MySecretGarden

U.S.A., Washington State. USDA zone 8b. Sunset climate zone 5

Blotanical: The Garden I Can Visit Any Time I Want

I've been blogging for more than a year now. I wrote about my garden, travel, my kids' school life, etc. I had a good group of readers who were my relatives, friends, friends of my friends and just friendly strangers. Unfortunately, very few of them were gardeners. It was good to hear what they thought about my garden, but I was craving for more. Like a fisherman wants to talk to other fishermen, I wanted to talk to other gardeners, learn from them and share my experiences with them. It was purely accidental that I stumbled on Blotanical http://www.blotanical.com/. Several months after joining it, this is what I got:

* The first visible result came very fast. I've had a self-seeding pink-flowering plant that I didn't know the name of. Many gardeners tried to help me, and hurray it was found! - Sweet William Catchfly:


* I found grasses that would be good candidates for replacing a part of our lawn. Several blotanists posted very useful information about grasses and their use in landscapes.
* I learned the name of weeds that started to invade all parts of my garden. After reading a couple of posts, I announced a state of emergency and several sessions of weeding later, I can say that I won the battle.
* I found new details about composting thanks to several blotanists.
* I had bulbs that I bought at the 2008 NW Flower and Garden Show which didn't have tags. I spent weeks trying to remember their names: Bulb... Giant bulb... Well, my guesswork ended after I read one recent post. It was a Giant Squill Bulb!:



* Several of my posts
(for example, "What are you all whining about?" ( http://tanyasgarden.blogspot.com/2009/02/what-are-you-all-whining-about.html), "Amur Maple, Black Caviar and The Dog On My Blog" (http://tanyasgarden.blogspot.com/2009/02/amur-maple-black-caviar-and-dog-on-my.html) resulted from reading other Blotanists' posts.
* I learned about new plants, visited several botanical gardens in other states and countries, read high quality posts on a range of garden subjects, had many good laughs and met dozens of nice friendly people.
It is like participating in garden tours when people are so generous they let you step into their gardens and answer your questions. It is even better since you are touring those gardens comfortably seating in your office no matter what time a day or night it is. Speaking about day and night, I should confess I check Blotanical any time I can not sleep. I read posts, do my picks and voila - I'm ready for dreaming about flowers, grasses, raised beds, birdhouses, earthworms, bulbs, etc., etc. To be fair I should admit that I am spending much more time with my computer now. So that I do not feel too bad about it, I try to combine blogging with snacking, doing yoga and having breaks from doing chores. All in all, I feel good and look forward to having my first spring, summer and fall with Blotanical.
I heard a saying: A GARDEN IS A FRIEND WHOM YOU CAN VISIT ANY TIME YOU WANT. It looks like Blotanical is another place that you can visit any time whether you want to be alone and enjoy all the beauty which the garden world offers or engage in a friendly chat with fellow gardeners.

17 comments:

  1. What a great post, and I agree with
    you 100%!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lovely said, Tatyana.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yay! You are spot-on, Tatyanna. Gardening is mostly a solitary endeavor so to come Blotanical and converse with other like minded, garden savvy people is a real treat.

    Loved your post. I hope to see your red star soon.:)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great post. I love blotanical too. Such a great blogging group.

    ReplyDelete
  5. You are so right. I do have friends that love to garden, but it's not quite the same. It's great to read blogs by people that are excited about gardens and plants and all that comes with them. My plant wish list has grown too!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Its a great place to meet new gardeners - like a sort of gardening facebook.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Tatyanna,

    Good post and I'm glad you have found so many answers to your questions. One can never know all one needs to know.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Tatyana, you are spot on with this post. I agree wholeheartedly and love to have my coffee in front of blotanical in the morning. Red star, here you come. I am glad everday that I found this great site to network with others and their garden interests. If only I could get on there this morning:(
    -Heather

    ReplyDelete
  9. I have tried several time to add my blog to blontanical....it has failed everytime...not sure why. I am looking forward to joining it (if I ever get it to work)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yes, you are so right! I feel the same way! I need to share more of my weeds and get some help with ugly parts of my yard! Yes, I think I will ask for some help--I have done that in comments, but not in posts. You have received a lot of feedback and that's terrific;)

    Wow, those giant bulbs are amazing...never have I seen anything that big at someone's HOME. Maybe at a botanical garden but to have them yourself...wow! I can't wait to see their blooms!

    ReplyDelete
  11. True Tatyana on all counts. Wonderful post.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Very resonant points with me, those. I must visit Blotanical some more and put more into it. But I love my Blogger list as well, the ones I follow, and there's a limit to how much time it does me good to spend on the net.

    ReplyDelete
  13. Great post. I have been thinking about joining that community.
    Debbie

    ReplyDelete
  14. Is anyone else having trouble logging on to Blotanical today? I'm having withdrawl symptoms!

    ReplyDelete
  15. To everyone: What great comments you left on this post! Thank you so much! You make me feel so good! I think Stewart did outstanding job!

    Claire, we all are suffering today... like fish without air... It happened before. Hopefully, it'll be fixed soon.

    ReplyDelete
  16. That squill is spectacular! Great post ... now if blotanical would just start working.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Other commentsJanuary 28, 2010

    Dirt Princess said...
    Well that explains why I couldn't add my blog to Blotanical...hope they will be back up soon
    March 5, 2009 12:16 PM

    Jan (Thanks For 2 Day) said...
    very nice:)
    March 5, 2009 2:02 PM


    tina said...
    What a nice post Tatyana.
    March 5, 2009 5:53 PM

    Hermes said...
    I love that quote. I have discovered many lovely gardeners on Blotanical.

    March 5, 2009 11:05 PM

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for stopping by and for your comment! I appreciate your time! See you soon on your blog!

Blog Archive

Search This Blog

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...

I'M GLAD TO SEE YOU!

Labels

Abyssinian Banana (4) Actaea s. (1) Agapanthus (1) Agressive plants (1) Alaska (8) Amaryllis (5) Aquilegia (1) Aralia (4) Arizona (1) Arundel Castle Gardens (1) Autumn (47) Bainbridge Island Gardens (8) Before and After (8) Berry (4) Bird Houses (1) Bloedel Reserve (1) Blotanical (3) Blue Poppy (2) Book review (1) Botanical Gardens (3) Bouquets (9) Butchart Gardens (9) California (3) Calla (1) Canada (2) Chanticleer Garden (1) Clematis (4) Coleus (1) Colonial Gardens (7) Conifers (3) Containers (22) Corydalis (1) Dahlia (5) Dan Klennert (1) Desert Landscape (1) DIG (1) Dogs (14) Dry creek bed (1) Duris Cucumber Farm (1) Elandan Gardens (2) End of Month View (12) England (16) English Gardens (2) Euphorbia (1) Eze France Exotic garden (2) Fall garden (19) Far Reaches Farm (1) Favorite plants (52) Favorite plants. Tree Philodendron (1) Fences (2) Foliage (7) Formal gardens (1) Foxglove (14) France (4) Frankfurt Botanical Garden (1) Front Garden (5) Fuchsia (8) Garden decor (3) garden design (1) Garden elements (48) garden rooms (1) garden structure (1) Garden Tour (1) Garden works (15) Gardening Tips (4) Gardens of nature (11) Gardens to see (113) Gardens to see (tours) (25) Geraniums (2) Germany (5) GH Garden Tour (7) Giveaway (4) Giverny (2) Gossler Farms Nursery (1) Grasses (8) Great Dixter (3) Greenhouse (2) gunnera (4) Hampton Court (1) Hawaii Garden (1) Hellebores (8) Herbs and Vegetables (22) Heronswood (7) Hidcote (1) History of gardening (11) Holidays (25) Hops (1) Hosta (4) Hydrangea (7) Illumination (1) Italy (12) Japanese maple (14) Kew (4) Lakewold Gardens (22) Lavatera (1) Lavender (3) Leucosceptrum stellipilum ‘Ogon' (1) Little and Lewis Garden (1) Lobelia tupa (2) Meconopsis (2) Melianthus major (2) Minter Gardens (1) Missouri Botanical Garden (1) Mount Vernon (1) My Garden (150) My Open Garden (4) MY PICTURE OF THE DAY (80) Neighborhood (9) NPA Open Gardens (13) NWFGS (29) Old Goat Farm (3) Orchids (1) Oregon (4) PalmenGarten (2) Pampas grass (1) Peony (6) Perennials (59) Plant ID (9) Poppy (5) Problem areas (3) Recipes (2) Rhododendron (5) Rock garden (2) Romneya c. (2) Sarah P. Duke Gardens (2) Serre de la Madone (Lawrence Johnston) (1) Shade Garden (20) Shayne Chandler Garden (1) Shrubs (11) Sissinghurst (9) Sky Watch (1) Slope garden (6) Slugs (3) Spring/Summer garden (141) Stachys (1) Succulents (9) Summer/Fall garden (74) Texas Arboretum (1) The Garden of Great Depression (1) Tree Peony (2) Trees (36) Trips (81) Tulip Festival (16) Uncategorized (7) Vegetable garden (4) Vegetables (1) Villa Cimbrone (2) WA (114) Weigela (1) Wells Medina Nursery (1) White garden (3) Wild animals (21) Wild flowers (16) Windcliff (1) Wineries (1) Winter and winter garden (54) Wordless Wednesday (31) Yang's Garden and Nursery (6)
Copyright 2009-2022 TatyanaS, MySecretGarden Blog



*