7 Degrees colder than Tampa

From my front porch I can see 4 front porches

To my dear friends in Tampa who are shivering under the record cold of 27 degrees I feel for you. I know that such a hard freeze will no doubt damage some plants and do lots of damage to fruit and vegetable farmers.

We've been in a deep freeze for a week now and the end is finally coming into sight as we are expecting a warm 30 degrees next week. I don't know how long it'll last but I plan to enjoy it while I can.

I seldom venture out but when I do I look like an eskimo out hunting for game. Meanwhile, I'm keeping my bird feeders stocked and making sure that they have plenty of water.


Written by Carolyngail

BLOGGERS BEWARE !

We garden bloggers are a closely knit group. Thanks to Mr. Brown Thumb I discovered that I had been scraped. Scrapers need content to feed their contextual ads such as Google AdSense. They use multiple keywords and they steal articles that help them rank high in search engine results.

I'm not the only blogger being scraped ( of all places in Istanbul, Turkey ) by Homedepotgarden.net. I'm guessing he thought that the name Home Depot would generate a lot of hits . I found Cameron of Defining your Home and Garden and other garden blog posts without any credit so I'm not sure who they belong to.

What steps can you take to try to stop scraping or at least make it more difficult for them? First sign up to have your work licensed at Creative Commons. If the scraper uses Google you can report them by visiting Google.com, type in their domain in the search field and when it finds the site, go to report a spam result and follow instructions.

Next you can find the scrapper's web host by visiting Whoishostingthis.com and type in the domain in their search box. Visit the scrapers web hosting company and leave them an email.

I'm hoping to get this scraper banned from AdSense, Google and the web host. Copy this, Home Depot Garden.

GROW CHICAGO ONE SEED AT A TIME

Chicago is uniting gardeners by planting a common seed across the city and will be linked together in a season-long celebration of urban greening. They've selected three candidates to choose from and the winning seed will be from a plant that was once commonly found in the prairies around here, but is now rare in the wild outside of prairie restoration projects and cultivated gardens. I voted for the purple coneflower.

Last year One Seed Chicago distributed 10,000 Blue Lake Pole green bean seeds and helped Chicagoans rediscover growing their own food in a recession.

Mr. Brown Thumb is working on this worthy project which is sponsored by NeighborSpace, a nonprofit land trust dedicated to preserving and sustaining community managed open spaces in Chicago and I thank him for bringing it to our attention. This is indeed a fantastic way to provide thousands of people the opportunity to grow fruits, vegetables and flowers, to restore habitats, and create unique gathering places in their own neighborhoods.

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day -Jan. 1, 2010

An Irish New Year's Blessing

May the New Year bring

the warmth of home and hearth to you

The cheer and goodwill of friends to you

The hope of a childlike heart to you

The joy of a thousand angels to you

The love of the Son and God's peace to you.


HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !