Every time I think I will check in on Texas Gardening, i see the same threads over and over and over......We all need to start contributing to this forum. Texas is a big state................I never feel like there is much exciting going on in Texas, but I know this is not true....for a thread from 2005 to keep popping up takes too long for my computer to even see the new post.
gail
I just know that Texas gardening could be broader?????
Gail when you have a slow response on a thread, ask the person that posted it to start a new one. It is something that not everyone has problems with, but when brought to their attention, they don't mind.
Sheila
You can click on the "Skip to New" link at the top of the messages, right above the blue box labelled "Comment". At least, that's what I do!
Stephanie
I agree with gessiegail. I'd like to see more new threads in Texas. We have a vast range of topics to cover but it seems like folks are reluctant to post a new thread. I'm not sure the reason but....let's talk!
I think the diversity is a large part of the problem. The various threads seem to start well but narrow down to a certain area of Tx with specific gardening problems indigenous only to that area. That does narrow the participation and even the interest.
I have to agree. The first page of the forum is the same. Maybe Terry could clean it up for us. Somedays I don't even check "Texas".
I didn't know if it was just me that felt like The Texas Gardening threads are so limited to our big state................maybe people will get a jump start from this discussion.............thanks
I feel like LouC and have gotten to where I don't check it as often as I used to.
Even though the threads may not apply to me I still read many of them because I can learn things. Sometimes I never would have tried a plant, or it explains what I may have seen and not understood.I also like hearing what my "friends" are doing in their gardens. Though I may not have met many, they still have a place in my heart...There is also the off chance that someone just starting out may ask something that I have an answer to..makes me feel good to help, even if it is nothing more than "check your local botanical garden,extension service and neighborhood gardens to see what works"
daves got a new landscaping site---i'd like to see specific texas gardens detailing plants and problems those plants have, etc. that would liven up the texas forum. i agree---often i don't check in.
Well, I don't understand why if someone wants to talk about tomatoes, or salvias, or petunias, whatever interests them, why not start a thread about it?
Anyone can do that and discus whatever they like, we all have original ideas, and different areas of interest, it is supposed to be a combined effort from all the members.
Let us all come up with good ideas in the fields we are interested in, and make everybody happy.
Josephine.
Josephine, I sounded so abrupt and abrasive.....forgive me.....but you are absolutely right in saying that the rest of us need to get involved. I posted this morning on the Texas forum to a lady who had just moved to New Braunfels and wanted to know about gardening. Since I lived there for 5 years, I posted pictures of my daughter's yard from last weekend....
I am just looking for a way to make the Texas forum start jumping, but it does take input from all of us whiners who do not contribute!!!!
gail
I saw the pictures, and they are very nice, your son in law is a very talented gardener.
There is nothing to forgive, all is well and I am not upset, let us continue having fun.
Josephine.
good and thanks for your response..............I am always amazed at a natural ability to garden and landscape as he does. That is certainly not in his education (formal that is)......He grows orchids and is planning on getting a greenhouse just for orchids when they sell the house. Moving is what he and my daughter do for fun in anticipation of sending 3 kids to college. They move in a house, renovate it, landscape it and sell it!!!!!
I don't think there is anything wrong with the forum. But I do think that the very fact that we live in this huge state leads to fragmented discussion.
Gardening in Dallas is sufficiently different than gardening in Houston, so the discussion concerning Dallas will not be of great interest to me. I presume it's the same for somebody from Dallas reading stuff about Houston. Heck, gardening north of Houston (The Woodlands/Conroe) is sufficiently different from gardening south of Houston (Galveston/Clear Lake). And let's not even go to the differences between let's say Lubbock vs. East Texas.
It's fragmented 'cause we're so big. Not much we can do about that. General type threads will have a broader appeal, but with so many subscribers that can be categorized as advanced/experienced gardeners, the general topics are of limited interest. Again, special interests in a huge arena such as TX is bound to result in fragmentation.
This message was edited May 16, 2007 2:24 PM
Here is something news worthy for Texas Gardening. I am new to DG's and I just read -- alot of the threads----I never write or start a thread and would love to read more about Texas Gardening.
Anyway, I read on a thread about Master Gardening so I called the County Extension Office here in South Texas. They are starting the classes in Aug. Nueces County- Robstown 8-12 on Wed,
San Patricio County - Aransas Pass 1-5, Also Wed. The classes are 18 weeks long. You need to sign up. I would not have know about them at all if I have not read a thread on this.
I'm with gessiegail that I would love to get the Texas Gardening forum more popular.
Mary
This message was edited May 16, 2007 1:58 PM
I'm like teacup - I read & read and enjoy and learn. I really like the pictures - gives me ideas and gets the ole brain chugging. the pictures gessiegail posted were terrific. My pictures are not quite as good but will contribute what I can.
I agree on the vastness of our state being the problem. Very few states have 8 zones within their borders! I think there is 8 now, that is.
Also a lot of us have met at different swaps and that seems to monopolize the threads at the time we are planning, etc. I just encourage each of you to go through the pages and mark "watch" on those that interest you, and jump in and participate.
I do however feel we need to keep our sticky threads at the top, they have a wealth of information to us all about our native plants. I may not participate by posting on them, but definately appreciate what I learn there.
Maybe we could ask Dave to break Texas down by regions. Then again, I like reading EVERYTHING from Texas and talking to all of you wonderful people.
Thank you Sheila, that (sticky ) thread was put there by popular request from many of the members. We wanted to have a place where we could go and look up native plants by color, since the Plant Files do not specify which plants are native to Texas.
Many people, especially Htop, have spent many hours collecting information on those plants so that we all can benefit from it.
The other two ( Stickies ) Texas Calendar of Events, and a guide to Texas Nurseries,
and I can,t see why we should want either one of those removed either.
Josephine.
It would really get boring if we broke down by region, I sure hope that won't happen.
Yes, Frostweed the other two stickies are just as noteworthy.
Dutch, we hardly worry about quality of pictures....there are people on here with the most up to date cameras and lenses......and their pictures are phenomenal.......I don't even want to be a professional. I only learned how to crop a picture last week with the computer tech...most people do many more things to their pictures as they are good photographers....
If you get the idea over, mission is accomplished as far as I am concerned.
I agree with you, Sheila. It would be boring if we broke it down. I just wonder how we can get more Texas lurkers to start threads. I'm gonna put my thinking cap on and try to start some new threads myself, on various Texas gardening subjects. Keep it hopping, so to say. I also agree that the stickies' should always remain on top. I love the Native threads.
I'm new to Texas from Alabama and the climate and all is sooo different. Maybe yall can help me with some plants that do good here?? I have mainly foliage, no colorful plants. Any ideas? I live in an apartment but I have a balcony that gets sun. Several cactus and lucky bamboo that I have are doing real good. I want some color though.:)
HELP! please
Thanks, Elizabeth
Elizabeth ~ that would be a good topic for its' own thread in the Tx Forum. You might start one and see what ideas pop up!
Just another thought on Tx Gardening forum threads. Over the past couple of years, I have seen many a good thread get killed due to an abrupt answer. Not just here on the Tx forum but all forums.
For us, Texas hospitality should be the order of the day! : ))
BTW, something must be working. For the first time ever, I have more Tx Gardening threads in my thread watcher. Thanks all!
Gail and LouC., I agree with you that the Calendar of Events should be "cleaned up" and the older threads removed. Rather than their being deleted, I would rather the threads be placed in past events threads such as "Texas Events 2005", "Texas Events 2006", etc. because there is lots of information in them as well as fond memories for me at least. I would hate not to be able to go back and see photos from the swaps for example.
This forum for some reason appears to be dominated by those of us from just a couple of Texas Regions. Probably as said before because of the plant swaps that we are able to attend and meet each other. I had hoped that I would learn about gardening from all over the state. I would love to learn about native plants as well as non-native plants and gardening conditions, etc. in West Texas, for example. Perhaps West Texas is under-reperesented due to the lack of internet access in many areas and the lower population number. Maybe West Texans are shy or maybe not many plants grow in West Texas. :o)
The Texas Native Plants & Wildflowers Picture Directory "sticky" is there to assist people with identifying native plants as well as learning about native plants that might be considered for use in people's landscapes. They are helpful with identifying invasive plants as well. The one's I have posted are those I find in and around the San Antonio area because I can't travel very far due to a number of reasons. I enjoy seeing and learning about plants from other Texas areas. I can "visit" our state and its beautiful native flora through these threads. I hope that the threads are of value to others. I had made a request a while back for people to please add photos to these threads because they are of great help to me as I try to identify plants. Several people have been adding to them and their efforts are much appreciated. I use the "Skip to New" link to navigate to the bottom of the thread very quickly. But, I do not use dial-up so I don't know how long this takes for those of you with dial-up. If you are not interested in native plants and don't want the threads to pop up when something new is added, select "Unwatch thread" at the bottom of the thread. You would have to do this as the threads pop up or go through and select "Unwatch Thread" for each one.
I think that A Guide to Texas Nurseries is a very useful tool. Again, if you don't want it to popup in your thread watcher, mark "Unwatch Thread". If you want to see only the new posts, click on "Skip to New".
The threads are "stickies" so that one doesn't have to search for these areas of interest through all of the threads to find them.
A lot of converstaion goes on in the Gardening with Texas Native Plants & Wildflowers thread. The threads do become quite long at times. All of of the posts do not deal with native plants per se; however, this is expected as people carry on their internet conversations as people diverse in face-to-face conversations. It is natural for people to ask a question or add a comment as the conversations flow. For example, if I am conversing with Josephine about a native plant and I then think of a question to ask her about a tropical hibiscus, I will ask it right then and there instead of starting a new thread asking about tropical hibiscus. Not everyone reads the Gardening with Texas Native Plants & Wildflowers thread so the answer from Josephine and others that helpfully post about the tropical hibiscus is missed by those not reading the thread. Those not reading the thread do not have an opportunity to add their thoughts and knowledge nor gain information from the discussion. This is not a criticism just an observation to explain why there may seem to be not a lot happening in the Texas Gardening Forum. To me, a lot is happening in the Gardening with Texas Native Plants & Wildflowers thread.
I know there are a lot of Texans (as well as DGers from other states) that visit this forum. Do some of them feel that they are not welcome to post a new thread with their comments, concerns and/or questions? If so, why would they feel this way? If you are a person who feels this way, let us know why and how we can encourage you to participate.
BTW, no question is a "dumb" question. I have also seen posts that ask a question and no one replies ro the post. Even if you don't know the answer, perhaps a comment might make the person feel comfortable about asking the question in the first place and that someone cares. I had received some rooted cuttings that I didn't know what the plants were because the writing on the tags wore off. These cuttings were with some brug rooted cuttings. Because I had never grown a brug nor even seen one before, I thought that they might be brugs even though the leaves looked like papaya.. Sooo, I posted them on the brug forum to confirm their ID. Guess what ... they were papaya. I know that some of the brug experts must have wondered from which other planet did I come. But, I got my answer, everyone was polite and I didn't read any snickers. I just figured that I had made the brugsters feel even smarter than they already are (which is pretty smart) :o)
podster, you are right ... all ideas and viewpoints should be respected. We all have had different experiences with gardening and in life. I have made a few booboos and learned from them.
I have found that improvements are always needed and suggestions for improvements should always be welcome and thoughtfully considered. I appreciate Gail and others mentioning their concerns, adding their thoughts and making suggestions. Let's all try to do what we can to make this forum an asset to all.
(edited for typos and added comments)
This message was edited May 22, 2007 11:31 AM
Very well said, Thank you Hazel.
Josephine.
Your welcome, Josephine. I just wish I could think of anything else that might be helpful with expanding the topics being covered in the forum. Occassionally, I am adding photos in the PlantFiles of sick plants (like a Texas rock rosemallow full of mildew) and what to do to solve the problem:
http://davesgarden.com/pf/showimage/119207/
I think I posted a photo of the disease to which red top photinia throughtout the state have now become susceptible. I hadn't known what was killing my neighbors' red tip photinia. Then, mine started having the same problem. I had to pull them up and replace them with something else. Perhaps I should have posted it here in case someone had sick red top photinia. In Texas, Rose of Sharon are highly susceptible to cotton root rot; however, if certain things are done, they will do fine.. Would things like this be of interest to anyone or would it be boring learning about bad things that can happen to plants or plants that people have not had success with in certain areas. I just figured that if someone is having a problem with a plant that they will look the plant up in the PlantFiles, post a question in the PlantFiles or an appropriate forum or seek out assistance here. Also, if someone is thinking of planting a certain plant, they will do the same.
I had thought about listing plants that I have wasted money on during the years. Plants with which I have had no success. The problem with listing these plants is that the plants may do very well for someone else.
I just bumped up the thread that lists plants that do well through the summer heat in my region for anyone who might need to decide upon what they want to plant. I know it is an old thread, but I will be updating it with more plants that proved successful for me last summer when I have time to do so and will put the information on a Part II so that the thread will not beocome too long. I will try to think of some ideas that may help with broadening interest in the forum. But, I really think that the value of the forum and ,thereby its appeal, can not be superficially imposed. Sustained interest must be generated by the DGers who participate in the threads as Gail stated. "We all need to start contributing to this forum."
This message was edited May 22, 2007 1:32 PM
Hazel, I think a listing in plantfiles showing active diseases or pest infestations would be great. So many times when I have a problem with a plant, I don't have time to get the camera out and take a photo to post. It would be great if plants that had a common recurring problem or susceptibility could be listed with a photo. It could be a "first stop shopping" place for problems. I think its a wonderful idea.
Thanks. I think it would save a lot of time. I saw the photo of the flea beetle that was eating circular holes in leaves yesterday. My sister-in-law had asked me about circular holes in her plant leaves and I had no idea what was doing it until I saw the thread here. I think it has been suggested to Dave before, but I am not sure. I'll have to check.