The Obsessive Neurotic Gardener

Category Archives: Blog stuff

Dare me to do it?

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I feel a strong need to mix things up a bit this upcoming gardening season.  I’m ready for a break from the norm.

A personal challenge, if you will.

I’ve bounced a few ideas around in my head for a while now and figured what the hell, why not share them with you and solicit your feedback. By making the challenge known, I’m hoping it will keep me on course with the pressure of failing publicly being the driving force.

So take a read through the options below and let me know which one you would find to be the most interesting or compelling or even humorous. After tallying up all of the votes, I will choose one and put an action plan in place immediately.

Let’s do this!

Option 1 – “Do nothing” – That’s right. I won’t purchase a single plant this year, reshape any beds, create any new gardens, etc.  Simply relax. What if I tried to simply enjoy the garden for a year without the pressure of improving/changing it. This one scares me to death.

will5

 

Option 2 – “Buy nothing” – A more relaxed version of the first option. No new plants added at all this year. The focus becomes properly maintaining what exists and “adding” through the division of existing plants. Trips to the nursery at lunch would make me cry, but the savings in cash would be nice.

will4

 

Option 3 – “Strict budget” – I’ll pick a limited budget amount and carefully document each purchase along the way. No unnecessary splurges. A lot of lessons to be learned here and it isn’t as restrictive as options 1 and 2.

will6

 

Option 4 – “Operation get kids involved” – Not as tough on me as the first three but it would be a time commitment with not a lot of excess time available. I’m imagining providing each with a mini plot and then leaving it all up to them as to what they want to plant. Sibling rivalry would be fun to watch. And I could say I personally inspired two future gardeners.

will3

 

Option 5 – “All in” – The opposite of option 1 above. I’m thinking of setting a goal of eliminating 25% of my lawn with plants that are low maintenance and with low watering requirements. The manual labor would be tough but I could take advantage of early mornings once the weather warms up. I’d be sure to video my exhausting struggles.

will

 

Option 6 – “No more meat” – I’d commit to going vegetarian which would in turn make me focus on growing my own vegetables and enjoying them more. It would be tough but I’ve always thought about taking the leap.

will2

My future is in your hands.

 

So what do you think?

Garden Bloggers Conference 2013

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It has been over a week since I last posted (heresy, I know) but there was a good reason for the lack of activity. I just returned from the Garden Bloggers Conference in Atlanta, GA and I am still riding the high from the event. It can be difficult to describe the energy and excitement of a conference to others who were not in attendance (no, I ain’t going all Tony Robbins on you) but I am going to do my best to share what I took away from the conference from a personal level and how this blog may benefit as a result (suspense officially created).

The speakers at the GBC were all engaging and informative in their own ways and I wanted to highlight a few and share the links to their blogs/websites with you in case you weren’t already following them. The common theme delivered from all of them was keep doing what you love and keep your eyes open to opportunities that come your way, even if they don’t smack you right in the face. You never know where it all will take you, but enjoy the hell out of the ride. That shit resonated with me … big time.       

The conference was presented by Digital Sherpa (will talk about them a bit later) and their President, Adam Japko kicked off the event with the opening address. I immediately was engaged after learning that Adam was the creator of the wine blog – Wine Zag. He dove into how he built his blog into the powerhouse that it is today. Real specific and usable info right off the bat and I has hooked. And just for a quick visual, the dude looks like a combo of latter day Ray Liotta and John Stamos.

Dan Hinkley, renowned plantsman and creator of the now shut down Heronswood Nursery gave an account of his life and the role gardening played in it. The photos of his collections from over the years and the way the latin plant names rolled off his tongue were music to my eyes and ears. Check out some of his current plantings on Martha Stewart’s website.

Speaking of Martha Stewart, her heir apparent, Matt Mattus shared photography tips based on his own photos of plants from around the globe and how he uses photography as a true art form. You have to check out his blog here to really appreciate just how damn talented this guy is. Plus he was the creator of My Little Pony at Hasbro so at a minimum, he is a fascinating individual.             
    
Amy Stewart, who I’m sure most of you know from the Garden Rant blog gave a rousing speech performance that I could never give its proper due without providing actual footage. But I will tell you this, after seeing her speak, I will now dive headfirst into reading her book that is dedicated solely to earthworms. She is that friggin good.

I could go on about so many other individuals who spoke – Felicia Feaster from HGTV Gardens, Rochelle Greayer from the blog Studio G, Robin Horton from Urban Gardens and Teresa O’Connor from Seasonal Wisdom, all of whom shared their personal and professional journeys in such a compelling manner, but now let’s talk about me. What did John get out of all this? Cause that is info you need to know.

First off, John learned a ton on better ways to manage this blog going forward. I would be more than thrilled to share this info with you all as we were given access to all of the presentations through the GBC website. Real solid and specific and unique and cutting edge stuff all wrapped up in a way that was easy to digest. It was not your cookie cutter SEO/social media stuff. I can’t wait to give it a test run and see the results. While I’m not selling a product or service, I would love the opportunity to expand my “voice”.     

The personal connections and yes, friends, that were gained in such a short period of time was fantastic. Personally, I’ve never met more kind, approachable and downright interesting people in my life. Being from “Jersey”, I have a bit of that “don’t trust people” mentality and that wall was shattered within minutes of meeting people the first night. Now I’m kibitzing with random strangers at the airport which totally destroys my Jersey street cred.

But selfishly, the most the most important thing I learned … don’t change a damn thing.

Yep, it was that simple … and let me provide a little background.

The Digital Sherpa team provided a blog clinic throughout the duration of the conference. A chance to do a one on one analysis of your blog/website with members of their team. I know I can modernize the look and feel of this blog so I expected that feedback. I’ll get to that one of these days.

What I was most interested to hear was their thoughts on “my voice”, aka the content and “feel” for this blog. I couldn’t imagine changing what I write about and how I go about doing it, but at the same time I was curious to get an outsiders view. I’m not looking to take the gardening world by storm (lord knows I lack the plant growing chops) but I do want to continue to grow and expand. 

So I expected a plan of action that included tightening up my focus and direction. Instead, it was music to my antlers when they suggested “keep being you”. I know it sounds like a weak and poor analysis, but we chatted about it for a long time and they really reaffirmed that “I gotta be me”. Shit, that’s easy. If I know one thing, I know how to be me.  

So … 

I’ll continue to hone my photography skills:

I’ll continue to chase butterflies:

I’ll continue to rip on my kids:

I’ll continue to show you where I failed:

And I’ll continue to tell you when I’ve kicked some serious ass:

I can even continue to wax poetic on my deer friends:

But in all seriousness, we did discuss ways to “expand” that could include speaking engagements, e-books, book collaborations, videos and other means outside of writing blog posts. I felt a jolt of energy when speaking with the clinic “kids” who couldn’t have been any older than 23. I like to get the perspective from the young since they have yet to become all jaded like me.

As I flew home last night, I had an idea that was sparked by the creativity osmosis at the conference. I want your honest feedback and if you would be willing to participate. Here goes:

A radio show/podcast where I interview you, the readers on a predetermined set of questions. You all know more about gardening than I will ever know so why not hear what you have to say? Of course I would mix in non gardening questions as well (gotta be me). I’ve used Blog Talk Radio in the past and it is very easy to set up. I’m thinking maybe one to two shows each month for a half hour each. Who is in? C’mon, lets do this!  

OK, back to the GBC …

In summary, the Garden Bloggers Conference was worth every penny and I will make every one of them in the future. It was that inspiring, educational and just damn fun. At one point we were talking about long tail searches via Google and the next throwing that whole concept out the window in favor of simple storytelling. And it all worked.

Not to mention, where the hell else could I live tweet and see my dumb tweets on a giant projected screen in real time for all attendees to witness:      

Fine Gardening educating on pot growth, Grateful Dead as marketers. When will Cheech show up? #BestConfEver #gardenblogconf
— john markowski (@jmarkowski0) September 24, 2013

Message from @SeasonalWisdom similar to Vanilla Ice message. Stop, collaborate and listen. #gardenblogconf
— john markowski (@jmarkowski0) September 24, 2013

Good times were had by all.

John

My new Nikon D5200 camera

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I took the leap this past week and finally purchased my first DSLR camera. I had been doing research for quite a while and settled on the Nikon D5200. Holy crap there is a lot to learn, but I am going to have a ton of fun playing around with it.
I had taken a camera lesson a little over a year ago with my homie Tony Granata, so I know enough about aperture and shutter speed to be dangerous, but now I am ready to put that knowledge to use. I have another lesson scheduled with Tony in the near future and I’m banking on him educating me even more on my camera’s capabilities. Good friggin times!
I did venture out a bit this weekend with the new camera and I’m happy with the results. I won’t lie, I mainly used the “auto” function with a bit of experimentation on the sports and landscape modes but soon enough I’ll be utulizing all of the options. 
The camera came with an 18-105mm lens which already blows away what I had to work with on the old camera. Of course, I am already yearning for some other lenses so I can zoom in on my birds, but we’ll take it slow for now.         
On to the pics:
The first chance to break out the new camera was at my daughter’s softball game and it couldn’t have been a nicer day:         

The “sports” mode is fantastic and I didn’t have to adjust for lighting at all:

Next stop was my son’s baseball game but I ended up being too nervous to even take the camera out. Yes, I’m that annoying parent who takes it all too seriously.

Speaking of taking it seriously, my son was in the backyard after his game practicing his pitching (I swear I didn’t push him) so I had some time to take some photos of his form:

Back in the house and I used the “portrait” function on my favorite subject. I like the results a lot as the skin color is way better than what I would get on the old camera:

Later that afternoon it was on to the plants.

First off, Geranium ‘Espresso’ with some newly formed buds:

A shot of my front bed and I can already appreciate how all of the plants are in focus which was virtually impossible in the past: 

A field of dandelions (aka my entire lawn):

Trying to capture the Summer Snowflakes backlit by the sun:

That is all I got for now but you can be assured there will be some serious photography coming your way each and every day now.

I gotz the itch and it ain’t stoppin any time soon.

John 

Birds & Blooms Magazine – Blogger Spotlight

Featured blogger on the Birds and Blooms blog

Just me and my camera

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OK, so I’m getting a bit obsessive with the camera, specifically, the “shutter speed” function. I constantly make the kids perform all sorts of acrobatic acts just so I can try and snap them in action. 
My son will never be confused with Evil Knievel (the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree) but I actually convinced him to jump off our swings as I took his picture from numerous angles. Here’s one of the better ones:     

With out a chance to rest, I got out our baseball gloves and threw him ball after ball as I tried to take a photo with my free hand. It was a great test of my hand/eye coordination and I struggled a bit at first but eventually came around:  

The kids ran for cover inside the house when I got distracted with all of the bird activity:

Fine, if they don’t want to participate, me and my trusty camera will hang and walk around the yard on our own.

The weather was in the high 60’s all weekend long and the plant growth continues to continue at a super rapid pace. Our zone 6 winter has been more like a zone 8 winter and that is fine with me.

All of the hydrangeas are beginning to leaf out:

The daffodils are weeks ahead of where they were last year:

And my precious Sedum ‘Red Carpet’ exploded over night:

But most of all, I am eagerly anticipating the blooms of the Winterberry ‘Autumn Brilliance’:

I am starting to worry that my current camera won’t cut it as I learn more and more about the available advanced settings and some of the limitations. I might have to sell off some of the kids valuables to purchase a new one.

Some day they’ll understand why after I become a world famous nature photographer and I leave them with a hefty trust fund.

John  

New Jersey Life post – “Stealing Ideas”

New Jersey Life Magazine – Still Enjoying The Flowers

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My latest post is up at New Jersey Life magazine and I think you’ll recognize my take on the Fall arriving. You can read the post by clicking on the link below:

New Jersey Life – Garden State – Still Enjoying The Flowers

Thank you all for your support in reading my posts with NJL and for all of your kind comments. I’m still shocked that people actually want to read my nonsense some times. Thank you!

John  

Nww Jersey Life Magazine – new “Garden State” blog post