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To Garden Or To Blog, That Is The Question

/ Kevin / 38 Comments

And what a question it is.  In fact, it’s a question that has been weighing on my mind very much lately.

Since beginning this garden blog, gardening has become an oxymoron of sorts – an entirely new pastime.  What was once a simple task – something that I could take care of with little thought – has now become, well, post material.  Everything is fair game.  Weeding is no longer an act of pulling and discarding.  It’s now an opportunity to write, to inform, to be witty.  It’s a photo op – and how many of you have tried to garden with one hand while holding a camera in the other?

And so my dilemma.  Do blogging and the need for content take away from gardening or does gardening interfere with blogging time?  Does one need to suffer for the good of the other, or can both activities find a balanced and peaceful coexistence?

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And The Giveaway Winner Is . . .

/ Kevin / 14 Comments

Not so fast.  Did you really think I would just announce the winner of the garden tools/seed embedded products giveaway without some sort of build up?  If all of these home/garden/fashion makeover shows can drag on for an hour until the big reveal, I’m sure I can come up with a few hundred words.

Actually, I want to thank everyone who participated by adding their advice.  That was, after all,  the goal of the giveway — the chance to plant a seed and hope that it would germinate, take root, and grow.  Thanks to all of you, there is now a garden of information.

Some of the best gardening advice was instructional: “I ‘plant’ a milk jug beside each tomato plant.  Each jug has three small holes in the bottom side, aiming at the tomato plant’s roots.  Each jug is filled with water every day – at any time of day – to let the water seep in at the root zone.  Keep the caps to keep bugs and debris out of the jugs, but don’t screw them down tight, or you’ll stop the flow of water.” Cindyricksgers

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The Best Gardening Advice I Ever Got (and Blogoversary Giveaway)

/ Kevin / 89 Comments

 

Before I get into the heart of this post, let me get into, well, the heart of this post.  The Nitty Gritty Dirt Man blog is turning one today, and I want to thank all of you for helping to make this year inspirational and educational, as well as for joining me on a journey that I never imagined could happen by simply clicking “publish.” 

Perhaps the best illustration I can offer is the picture below, and it’s an image that completely astounds me.  WordPress recently added this feature to the stats page – a visual depiction of where the readers of this blog live and garden.

 This occasion has also brought to mind all of the lessons and tidbits of knowledge that I have picked up over the years.  In fact, it’s safe to say that gardeners dispense advice as if it is seeds – casting them about and hoping that one or hundreds will take hold and root and grow.

My earliest advice probably came from my mother.  I have very clear memories of being a child and pulling weeds from the yard and then replanting them in the beds of my toy dump trucks – a gardenscape if ever there could be one.   Mom’s advice probably went something like this: “Kevin, stop planting weeds in your dump truck.”

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Sowing Seeds In Social Media

/ Kevin / 48 Comments

My yard backs up against undeveloped woodland – it’s actually the little used rear property of a home around the corner.  On my side of the fence, it’s a tame cultivated garden; on the other side, a tangle of trees and vines.  Very often, I feel like a frontiersman – forever keeping the savage world from encroaching on my kinder, gentler space. 

That’s sort of how I feel about social media.  Millions of people long and crave for the unknown delights found in the collection and connection of wires and signals.  But each time I look at the various platforms, I feel as if I’m looking over the fence along the back of my property, the one that does its best to distinguish my manicured ¼ acre from the knotted twists of vines that are slowly killing the native trees.  Yes, social media is kudzu.

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The Very Inspiring Blogger Award Goes To. . .

/ Kevin / 33 Comments

One of my most favorite romantic comedies – ever — is Pillow Talk, starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson.  There’s great chemistry between the stars, great views of “Mad Men” era New York, great fashions, Doris Day’s great apartment, and the great Thelma Ritter as the housekeeper. 

There’s also Rock Hudson as a swinging bachelor luring women into his swinging bachelor pad with the tune: “You are my inspiration [insert name here].”  It’s a running gag in the film, as countless young starlets line up for some Hudson lovin’. 

I speak of inspiration because recently Charissa of Joy in the Moments awarded me with the Very Inspiring Blogger Award – and it couldn’t come at a more perfect time.  You see, I needed some inspiration to get me writing.  So, thank you, Charissa, not only for the award but for also inspiring me to write and to examine my own sources of inspiration.  And if you aren’t familiar with Charissa’s blog, please pop over to her site and explore a place that not only celebrates writing but also offers the chance to celebrate all that life offers.  Hers is an uplifting place.

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This Bud’s For You

/ Kevin / 16 Comments

Gloxinia.

As I sat in my office the other day, I glanced at the terracotta pot, the one that stays outside all summer and that I bring to work each September, and saw the first fuzzy leaves of Gloxinia, a plant that has called this pot home for several years.

It’s a funny thing, this Gloxinia.  At the end of the growing season, after all of the leaves and stems have withered away, I put it in an out of the way place.  When I remember, I give it some water – and then, thanks to its inner timepiece, it begins to emerge from its winter dormancy – and I am always in awe.  While I go about my life and career, this plant is doing its own thing – dormant and alive, right under my nose, and when I least expect it, Gloxinia reminds me that it’s still here.

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Not-So-Wordless Wednesday: Pressing News

/ Kevin / 40 Comments

Like a garden, a blog needs its own share of TLC.  There’s watering (to nurture it along), weeding (to keep out the spam), some deadheading (to keep it fresh), and a fair amount of manure (to encourage growth).  The real reward comes when blooms appear – as flowers, vegetables, or readers.  This week, Nitty Gritty Dirt Man has seen a bountiful harvest.

My usual routine in the garden is to take a walk, check on what’s growing, what needs trimming, what needs weeding – that sort of thing.  I keep a similar routine for the blog, where I try to post at least two times a week, usually on Sundays and Wednesdays.  The structure helps keep me focused and organized.

I also check on the stats that WordPress tracks – mostly out of curiosity to gauge what readers seem to like and when their interest peaks and fades. 

That was the case on Monday morning when I checked the stats from Sunday’s Super Bowl post.  There were maybe 50 hits on Sunday night and one on Monday morning.  That same afternoon, I checked in again, but the visitors’ number had surged to well over 200.  Surely, I thought, there had to be a problem.  I had never, ever had that many hits.  Was there a glitch?  A prank?  A virus?

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“And The Versatile Blogger Award Goes To. . .”

/ Kevin / 36 Comments

Have you ever had one of those senior posting moments?  You know, the kind where you desperately need something to post about but the posting angel is on hiatus — and since it’s winter, you can’t even  get by with a random flower photo? 

Well, that was my state of mind for the past few days — until the posting angel arrived in the form of Jane from Tidy Gardens, who presented me with the “Versatile Blogger Award.”  I’m not sure of the criteria Jane used, since I’ve never considered myself versatile, but I am very humbled and flattered to be on her list of versatile bloggers — although she has also informed me there are rules that I must follow as a recipient of this award. 

But before I get into that, I do owe Jane many thanks.  Her site is one that I return to quite often — usually to bring a smile to my face.  It’s strange to have struck up a friendship of sorts with someone I’ve never met, but I do appreciate her humor (and the fact that she gets mine).  What I especially enjoy about her posts or her comments here, is that when I read her words, I can hear her voice — although, I have never actually heard it.  I encourage everyone to check out her site.  You’ll see what I mean.

Now for the rules.

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2011 in review

/ Kevin / 8 Comments

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,500 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.