Two years ago to-day I joined Blotanical. My tender new gardening blog had been up and running for exactly two weeks. Before joining Blotanical “Threadspider” had been marvellous at commenting on my blog – we also had another meeting place in our love of textiles, and she was a regular commentator on my textile blog.
After joining Blotanical more comments started coming … Big thanks must go to Shirl, Mr. McGregors Daughter and Kate Smudges for their early supportive and interesting comments, they made me feel welcome and included in this new venture that was Garden Blogging.
Special thanks must also go to VP – as I think she was one of the first bloggers who included a link to my blog in one of her posts. Amazing, someone actually read me!
The world of garden blogging has exploded in the last 6 months or so. So many good blogs and so little time to read them all.
When I first started garden blogging 2 years ago there seemed to be a scarcity of UK garden bloggers, it is a very different story now. I like to think of those UK garden bloggers who I first met two years ago as my chums – and hopefully I will be meeting some of them face to face at Malvern.
As I look at my google reader, I see that I have over 250 unread posts – I also follow 100 blogs at Blotanical – although some, (only a few!) of these are duplicated in my reader. It is Mind Blowing – and there is no way I can keep up with everyone and still have time to find new blogs.
My blogging habits have become sketchy and thoughtless – there are some blogs that I follow and I rarely leave a comment on them – the two that spring to mind are Gail and Frances. I look at the comments they receive and think, there is nothing for me to add, and I don’t. So how do Gail and Frances know that I have visited and know that I am still enjoying their words and images?
I welcomed Jodi’s (Bloomingwriter) post about Encouraging our Fellow Gardening Bloggers. Without those early comments from established writers, “An Artist’s Garden” would probably have sunk into oblivion by now. I am delighted to see that amongst others;- Rothschild Orchid / Wisteria and Cowparsley and Nancy / Soliloquay have embraced Jodie’s suggestions and are supporting new blogs.
I have been thinking for some time now that I would do away with my blog-roll with its long list of bloggers who, however hard I try, I could not keep up with. I have decided to give myself a list of about a dozen blogs that I could follow properly for a month or so and actually fully engage with them, taking time to read the posts and leave comments.
My reading list however, will be a mix of old and new. Of some folk that I enjoy, but have neglected. Of established blogs that I have not developed a “relationship” with although I would like to plus some “New to me” blogs – possibly some of the “new to me” blogs will be familiar favorites for you.
I would like to change my reading list about once a month – realistically I know that the days go by too fast in the spring and summer for me to remember what month it is – but that is my goal.
I have moved the long blog-roll to a separate page – it is in dire need of updating and organizing and I will be doing this over the coming weeks, so please don’t be offended if you are not there … it will be sorted soon.
I have updated my word-press template - so you can now respond directly to other peoples comments should you wish to do so – it will also make it easier for me to respond to all the great comments you leave for me.
I do want to just thank those of you who have supported this blog over the past two years, it means a great deal to me – and it has made the whole process so worthwhile on a variety of levels.
SO
The blogs I shall be reading in February are:
Meredith – Victory Garden Redux
Lesly and Robert The Hegarty Webber Partnership
They will remain in the sidebar until next month – then you can still view them on the “Monthly Reads 2010″ tab at the top of this page
