Sunday, January 3, 2010 Puttering in Helen’s Haven

January 3, 2010 at 2:56 am · Filed under Helen's Haven ·Tagged Cool Springs Press, Gardening With Confidence™, Helen Yoest, Helen's Haven

It has been a cold week in Helen’s Haven; so much so, I was too weak to work in the garden at all. Hardly leaving the mid 40s, I felt I needed to wait until the 50s returned.

This month, is my 2nd blog anniversary.  It started as a diary of garden goings on in Helen’s Haven: what was growing, blooming, planted, pruned.  It also included what the kids were doing in the garden.  Their joys in the garden, as well as, their antics.

Today, this Sunday post remains the same, with more focus on the what was done in the garden during the week. Surprisingly, these Sunday posts receive the most hits.  I don’t know what this means, but thank you for stopping by. Actually, this weekly post surpasses my most favorite posting – This Month in The Garden – where I give monthly maintenance tips for our zone 7b gardens.

Often, I’m asked how I got started writing a garden blog.  Given that my day job is already as a writer (and garden coach & scout), how do I find the time and interest in writing for free?  My answer, a release.  It is such a release to write this blog.  It’s the only avenue I have to write anything, I mean anything, I want.  I can write in first person, it can be pillar or pale.  It can be about books, plants, travels, people, or profiling a garden.

The profiles came about as I wanted to share great gardens in NC and beyond.  I get to see some great gardens through my work with Better Homes and Gardens and their special interest publications such as Country Gardens and Nature’s Garden.  But for so many reasons, none of which are due to the garden not being worthy of publication, they are not selected.  This gives me a chance to profile their garden as a thank you for sharing it with me.

Reflecting on the last 2 year’s worth of post, I’ve decided to continue much as I have been, with a small difference.  The difference will be frequency.  I’m thinking I’ll continue to post this weekly update.  I find it to be a valuable reference of my garden goings on and I think the reader can glean what they can be doing in the garden, as well.

I will continue to profile gardens (because they are so much fun to write), write book reviews (so, Mr. Media Man, add me to your list), plants (so, Ms. Grower, add me to your list, Helen’s Haven trials plants ) and of course, I’ll continue to write about my cute, sweet kids, named after flowers, and their antics (see the category, Flowers That Talk.)

I’m also going the bandwagon in the What I do in the Garden 365 DAYS IN THE GARDEN.  Not sure if it is a real challenge, but sounds like something I would like to do.

For my long time readers, it is no surprise that I am writing a book.  I haven’t officially started.  I have a committment from my publisher, but I’m still in the process of putting the details together: sample chapter, tone, table of contents, etc.  After this, I hope to actually begin writing the book.  To keep track of all that I am doing, I thought I would begin to include  a BOOK REPORT in my Sunday post.  This will update you and allow me to chronical my progress.

I’ll also include a section on WHAT’S SHE WRITING ABOUT NOW…. This section will link the posts I wrote during the week, as well as, linking This Month in The Garden.  You may ask, Why would I continue with the monthly maintenance guide when the hits are so low?  Cuz one day you will visit and will need it.  When you do, I will be there  for you.  It might not be today, or next year, but when you are ready to read about garden maintenance tips in our zone 7b gardens, you will have the resource as close as your friendly Garden Coach, Helen Yoest at Gardening With Confidence™.

365 DAYS IN THE GARDEN

1. Photographed 6 locations in the garden to begin a new project following a bed’s monthly progress
2. Cracked ice in birdbaths
3. Read seed catalogues.

BOOK REPORT

This past summer, I decided to work in earnest to publish my book.  For a very long time, I’ve wanted to help gardeners with their gardens.  As a garden coach, I work with gardeners to build the garden the always desired.  As a garden coach, I guide them on to how to look at their garden.  I believed, there was a book idea there and convienced a publisher of this too.  Then, my publisher, Roger Waynick, Cool Spring Press, started to waffle.

Hmmm, when faced with this kind of reaction, do I defend the book idea or do I walk assuming he knows more than I do.  Or perhaps, just perhaps, my  brilliant idea needed some refining.  My publisher challenged me to do a market study.  So, I did.  Well, he liked the resultes of the survey and apparantely my approach, because, this was posted on Twitter soon after his review, “@gardenpublisher If anyone wants to learn how to sell a book idea, ask @helenyoest. She just convinced me to do a book that I was unsure about. Great job!”

So the beginning began.  Over the New Year’s break, I put together the information in the Cool Springs Press Submission guidelines.  If nothing else, it was an exercise in organization.  Organizing ones thoughts is never a bad idea.  Hopefully, next week, I can tell you how much he liked it as well….hope so!

WHAT’S SHE WRITING ABOUT NOW…

What do You Want to Know About a Plant?

I’m Gonnas

Helen Yoest is a garden writer and coach through her business Gardening with Confidence™

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenYoest and her facebook friend’s page, Helen Yoest or Gardening With Confidence™ Face Book Fan Page.

Helen also serves on the board of advisors for the JC Raulston Arboretum

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