29 December 2011

Bloominganswers: A present for fellow gardeners

You know you're pretty busy when nearly a week past Christmas you still haven't had time to write a Merry Christmas card to family, friends, fellow gardeners. It's been that kind of a crazy year, though, all the way around. So belated but still heartfelt wishes to everyone, and I hope that Christmas was a kind, happy, and peaceful time for you and your families.

At our house, it was a lovely Christmas, made more entertaining than usual because of the five kittens of various sizes that have taken up living here since the summer. They are unable to knock the tree down, it being fastened securely to two walls as well as being in a durable stand. But they've enjoyed removing unbreakable ornaments from the bottom of it, batting at garland, climbing into bags and boxes, and otherwise being quite charmingly cute.
 This has been a curious year for me, blogging-wise. Because of the publication of my book, Plants for Atlantic Gardens, earlier in the year, I was really busy with book promotion work, touring, signings, garden talks, research for articles and potentially other books, and so on. Then there was my brainwave to have an open garden fundraiser for the Captain Dick Steele memorial scholarship at my alma mater, the NSAC. Then there was the arrival of the itty bitty kitty committee, which grew from 3 to five very quickly, and seemed to octuple the amount of work to be done around here. Then of course I had my knees scoped, and although they're still sore and limiting me somewhat, they're improving, thanks, and the first one will be replaced next year.

So not only did I not blog nearly as much as I normally do, I didn't visit blogs as often as I should. But I answered an awful lot of email, many of them asking questions that could be answered somewhere as a collecting site, so I wouldn't have to answer them over and over again, right? Hmmmm....

I decided to start a new website, instead.

It's called bloominganswers.com and it's written for gardeners, by gardeners. It's all about gardening. There are no posts to like, no popularity contests to play with--it's a forum, a garden table, where people can share their experiences, their wisdom, their challenges and their solutions on all things pertaining to gardening. And while it's based here in Atlantic Canada, it doesn't matter where you live--you're welcome to join.

Bloominganswers is free to join. I bought the domain and signed up with a company for a paid service, and there will be advertisers coming on board in the coming days and weeks. For now, there are some Google adsense ads, but if you use an adblocking service you won't even see those.

This is, of course, a work in progress. I'm chattering about it on Twitter, on Facebook, and anywhere else I can think of. It's early days yet, but we're throwing open the door to all comers. The wallpaper isn't all hung, the curtains aren't all up, but we're here, and we hope you'll find this site useful.

Here's wishing everyone a very Happy, Blooming New Year!

18 comments:

  1. I'll check it out, Jodi. Good luck--sounds like a great idea! Love the photo of your cat with Christmas lights in the background. Happy Holidays!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good to hear you had a good Christmas. Happy New Year too. I bet your new blog will be helpful. Best of luck with it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good luck with Bloominanswers Jodi - it sounds like a great idea.

    Wishing you a wonderful 2012
    K

    ReplyDelete
  4. Happy New Year Jodi !

    Hope everything goes well with your knees.

    Love that new-to-me word, "octuple" ...

    ReplyDelete
  5. I've applied to join Jodi, looking forward to your new site.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Good luck with the new website Jodi. Wishing you a Happy and Blessed New Year.

    ReplyDelete
  7. So glad you had a great Christmas, Jodie. The new website is a wonderful idea, but, umm.... don't you have enough to do already?! Best wishes for 2012.
    Ann (formerly of the Alberta Perennial Trials, now just Ann:))

    ReplyDelete
  8. Jodi, have a Happy and Healthy 2012!
    I love your idea of a new site! Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Jodi I think your forum sounds really interesting so I'm going to pop over to have a little look.

    Hope it doesn't start to take over more of your precious time with moderating especially if those dreaded spammers find it. I used to admin a forum and I found www.stopforumspam.com to be my best friend when it came to blocking particular ip addresses.

    Have a Happy and Blessed New Year

    Rosie

    Have a Happy New Year

    ReplyDelete
  10. Good luck with 'Bloominganswers Jodi ~ what an exciting new adventure. May the new year treat you and those that you love kindly and may all your flowers and crops flourish xxx

    ReplyDelete
  11. And a Happy New Year to you!
    Lea
    Mississippi, USA

    ReplyDelete
  12. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Jodi. The new forum sounds like a great idea. Will be checking it out.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Haven't visited your blog for a while, but am glad I came back because I love the new website - have sent in my application!!

    ReplyDelete
  14. You have had quite a year! I'm totally heading over to the new blog and will check it out. Happy New Year :-)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Great idea, Jodi! All the very best in the new year with your garden and your many other adventures. :)

    ReplyDelete
  16. Sounds interesting Jodi. A place to really dish the gardening dirt. I will look and see too.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Thank you to all who have commented, and to those who have joined the site already. It's a work in progress, obviously, but I'm encouraged by the response and the participation. We'll all learn together. And maybe we'll develop a cure for goutweed?

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for visiting and for taking the time to comment! It might take me a bit, but I will return the compliment whenever possible.
Spammers--need not apply. Because I delete your comments and they will never make it here. Kthxbai!

Search Bloomingwriter

Custom Search