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.