Whew…  Moving anything tends to suck, but moving a blog is, IMHO, right up there with moving to a new house or moving a cactus.

Well, this is it, I am done with good old Blogger.  To tell the truth, I knew I needed to move this blog a few months ago but I knew that it was going to be a big job so, I did what any human being would do, I procrastinated.  If there is anything that I have learned in my relatively short life, it is that procrastination only lasts until the unpleasant task you are avoiding become less unpleasant than the situation you are currently in.  It had finally gotten to the point when moving 319 pages BY HAND from one system to another was easier than dealing with Blogger for ONE MORE DAY.  That says alot about how difficult Blogger has gotten.

I have been modifying WordPress for my other sites and clients for about a year now.  I was thoroughly impressed with how easy it was to manipulate and add on to.

Probably about half of you saw I was building a new blog for the past few weeks (Thank you, Technorati Tattle Tale).  I want to make a shout out to Patrick at Bifurcated Carrots  for alerting me to the Technorati issue and Kathy at Cold Climate Gardening for all her great WordPress tips.

You may notice that the comments are missing from the old posts.  Never fear, I will be slowly adding those back in over the next few weeks.  The fact of the matter is that my posts are only are half complete without all of the comments you guys leave.  Thanks to everybody who stops by.  Hopefully we will all enjoy this new format for This Garden Is Illegal.

I don’t think that I have ever actualy participated in an honest to goodness meme on his blog. But Adekun tagged me, so I think I will take part.

This is the Seven Random Things Meme. I list 7 things about me and then tag seven other garden blogs to do the same. Here we go:

1. The very first thing I remember growing in a garden is green beans.
2. My first garden that belonged to me (and not my parents) was located at a house near the corner of Euclid Avenue and E. Rochelle St. in Cincinnati, OH. Nothing I planted at that house remains there today.
3. My favorite annual is a snapdragon because I can make them talk.
4. I can’t keep cacti alive to save my life.
5. My least favorite decorative flower/plant is a rodedendrum. Ugg.
6. My cat, Sicily, was rescued from a plant nursery. I was plant shopping with a friend when the cat scared her. The girl behind the counter said that her father was going to shoot the cat and the cat came home with me, along with a rose scented geranium and a frog shaped pot.
7. I don’t ever want a big garden. I can barely keep up with this postage stamp one, let alone something bigger.

That’s seven.

Okay, I am picking 7 blogs from my blog list and the are:

A Bumblebee Garden
Dirt Sun Rain
A Study in Contrasts
Cincinnati Cape Cod
wolfie and the sneak
Yard Piddling
Tea and Margaritas in My Garden

I think that is all. I am off to go tag them all.

A little over a year ago, I posted my now infamous Flower Quiz. What started out as a fun little thing for my fun and pleasure turned into a URL that went round the world. I have watched that URL bounce around the net like a caffinated child, and with it came lots of people to this blog.

Recently, I had a request from one of those visitors as to posting the various types of flowers you could possibly be and what they mean. So, here is that list:

Canada Thistle – You are a mean spirited, ornery cuss. People try to get rid of you and you just keep coming back.

Canna – You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that.

Daffodil – You have a sunny disposition and are normally one of the first to show up for the party. You don’t need too much attention from the host once you get there as you are more than capable of making yourself seen and heard.

Daisy – You are just a sweet person. When a friend needs a shoulder to cry on, you are happy to offer yours with a box of tissues as well. Once in awhile, you wish you could be a little more dramatic but then sensibility sets back in and you know that you are perfect the way you are.

Geranium – You are one determined individual. You need nobody and like to let people know that. But this also means that often you are misunderstood. Once people get to know you, they come to understand that you are the most loyal friend a person can have.

Echinacea – You are a health conscious person, both your health and the health of others. You know all about the health benefits and dangers of the world around you.

Foxglove – You really want to be a good person, but you have this little mischievous streak that seems to get in the way. Deep down you mean well, but you are just so good at being just a little bit bad.

Hydrangea – You are just a little bit of a show off and like to prove just what you can do. Every time someone double-dog-dared you, you proved that not only could you do it, but you could do it with style.

Iris – You are a very sensual person. You like to experience all the sights, smells, tastes and textures the world has to offer. Ordinary be damned, because you want to do it all.

Lily – Your artistic expression tends to show up in flamboyant bursts. When you are feeling creative, it consumes your every thought and action. But just as quickly as the muse shows up, it leaves you and you are back to your relatively normal self.

Morning Glory – Dedicated is one word for you. You have a tendency to overwhelm other people occasionally with your enthusiasm for life.

Nasturtium – You are more than what you seem. Outwardly, you are a confident person with just a little bit of a temper. Inwardly, you are someone who needs some serious TLC and attention.

Nigella – Many people think you are just a little bit odd, but you consider yourself just a little eccentric. You find new experiences exciting and fulfilling.

Orchid – Demand is a word that was invented for you. You are an artist and you need to be treated like the queen you know you are. You come first and so you should because you have some fantastic talents.

Petunia – You are a tried and trusted friend who will be there for your friends when they need you. But you have a tendency to be nervous about doing things that go against the norm.

Poppy – Drama is a word you have perfected. If there is a center of attention, you want to be there. But your flair for the dramatic also makes you a popular invite to get togethers as you will always make things interesting.

Rose – Refined and proper, you know that everything has its place and that its place is where you think it should be. You don’t have much tolerance for tom-foolery and will turn your nose up at the type of people who waste their time on foolish things.

Snapdragon – Mischief is your middle name, but your first is friend. You are quite the prankster that loves to make other people laugh.

Sunflower – When your friends think smile, they think of you. There is not a day that goes by that you can’t find something good about the world and your fellow human.

Violet – You have a shy personality. You tend to hesitate before trying new things or meeting new people. But once people get to know you, you open up and show the world what you are really all about.

Yucca – You are so reliable that you are there for a friend before they even know they needed help. But sometimes your uncanny knack for knowing when to help makes you a bit of a busy-body.

So, I have to ask, What flower are you?

I have come to think of gardening blogs alot like the plants in my garden. Every year there is a crop of them and they are all beautiful. I enjoy visiting them and get a nice feeling when I do. But then the winter comes and the gardening blogs all shut down for the season (except in Australia. Those go into high gear).

The gardening blogs lie dormant. There may be a stirring or two and perhaps a few are evergreen, so to speak.

Then spring comes again and it is time to take a walk around the gardening blogs. And much like the first few trips around the garden itself in early spring, you realize that a few of the beautiful things you visited last year have not come back. You have a blogroll that has more than a few abandoned blogs.

People abandoned blogs for a multitude of reasons. Despite what it looks like, blogs are not easy to keep up. It can be hard to find something to write about or even to find the time to write about something. Sometimes people mean to write but they just never get around to it.

Whatever the reason, it is nothing to blame someone for. Life goes on. Much like a flower in the garden is momentarily mourned and then replaced by the next pretty thing, so it goes with blogs.

Which means that I must spend some time cleaning out my blogroll. Fortunately, garden blogs, unlike plants, have a date last posted to let me know if they are still there or not.

I guess what I am trying to say is that if you have a garden blog that you would like for me to add to my blogroll, feel free to drop the URL here. I will be out sussing for new ones on my own as well. And to those who have been to busy to post, I just want to say… I understand. But please understand if I have removed you from my blogroll because of this.

Being in the industry of internet marketing, I know that stuff like this happens. You are just innocently having some fun, writing a few words, a few people come to read it and *BAM* the next thing you know people start sending you free stuff. So I knew that this was possible. So I know that companies do it. I even know why companies, which I could explain, but that is a post for another kind of blog.

I just didn’t think it would be happen to me.

But a few weeks ago a gentleman contacted me. He would send me an urban composter if I agreed to talk about it on my blog. That was it. No strings. No false testimony necessary. I said sure and then promptly forgot about it. Until today when FedEx left two HUGE boxes on my porch which made it impossible for me open my front door.

I opened them and removed the un-assembled contents. Hey, guys. For future reference “DIRECTIONS WOULD BE NICE”. No directions, no picture, not a single clue as to how to put this puppy together. Fortunately, I have a clever husband and, due mostly to the fact that he is male and wouldn’t have read the directions anyway, he was able to put it together. I think he put it together. We ended up with four extra pieces that I have no clue where they go. Hopefully, they weren’t important.

We also had to Crisco the lip of the two sides of the barrel. Due to the fact that this is suppose to be a near watertight container, it is a very tight fit. Even after we greased it, there was alot of tugging and grunting to get the barrel to lock.

Other than that small detail, the composter is pretty impressive. It is heavy and solid. Definitely made to withstand some pretty harsh weather outdoors.

I’ll report back in a few weeks on how the thing actually performs. I’ll take free stuff anytime and I will write about it if it is garden related. But I promise that I will be honest about it.

Wow, one year ago today, I opened a blogger account and figured, what the heck, let’s see what the whole blogging thing is all about.

I thought it would be a nice way to keep track of what I did and what I thought because I just can’t seem to do that otherwise. Well, I can truly say that I have completely and utterly failed in accomplishing that goal in this blog.

I have found that this blog has not been a record but became something even better and more fun. It has become a relationship, a plug into the gardening grid that exists on the web.

I want to thank everyone who has stopped by my blog in the past year. I hope that you have enjoyed what you have found and I look forward to the next year ahead of us! But more importantly, may your gardens grow wonderfully in that year.

It’s not that I want to stop and I won’t stop, not completely… It is just that without a garden going full speed, I don’t have much to write about.

Did you know that I posted for 200 straight days on this blog and never missed a day. Not one. Every day since mid March I have had something to write about concerning gardening, but the fall is fully here and I have packed up my porch grown container garden and it is too cold and rainy to enjoy even the clean up chores in the yard.

*sigh*

I will certainly post once a week at least, maybe more. But do not think that the time I spend not writing will be wasted. You see, I have an idea for a gardening related website and, using my extraordinarily so-so programming skills, I intend to work on it. If I succeed, I am pretty sure that all of you will think it is cool. But I need time to work on it. And since there is not much to write about going on in my yard, I will be using the time I would normally use for writing on this blog writing that website.

Now that I have told you all this, I had better darn well produce that website, eh? We will see.

I will still post some, just not as much. Thanks to all of you who have stopped by over the past six months. You have all been great. And I promise, come mid-March, I will again post for 200 days straight at least.

Unless I move somewhere warm sooner than that. Then I will post sooner… and longer… And lead a general more fulfilled life… maybe.

There is a certain amount of style needed to have a really complete blog. Great words and conversations will only get you so far in the blogosphere. We all know that what great blogs really need is flare… blog bling-bling if you will.

In my opinion, blogs would just not be as fun if it weren’t for the fact that we can make them whatever we like. I often think that no matter what age you are, what you do on your personal blog has alot in common with the way teenagers decorate their rooms. Of course, I haven’t seen anyone in the gardening realm putting up poster badges of sexy half (un)dressed gardeners yet, but I think that someone should start working on that right away. I am pretty sure I have room on my blog for one of those. But back to the topic at hand. It’s a way to get across who you are and since it’s your space, you can put whatever you like on it.

The latest and greatest in blog decor is sometimes referred to as widgets, flare, magnets or badges. Sometimes memes come with little decorations for your blog, too. Basically, we are talking about any little piece of code that you can add to your site or blog to make it a little more you.

On my gardening blog, I have quite a bit of flare.

• I have the weather badge from weather.com which tell what the weather in Cleveland is at any given moment.
• I have the badge from the This Garden is Illegal Flower Quiz that shows that I tested as a hydrangea.
• I have the Gardening definition of the day from GardeningKnowHow.com which shows a different random gardening definition each time someone visits my site.
• I have my Top 100 Gardening Sites ranking, which shows where my site ranks on that list.
• I have the Moon Phases badge, which shows what stage the moon is at.

I have been seeing some interesting flare on other gardening sites as well.

Whispering Crane Institute has a Yahoo Answers badge, which show what questions he has answered lately. Yahoo Answers can get addictive once you start answering some questions. They have a whole section on gardening and there is plenty that needs answered, and frankly, well, let’s just say you will feel really smart after you read a few questions..

Angela’s Northern California Garden Blog has a ClustrMap badge which shows where in the world her visitors come from – all those people from all over the place to read her really cool blog.

Cincinnati Cape Cod has a Flickr badge to show off the latest lovely gardening pics she has uploaded.

I think Dianne Rambling on… wins the “Most Flare On a Gardening Blog” award. She has a ton, but because I only have time to write a few, I will say that I really like the Yahoo Avatar badge and the Frapper badge. If you are looking for some more ideas, you need to take a wander over there.

My Bay Area Garden chooses to use gardening book covers (courtesy of the Amazon Associate program) to decorate her blog. Bonus is that you know these are good books and you are helping to support a fellow gardeners plant addiction when you buy the books through their links.

Kerry’s Garden has a really awesome badge from Kiva.org that displays people in developing countries who need some capital to get their businesses going. It’s not a hand out, but a hand up as you get your money back. Loans start at $25. As much as I love to splurge on a must-have new plant, maybe I should consider loaning a little to someone who needs it a little more.

Girl Gone Gardening has a ticker badge from TickerFactory.com which lets you count down to just about anything (like next spring).

And who could ever forget The Dial-a-Hunk gnome over at Gardening Tips ‘n’ Ideas. You just can’t say anymore than that about this badge.

Everybody needs a little bling in their life. Yep, lots and lots of ways to make your blog your space without having to resort to signing up for MySpace *shudder*.

The temperature has dropped. The forecast calls for rain. This is not gardening weather.

Don’t get me wrong, I got a good bit of weeding done in the 24 hours of lovely weather we had this weekend, but I am a realist. I see the writing on the wall. Fall is coming and my plants darn well know it. The last of my tomatoes plants just refuse to give up a ripe tomato and the mums are whoring themselves all over my front lawn.

*sigh* This was my grand experiment and it became something other than I meant it to be and, frankly, now that Summer has rolled over in bed and informed me that she is leaving me (for some rowdy Ozzies no less) I am not sure what I will be doing with this space until she comes to her senses and returns.

Thing is, I don’t want it to go away. I become a rather miserable person in the winter. Trapped in my house with nothing but some rather low maintenance houseplants to entertain me. It is kind of like going from being the captain of the cheerleading squad and ending up being the water girl for the math club. Winter just sucks.

What do I do with myself? I just don’t know. All I know is that my husband is desperately looking to see if the mental health clause of our health insurance would cover a basement hydroponics setup. That is a bad sign. My husband doesn’t dread PMS, he dreads garden withdrawal.

What do the rest of you do when you put your yards and garden blogs to bed? Or are you just lucky enough to have really comprehensive health insurance?

The other day, I was looking for a few Blogger hacks for my blog and I came across a totally unrelated but just as interesting post about Comments on blogs. Actually, the lack of comments on blogs. 10 Reasons Readers Don’t Leave Comments talks about why people don’t leave comments on blogs.

I have often wondered why people in gardening blogs don’t comment more often. Don’t get me wrong… There are some of you that comment all the time and this garden blogger just loves you for it.

But considering that when gardeners visit the gardens of other people, they simply gush with compliments, advice and questions, comments on gardening blogs are profoundly silent in comparison.

I have to admit that even I do not comment every time I read a post and I thought I would list some of my gardening reasons why I don’t comment.

1) The post is more than a week old – So maybe it is silly, but I feel odd commenting on something that happened a week ago in someone else’s yard.

2) I don’t want to look ignorant – Sometimes I have no freaking clue what the person is talking about because it is so technical in nature that it is over my head. I don’t want to look stupid.

3) I am not cool enough – Some people who keep garden blogs who are just way cooler than I am. I was not the cool kid in school and my fear of being ridiculed by the cool kids lingers to this day.

4) I don’t want to be wrong – What is worse than looking stupid? Looking stupid and being wrong. I can do that on my blog, but I certainly don’t want to be that way on someone else’s blog.

5) The blog has too many hoops to go through in order to leave a comment – Most of the time, this step doesn’t prevent me from commenting, but if I am in a hurry and I am just sneaking a quick look in or if my kids start screaming before I can get through to the actual comment part, I don’t leave a comment.

Most of the time, these reasons are just silly. Garden bloggers are just about the nicest people in the blogging world and I very much doubt that they would think I was silly or stupid, or at least I am pretty sure that they are polite enough to keep that opinion to themselves.

So, I am going to have to make a better effort at leaving comments on the gardening blogs I visit, even if it is to say “Wow, that is one gorgeous tomato.”

What are some reasons you guys don’t leave comments on gardening blogs?