I recently won Mark's Seed Giveaway for Winter Lettuce Mix over at Mark's Veg Plot. (One of my favourite blogs). I was totally thrilled, having never won a thing in my life before and because I've never grown any lettuce other than one which didn't turn out to be what it was meant to be, (Though it was delicious, whatever it was!) and so I'm never sure what varieties to try.
Mark not only sent me the Sarah Raven "Best Winter Lettuces Mix" (which contains seeds for varieties "Can Can", "Green Salad Bowl" and "Merveille de Quatre Saisons") but also some delicious looking radishes, which are Plants of Distinction "Cherry Belle". I've never grown radishes before, and in fact I've only eaten one once (It was lovely though) so I'm really excited to grow these beauties. I hope mine turn out as tasty looking as these. It was also great to have some email conversation with a fellow chilli enthusiast! Thank you very much Mark! :)
Onto my second thank you! Jo's The Good Life, (another of my favourite blogs), featured me as her Blog of the Month for November. I'm totally thrilled! Not only did she have some lovely compliments on my blog, but I found it interesting both from her and her commenters, on what aspects of the blog they really seemed to find interesting and enjoy. The exotic vegetables seem to be a point of interest, which is really why I grow them, because they are so interesting and unusual to grow, so it makes a change from the standard style crops, and its fascinating to see how they grow in this climate compared to their native one. It's also given me ideas for a new blog segment, so a huge thank you to Jo for the feature.
Now, for the triple to make sense there does need to be a third thank you. Who would that be? You. My readers! I just want to say thank you for a vast amount of support I've gotten from the gardening online blog community (and some foodie/cooking blogs too). I've never felt so welcomed. As I mentioned in a previous post here when I first entered the online community aspect of gardening I made the mistake of visiting forums, and it was a very closed door, my presence was entirely unwanted kind of experience. I think because in other hobbies the way to communicate with others was only really done by forum, so I figured it would be the same. I'm not saying all gardening forums are horrible, but I think blogging is actually much more rewarding, because you get to really see in great detail how plants have developed for each person growing them, and learn new tips and tricks from everyone's own unique methods. It's so much more personal and I feel like I can ask questions directly so easily and get a useful answer. I'm really enjoying this aspect of the hobby as much as I am the gardening itself. So thank you, all of you! :)
Hi Rozzie, nice to meet you. I have just popped over from Jo's blog for a quick visit and will no doubt be back again to see how things have been going for you. Congratulations on winning the seed give-away and also staring on Jo's blog.
ReplyDeleteHi Tanya, thanks for your visit! Thanks for the congrats, and I hope you continue to enjoy reading! :)
DeleteI agree with you that blogs are more rewarding than forums - I think more personal too as you seem to end up with a better rapport with fellow bloggers rather than the forum format of posting a question and waiting for an answer etc.
ReplyDeleteAs you know I had a similar bad experience with one forum where the queen bee of the forum actually sent me an abusive email because I contradicted something she had written. She saw me as a challenger to her 'throne'. I never visited again. I wonder if it is the same one as you didn't like. I'm always really happy to get new commenters or followers to my blog.
Yes, I feel the same about the blogging vs forums in terms of actually learning and getting answers about queries.
DeleteYes that forum does indeed sound awful and could very well have been the same one. I can't remember now what it was called, but there was one wonderful girl there who said to me, "Ignore all of them, do what you want and no matter the outcome you'll learn just as much doing it your way than you would have if you did it theirs." Sadly, it seemed they were pushing her out too, which is just bizarre behaviour! What they mainly seemed to take issue with was that I could only grow in containers (with living in a 2nd floor flat and having no available outdoor space, not even a windowsill! The allotment wait was a minimum of 9 years at the time). They seemed to think that even trying to grow in containers was preposterous, even for the likes of tomatoes, which in my experience like to be on the side of pot bound, as they seem to be more productive for me this way.
I'm definitely sticking to the bloggers from now on.
What a lovely post. I think you're right about doing further posts on the unusual veg you're growing, gardeners always seem to be interested in things other than the norm. Well done on winning Mark's giveaway, his radishes always look so appetising so I think that variety would be well worth growing, it's one that I haven't tried before. I wonder which forum it was that you tried. I don't really visit forums very much any more as I prefer the blog world, but ones I've used in the past, and which have been very friendly, are UK Veg Gardeners and Allotments 4 All.
ReplyDeleteI must admit UK Veg Gardeners is good, in fact I'm sure I started off a Scottish growers group years ago on there, then forgot the website until recently and it seems to have grown considerably since! But I never really saw that as just a forum, but more of a resource, because its not quite as intensive as typical forums, and UKVG also brings in some blogging elements along with it, which is a nice combination.
DeleteYes, I'll certainly be posting more about the odd and exotics, particularly because I already have so many seeds all ready to go come spring, for some pretty interesting new plants!
Congratulations Rozzie! I love reading about your latest exotic veg experiments - your 'give anything a go' attitude to growing is fabulous.
ReplyDeleteThank you Suzie! I enjoy growing them! I think you've got me down in the "give anything a go attitude" towards gardening. I think it partly comes from just feeling its a hobby where I do have the freedom to try things out my way, and also because in my degree (which is in Clothing Manufacture) we were always encouraged to experiment with pattern making and sewing techniques in order to achieve the desired result. Its definitely given me the mentality that there's often not one set way of doing something, so if someone says to me "you can't grow that here", I immediately thing, "And why IS that? Let me give it a go!"
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