Two Year Blogiversary

This blog is two years old today and, as it happens, it's also my 300th post.  Two years and 300 posts is just a little less than three posts a week, so I guess I've been having fun...haven't I?  Well it's been enough fun that I plan to keep on going.  In celebration I'm sharing the story of this blog ("My Blog So Far....").  It is also Marilyn Monroe's birthday, the anniversary of Sputnik, and the day Janis Joplin died.  Somehow my blog anniversary is not on the list of the important things which happened on October 4th.   Yet.

I've never been busted flat in Baton Rouge, but I have been beaten silly by the Texas caliche.  Not much rhythm in there, but it feels similar.  And I haven't orbited the earth, but I have circumnavigated my circle garden a few times.  And regarding the seven year itch, that will be a post 5 years from now.

Anyhoo, back at the south 40, when we began planning our retirement move from Washington DC to San Antonio in the spring of 2008, I also began to search for landscape inspiration.  In addition to the many excellent local gardening articles and radio shows offering advice, I knew I needed a lot more.  I wanted a landscape that would reflect both my style and our region.

Circle Garden Spring 2013

Seeking inspiration I searched numerous gardening word combinations and only came up with a few ideas.  When I added the word "Austin" to the mix I began to make progress, and somewhere in there the blog "Digging" popped up and I was intrigued.  I had been aware of cooking and travel blogs but the idea of a garden blog hadn't occurred to me.  So I scanned a few pages, filed it as a possibility somewhere in my mind, closed it and got busy with my last few weeks of work and planning our nearly 2,000 mile move.

Surprised?  You were probably thinking that I should have been mesmerized for hours and that's exactly what I think now when I look back.  Sometime in late 2009 while researching family history I found Pam's blog again when her post on the Texas State Cemetery turned up in a search and I instantly remembered seeing her blog before.  This time when I clicked the header to go to Digging's homepage it all literally clicked into place.  That's when I spent hours reading through old posts and learning so much from the information Pam shares on plants, landscaping, gardens, and nurseries--all of it focused on beating the extremes of Texas weather.  I also found her list of "Garden Blogs I Dig" and was transported around our region and the world peeking behind the fence at all types of gardens.  That was about the time I had begun to focus on gardening and it quickly became clear that blogs were the best way to find the inspiration I needed to get going on my own landscape.

Lindheimer's Muhly and Salvia Greggii

A year later, in 2010, I took one more step toward garden blogging and made my first ever blog comment on Digging (where else?).  It wasn't long before I was regularly reading and commenting on blogs.  Before long I knew I wanted to be part of the conversation and needed a way to share the progress (or lack of) in the work of making a garden.  Then I surprised myself even more by setting up a blogger account with the name Rock-Oak-Deer in May of 2011.  What was I thinking?  My own garden was a mere shell and I had no idea what I would write about otherwise.  It would be another 18 months or so before I finally got around to my first blog post.

September 2013

By Summer of 2011 I had compiled a list of post ideas yet each time I sat down to write a post it seemed my garden was just too boring.  I had begun attending gardening events and meeting more local gardeners and I kept thinking "someone should blog about this" yet somehow I couldn't seem to get started.  In October 2011 Pam announced a new meme, Support Your Independent Nursery Month, and I knew this was just what I needed to get out there and start posting.  This I can do--visit my local nurseries, take photos, write about them once a week.  I sent Pam an email announcing that I was jumping in with a garden blog of my own and received the most gracious and encouraging reply. Now I was committed and I published my intro post on October 4th and a profile of Hill Country Gardens in New Braunfels the following day.  Of course, I got so involved in the process of the story I forgot to link back to Digging, but linking back is something I try to do often whenever I find inspiration and I try to give credit.  From that first post onward I have never been at a loss for things to post about.  Insects, the full blue moon, building a new garage, getting a delivery of topsoil, learning how to propagate cactus pups, learning as I went along I tried to also bring readers along for the ride.  My posts became ways to tell the world about how I improved my own garden, what I enjoyed learning about, and how you could join in on the journey.

Buttonbush

If you've been thinking of starting a blog and need a way to get started, a meme is a great way to jump start the process.  It gives you a bit of structure in those first few weeks and provides impetus to get moving.  The biggest bonus is I'm sure my own yard would not look as good without the blog to push me into completing projects.
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Driveway October 2013

My photography skills have improved too.  Is that really my garden?  I want to live there....oh that is my garden and I do live there.  It is amazing what changing light and a different lens can do for the photos.

Formerly dreary side yard

I'm so glad I joined the blogger community, it's been a fun two years and I have enjoyed sharing my gardening adventures and my beautiful city with all of you.  It's been so much fun meeting other bloggers around Texas.  I thoroughly appreciate your reading and commenting on this blog.

I still have only scratched the surface of that original list.  By the way, is Sputnik a plant that will grow in the Texas heat?