of your template and you don't have to mess around with the template's code.

Here is a short video the Blogger team posted to YouTube to give you an idea of what you can do with your template. You can read more about the new templates and features at Blogger in Draft. This is pretty amazing!