What is WITH this weather. Normally, I am getting my peas into the ground now. Today my ground is covered with sleet and ice and generally unpleasant forms of precipitation. And although I have read that you can just push aside that snow and plant your peas anyway, I'm not doing it. Why? Because the ground beneath is full of sleeping weeds that I didn't get to yet during the balmy weather at the beginning of the month. I am sure, based on past experience, that I will accidentally pull up peas if I weed after the fact. Also, it's damn cold out there, and I'm not that dedicated to the cause. I have another plan.
Instead, I am going to start my peas between wet paper towels placed in plastic bags, all 3rd grade earth science style. I've noticed that this somehow gives me multiple weeks jump in pea production. I believe this is because I am not good at keeping peas consistently watered, and therefore it takes them at least three weeks to come up when they go right into the ground. But if I sprout them first a little indoor, I can see their little heads peeking up through the soil within a week.
This year, I'm planting only two edible pea types - one snap pea (Super Sugar Snap) and one shelling (Burpeeana Early). I usually plant too many types, never label them properly, and never know when to pick them. I'm going to grow these in the grape beds so i can trellis them up bamboo poles while stabilizing the poles with the grapevine wire.
While I have peas on the brain, I'm also soaking some very adorable sweet peas. Contrary to what their name implies, these guys are not edible, and may even be poisonous. The flowers are beautiful though and good for cutting. I'm trying three kinds: "Color Palette Cupid" - 8" tall and destined to be a spring centerpiece on my patio table. "Explorer Mix" - 2.5 feet tall and meant for my giant deck planter. "April in Paris" - 8 feet tall. I think these will hang out in the same bed with my perfume rose.
Regardless of my hesitation, snow or no snow, those peas have to get in the ground this weekend. My pea planting schedule will not be interrupted!
Friday, March 22, 2013
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The Big Bad Blog Beginning: Marketing Gone Awry
So awhile back, I was talking to my home business and web marketing diva. I know what you're thinking right now. You're thinking, "Big deal! Everybody has a home business and web marketing diva." Maybe so, but if you're not talking to Dina at http://www.wordfeeder.com/, then you've got the wrong gal.
Since I have the right gal, Dina said, "You should start a blog to help promote your website."
"Really? How come?"
She then said something along the lines of "Hoogety boogety search engine optimization foogety moogety page hierarchy loogety toot toot meta-tags and strategic links...." and many other extremely smart things. Please keep in mind Dina has never actually said "hoogety boogety" to me in any context. What she did do was give me a brief explanation of web marketing that made complete sense, but the wisdom of which I would completely mangle upon retelling. The relevant gist was as follows - a blog, when properly done, can be a great tool to drive traffic to my website.
I mulled this over for quite some time. Could I write clear and informative articles about the decorative painting business? Er, sure, I think. New techniques, preferred paint and brush brands, offers of free templates.....Ooh, but how bout the funny fellow painter ladies I see at my teacher's studio? Or the nutjobs who I meet at craft shows?
And then I started thinking about other humorous stuff, like the time my mother swiped HER mother's mother's day gift from me and refused to give it back. And the stories from my grandfather about the 8-10 different ways he's accidentally electrocuted himself throughout the years, and yet still stands. Or about the time I spent half a day convinced that drunk people snuck into my yard during the night and dug up 48 newly planted impatiens (until I realized a deer ate them).
That's about the point that I realized that I actually want a blog to show the world how hilarious I am, and if I can throw some web marketing in there, so be it. I can make it work. For example, the two funniest things I do are 1.) garden organically 2.) allow people to speak to me. Since I paint flowers and creatures and landscapes, does it count as web marketing if I blog about growing flowers in a landscape while shouting obscenities at creatures? You betcha! And when my mother does something bizarre, should that go in there too? Absolutely. Ah, yes. Yet another blog is born.
So in the end, I will market my website the way I organic garden - seek out the advice of experts, change it all around, and find myself continually shocked when my system doesn't work. Effective? No. Funny? Oh yes indeed! Keep reading.....
Since I have the right gal, Dina said, "You should start a blog to help promote your website."
"Really? How come?"
She then said something along the lines of "Hoogety boogety search engine optimization foogety moogety page hierarchy loogety toot toot meta-tags and strategic links...." and many other extremely smart things. Please keep in mind Dina has never actually said "hoogety boogety" to me in any context. What she did do was give me a brief explanation of web marketing that made complete sense, but the wisdom of which I would completely mangle upon retelling. The relevant gist was as follows - a blog, when properly done, can be a great tool to drive traffic to my website.
I mulled this over for quite some time. Could I write clear and informative articles about the decorative painting business? Er, sure, I think. New techniques, preferred paint and brush brands, offers of free templates.....Ooh, but how bout the funny fellow painter ladies I see at my teacher's studio? Or the nutjobs who I meet at craft shows?
And then I started thinking about other humorous stuff, like the time my mother swiped HER mother's mother's day gift from me and refused to give it back. And the stories from my grandfather about the 8-10 different ways he's accidentally electrocuted himself throughout the years, and yet still stands. Or about the time I spent half a day convinced that drunk people snuck into my yard during the night and dug up 48 newly planted impatiens (until I realized a deer ate them).
That's about the point that I realized that I actually want a blog to show the world how hilarious I am, and if I can throw some web marketing in there, so be it. I can make it work. For example, the two funniest things I do are 1.) garden organically 2.) allow people to speak to me. Since I paint flowers and creatures and landscapes, does it count as web marketing if I blog about growing flowers in a landscape while shouting obscenities at creatures? You betcha! And when my mother does something bizarre, should that go in there too? Absolutely. Ah, yes. Yet another blog is born.
So in the end, I will market my website the way I organic garden - seek out the advice of experts, change it all around, and find myself continually shocked when my system doesn't work. Effective? No. Funny? Oh yes indeed! Keep reading.....
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