Howdy y’all.
I’ve been mulling over some potential changes to this blog (and my writing platforms overall) and I would love your input. After all, you’re the ones who keep coming back each week (and why the heck do you?) and nobody knows what you want more than you.
I’m not considering drastic changes, more like a tweak here and there. I’m leaning more subtle.
As I’ve looked over my posts here from the past few months, it’s clear that I’ve come to favor the garden tour. A tour of my garden that particular day along with some brief notes accompanying the photos. Not a ton of detail as the photos ultimately tell the story.
Do you like these posts? Should they continue to be the bulk of what I post each week?
Or would you prefer shorter, more detailed posts that I post more frequently? These would focus on one topic only.
A mix of both of the above?
Are there new topics you’d like to see me cover?
As you know, I just published my second book and I’m actively trying to promote that book. While it has a lot of gardening, that really isn’t the focus. Should I separate my non-gardening writing from this blog? Keep this to plants and gardening only?
I just created a new “John Markowski – Author” Facebook page that for now, will include all of my book writing news, promotions and non-gardening writing.
Psst – if you want to follow the page, click here.
I may eventually get rid of the “ONG” Facebook page and group all of my writing under the new FB page. We’ll see where that goes. What are your thoughts on the different FB pages? Do you even follow FB pages? If so, what would you like to see there?
I’ll end the questions for today so not to overwhelm you. Again, I’d love to hear your thoughts so I can make this blog the best it can be.
One last thing.
If you picked up a copy of my book (and thank you BTW), I’d love for you to write a brief review on Amazon if you’re up for it. And I beg you to be as honest as possible. Those reviews mean the world to a new and unknown author like me.
THANK YOU ALL!!
One more last thing.
The plant below is my new fave in the garden. I’ll keep you in suspense as to its name until a future post. Any guesses?
?
I’m just a new follower, but since you’re asking for suggestions … I like the garden tour posts, but a more detailed write-up is fine, too. The mix you suggest would suit best.
I don’t follow FB, so I can’t give an opinion on any pages there …
Congrats on the second book! 🙂
I like the garden tours (with individual plant tags) so we can see different plants at different stages in their growth – and search for them after the fact when we’ve bought a plant we don’t know what to do with! More detailed posts about favorite plants/combos are great too.
I also don’t do FB so can’t help there.
I like the “garden tour” also, but a more detailed post would be fine. I think keeping this blog all gardening would be better.
I like the garden tours and the good/bad of what is going on. I have a Facebook account & I am probably going to close it. Too much crap posted that I don’t care about.
So the plant is it one of the Tut’s? Papyrus? I think comes in three sizes but I want to know how do you have it growing in a GARDEN? If that is what it is I always thought it was tropical. I’m in zone 6 in Ohio and I have mini Tut growing in my patio containers as my “Thriller”. I’d be interested in knowing what it is!
Full disclosure – the primary reason I even found my way to your blog is that we’re in the same horticultural/hardiness zone. The more specifically you write about plants and your success (or not) with them, their hardiness, their growth habits, their behavior, their longevity, their diseases, their attractiveness to pests and pestilence, their ideal placement, their performance, their collegiality with others — so on and so forth — the happier I am. I’ve never ventured into FB territory so on that score I have nothing to offer. Is the new fave something like Vernonia lettermanii?
Sorry I don’t normally comment on these things so I don’t know how!!!! Anyway is the plant helianthus angustifolis? And I like your writing more and more detail.
I like the tours and single-specific topics both, with a preference for tours. My suggestions would be to: 1) Don’t put yourself forth as an expert on any of the single topic posts unless…you really are. And, 2) To show only tight shots of a specific plant, or small vignette or grouping of plants, is, well, cheating. We’re all learning as we go, even those of us who have been into gardening and garden design for 30 years. But, I’d love to see a bit more candor from you on what your garden really looks like, not just this plant, or that grouping. And yes, that means medium and wide shots too!
Finally, I am a marketing exec and spend a ton of time involved in all media for my company and my clients, so I absolutely refuse to participate in social media outside of work. So, to facebook or not to facebook is moot to me.
I like the garden tour posts but I think other posts work fine. And intermingling other life posts is fine—it’s your website! If you wanted to get rid of ONG and just market yourself as John Markowski you could do that, too.
I have taken to doing once or twice a month garden posts because the time I used to have to dedicate to certain plants or separating out the edible versus flower garden is just gone. So I don’t mind garden tour posts! But yes, zoom out some! I like to know that my garden isn’t the only one with gaps (because: deer) or there’s a bucket full of weeds in the background.
I stumbled onto your blog and don’t even live in your zone. I’m in Zone 9, but I still read your blog. I like the ‘mix’ idea. Anything that teaches me more about plants in general is ideal for me. Don’t care about facebook. I also agree with everything everyone said above, wide-shot photos, etc. Thank you for asking.
I really like your posts as they are, would also like more detailed writing about your gardening. All aspects of it, such as methods, how-tos, plant information. I enjoy your humor and think you are a great photographer. I like all your writing but I read this blog for garden stuff, not the other stuff. I do have a copy of your first book. Loved it. Have a copy of the second book which I anticipate I will love too. I am not a Facebook person.
I have enjoyed your garden tour posts. If you wanted to do a mix as stated above, fine with me, also.
I’m not a face book follower! A guess on your new fave – looks like in the Amsonia hubrichtii family.
A mix of both tours and garden topics would be best. I read your blog for the gardening information so I’d like yo to stick to that although an occasional off topic post is bearable.
I use Facebook but don’t follow a lot of gardening sites and no author pages so won’t follow yours whatever Facebook format you use. Can’t help you there.
I like the garden tours, but sometimes you don’t identify enough plants until someone
asks you a question in the comments. So yes, more detail.
My zone is 6a – and my deer zone is “too many” – but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to read
about what goes on in other zones, esp. if they are nearby. And in this crazy climate, all bets
are off anyway.
I use Facebook only when forced to.
Because I enjoy your writing, I’m happy to read whatever you want to write about – so far. I even
read the baseball stories. I like to hear about your family. I am disturbed by your plan to move
down south and want to hear your thoughts about abandoning your garden.
Your plant closeups are brilliant, but I agree that it’s not fair to ignore the big picture. I remember
that you did one post of wide shots not long ago.
I’ve downloaded the new book and have just started it.
Reading everyone’s comments, I’m struck by how we mostly have the same responses. Creepy.
I think you should continue writing about what suits you at the moment: wide shots, close-ups, tours, family, recipes, the hard work of gardening, the endless additions/departures/moves of the new and old, struggles and joys, reflections. I have only been following your blog for the past 4-5 months yet I do have the opinion that, as in all creative endeavors, it’s best to not care too much about what the rest of us think and just write as you please. It’s a bit of a contradiction but I think it’s true, and I think it’s important to keep in mind.
Facebook – so DONE with it, ugh.
I enjoy the tours of your garden and seeing and learning about your plants with envy. I’m in zone 3/4, so what I can grow is muuuch more limited. I would like a different introduction picture of you if you really want to change something. Wide angle views of your spectacular place would also be welcome.
I just don’t do Facebook anymore. So if you were to drop this blog, sheesh, I would miss it a lot. I look forward to it. I like the baseball part during Spring training a lot! Then next best is the tours.
Thanks.
I believe your new favorite is an ironweed.
My favorite posts are when you introduce me to new plants and show off stunning combinations.
I am less enamored with pictures of dead plants and blog posts that feel like (or are?) advertisements for companies and products.
Good morning, John,
Please tell me that your plant is not Equisetum telemateia ( Giant horsetail). We spend hours trying to keep it out of our garden and it has taken over the woodlands here on Whidbey Is.
As for your blog, I like your humorous writing and the occasional story that accompanies your garden tour. As a lot have said, wide angle shots of the garden would be helpful so that we know we’re not the only ones with open areas where deer , rabbits or incompetence have murdered plants.
We’d love to see you on our Shared Garden Visions FB page. It’s many of the people that were formerly on GPOD.
I’m enjoying your new book and plan to write a review when I’m finished.
I read your blog (didn’t know you had FB page) because you write about plants that can take soggy soil. I like to see what has worked there for you, and occasionally to share what has worked in my own boggy backyard. I don’t much care about the personal writing or baseball stuff, but I also recognize that it’s your blog and you get to do as you wish.
BTW, all those free plants I won from Santa Rosa through your giveaway – they’re doing real well, including the Sun King Aralia. I say a silent thank-you to you whenever I see them.
I have been reading your blog for a good many years. I’m an ex-Bucks Co. resident and now live in Albuquerque, suffering under a ghastly drought. Other than the xeriscape, I mostly use containers now. Green can look pretty good from here, but I remember the endless days of spring rains and the tangle of stuff in our “yard” that merged with a scooped out part of the creek behind the house (the skating pond), that just like biology book illustrations, reverted to meadow, thicket and elm-choked woods, rife with ticks.
I got a kick from your video tour. Managing the ever-sprawling landscape is tough. I liked many of your flower beds around the house but wasn’t enamored of the little regimented color dots of annuals in the foreground. If I go with annuals, I like exuberance. Lose the sick old apples and non-native evergreens. The house pushing them away is trying to tell you something.
I told you a few years ago how much I like Joe Pye weed; keep it up and add more native wildflowers perhaps. I think you are torn between the ideas of formal vs informal spaces and try to separate them too much. Maybe take some still shots from your video and use some drawing software to pre-visualize shapes and colors on a bigger scale so it can become more integrated. And, for goodness sake, get a box for that hose.
I still use Facebook but have installed a program called Facebook Purity, a freeware that blocks ads and things you don’t ever want to see again. You can choose your settings from a big list and add your pet peeves too. I don’t ever want to see dumb games or invites to jewelry parties-you get the idea.
One final observation: with the increased building of homes and businesses on old farmland, the creek corridors have become wildlife havens for good or bad. A few years ago I saw a Fisher cross the road at the edge of our property. What squirrel problem?
I will remain your faithful reader and will check out your book.