10 years ago today, I wrote the first post of Flatbush Gardener, a reflection on my first garden in NYC, started in 1981 in the East Village. I don’t think I can summarize all the changes I, and the gardens, have gone through over the past decade. Blogging itself is nearly a lost art, monetized and franchised, aggregated and amplified
Still, the gardens endure, transformed and transforming, embodying and expressing my evolution as a gardener.
The Back Yard
The Front Yard
This photo of a community garden supporter in front of City Hall was one of my photos illustrating my 2010 guest rant on Garden Rant.
Here’s my review and recap of 2010.
According to Google Analytics, from which I’ve collected these stats, “unique page views” are the number of visits during which a page was viewed. Page views are higher, since the same page may be viewed multiple times during a single visit. Unique pageviews, however, doesn’t distinguish multiple visits from the same person or IP address.
I’m nearing the fifth anniversary of the blog. Several posts from past years remain popular, more popular than more current content.
I authored another guest rant at Garden Rant in 2010: Community Gardens: Where “Garden” Becomes the Verb, 2010-09-06, part of the series I wrote covering community gardens this year.
Here are some other 2010 posts that remain relevant, interesting, or which I’m otherwise proud of.
See Community Gardens: Where “Garden” Becomes the Verb on Garden Rant.
New York City Community Garden Coalition
Open Space Index Report (PDF), New Yorkers for Parks
American Community Gardening Association
New York’s Community Gardens (1970s-2002), TreeBranch Network, Neighborhood Open Space Coalition
Community Gardens in New York City: the Lower East Side of Manhattan (1960s-2002), Not Bored
Bringing Peace to the Garden of Tranquility, Richard Stapleton, Land&People, Fall 1999, Trust for Public Land
Community Gardens Endangered Still, Anne Schwartz, Gotham Gazette, May 2001
Community Garden Negotiations, Anne Schwartz, Gotham Gazette, May 2002
Keeping the Gardens Green, NY Times editorial, 8/2/10
Green groups fear new community garden rules, Heather Haddon, AM New York, 8/4/10
Coalition Seeks More Protection For Community Gardens, Raanan Geberer, Brooklyn Eagle, 8/6/10
Time’s Up Response To Benepe’s Embarrassing NY Post Community Garden Op-Ed, A Walk in the Park, 8/12/10
Agapostemon sp., Metallic Green Bee, Jade Bee, illustrated my guest rant on Garden Rant in 2009.
Here’s my review and recap of 2009.
There were several personal milestones and achievements, my pleasure in sharing them tempered by the absence of my father this past year, who would have been proud.
I was new to Twitter this year, which has enabled me to share far more links, and be more conversational, than I can with just the blog.
Number of tweets posted: 2,025 tweets, 5.8 tweets per day.
Number of posts published: 120, averaging 1 post every 3 days, half the number I posted in 2008.
31,252 people visited this blog during 2009, 73% were new visitors. There were 38,278 visits, a slight increase over 2008’s 32,073.
According to Google Analytics, from which I’ve collected these stats, “unique page views” are the number of visits during which a page was viewed. Page views are higher, since the same page may be viewed multiple times during a single visit. Unique pageviews, however, doesn’t distinguish multiple visits from the same person or IP address.
Special notice goes to my guest rant on Garden Rant: Who cares about honeybees, anyway?, 2009-11-04. It received 37 comments, and sparked rebuttal posts on other gardening and farming blogs.
Here are some other 2009 posts that remain relevant, interesting, or which I’m otherwise proud of.
Sometime this week, one of the counters I use to keep track of visitors to this blog will reach 100,000. I began tracking visits in August 2006, just three months after I launched this blog in May 2006.
Each tracking service counts things differently, and the counters I have disagree on how many visitors I’ve had. While the lead counter says I’ve had 99,859 visitors at this writing, another reports only 90,318, a discrepancy of 10%.
For this and other reasons, I don’t use these counters for exact tracking, but for trends and general patterns. For those purposes, they’re accurate enough; using trackers from different sources balances the systematic counting errors any single algorithm would incur.
So, regardless of whether it’s 90,000, or 100,000, or some other number, I am grateful for all the visitors I’ve had over the years. My goal has never been to manage my “hit count.” If it hasn’t been obvious, this is a personal blog. I strive to avoid (or at least minimize) self-indulgence, and make my posts timely, relevant, and informative. But it will always be with my own voice. I own my words. I recognize that’s not to everyone’s taste. For those of you who do visit here, welcome, and thanks.
[bit.ly]
The Brownstoner Effect, 2007-11-10
Rabies More Popular Than Sex, 2007-03-02
Update 2009-03-11: Problem resolved. This morning, Feedburner subscriber count is back to the levels of a few days ago,
Update: The problem is largely isolated to Google Reader subscribers. If you use Google Reader to view the feed from this blog, and have been having trouble since March 6, please try re-susbcribing to see if that corrects the problem.
Update: Feedburner stats confirm that my subscribers were cut in half – the number of them, not the individuals – from March 6 to March 7. Still researching the problem.
I just noticed that my count of Feedburner subscribers has suddenly dropped from around 175 to just around 105. I believe this is related to my Feedburner feed getting migrated from the old Feedburner to the new Google/Feedburner.
I just logged into Feedburner and migrated the feed. I’m hoping that fixes the glitch. Please let me know, either via comments and by the email in my profile, if you encounter any lasting problems.
Thanx – Xris
Dino Pets illustration by Gideon Kendall, author: Lynn Plourde, publisher: Dutton/Penguin
Neighbors and colleagues, the Kensington, Brooklyn blog interviewed the multi-talented Kensington resident Gideon Kendall. And my neck of the woods get a mention:
KB: Do you draw any inspiration from the neighborhood?
GK: Absolutely. In Dino Pets, all of the houses and scenery are based on Ditmas Park [Victorian Flatbush].
– Local Spotlight: Gideon Kendall, Kensington, Brooklyn, 2008-01-08
Must … have … Dino Pets …
Raptors on gables – DO NOT WANT!
I’m not aware of any exact match for the houses in the illustrations, but it’s easy to see the influences in the neighborhood. Check out these examples from Prospect Park South.
170 Stratford Road, Prospect Park South
1203 Albemarle Road, prospect Park South
143 Buckingham Road, Prospect Park South
Prospect Park South
Victorian Flatbush
A young raccoon in my backyard in Flatbush, Brooklyn in June of 2008. My post about them was in the top five of 2008, measured both by visits and number of comments.
It was a year of great changes and terrible losses for me. I began 2008 by taking classes at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden toward a Certificate in Horticulture, which I hope to complete by the end of this year. I remain involved in the gardening activism of Sustainable Flatbush, both in the Gardening Committee, and in the Flatbush CommUNITY Garden. I organized a Brooklyn Blogade, a meeting of bloggers, at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, and helped with the 2008 annual Blogfest. I also lost two of my best friends: my cat, Spot, at the beginning of the year, and my father, Jerry, just four weeks ago.
To see out this old year and welcome in the new one, I thought I’d review and recap some of what I’ve written for this blog during 2008, and your responses to it.
Number of posts published: 236 (averaging 2 posts every 3 days)
Busiest month: April, with 38 posts (more than 1 per day)
Slowest month: November, with only 10 posts (1 every 3 days)
22,896 people visited this blog during 2008. There were 32,073 visits, an average of 88 per day. About 70% were first-time visitors.
The most popular content on the blog.
According to Google Analytics, from which I’ve collected these stats, “unique page views” are the number of visits during which a page was viewed. Page views are higher, since the same page may be viewed multiple times during a single visit. Unique pageviews, however, doesn’t distinguish multiple visits from the same person or IP address.
Special mention goes to my tutorial on the OASIS mapping service. Although I wrote it in February of 2007, almost two years ago, it was the third most popular page during 2008, with 433 unique page views. It’s got “legs”.
It’s interesting to me that my two most commented posts this year were both obituaries. It’s been a year of big changes in my life.
Here are some other posts that remain relevant, interesting, or which I’m otherwise proud of.
The July 2008 Brooklyn Blogade was a picnic at Prospect Park this past Sunday. Mother Nature smiled upon us, as thunderstorms bracketed, but did not interrupt, the picnic proper.
We did, however, get delayed in undertaking a walking tour of Prospect Park, guided by my neighbor Brenda Becker, whose Year in the Park was recently highlighted in the New York Times. While we waited out the rains, we sheltered in the Music Pagoda.
At the Dongan oak Monument
Battle Pass
Sullivan Hill
Because we set out 45 minutes later than planned, we had to cut short our tour. But we did make it to the top of the Ravine.
Rustic Shelter
Rock Arch Bridge
Ambergill Falls.
Our hosts, Dave Kenny (Dope on the Slope) and Brenda, organized an awesome spread. Everyone contributed something.
We enjoyed some of the idyllic ideal envisioned by the Park’s creators, Olmsted in particular. Mostly insects, but some other orders, as well. There were also lots of chipmunks about, but I didn’t get any good shots of them.
The Nethermead
Halysidota harrisii, Sycamore Tussock Moth, Caterpillar. Thanks to Mthew (Flickr) for the id!
Dog-Day Cicada
Thanks to Dave for the id of this Xenox tigrinus, the Tiger Bee Fly.
Catbird
Crayfish
My Flickr photo set
Blogade posts
Brit in Brooklyn
Dope on the Slope
Luna Park Gazette
Prospect: A Year in the Park
Self-Absorbed Boomer
Colletes thoracicus (Colletidae), Cellophane Bee
Circus of the Spineless #33 (COTS 33) is up on Seeds Aside.
I submitted my post and photographs of Cellophane Bees from last weekend. This is only my second contribution to COTS. My first was two years ago, in COTS #10.
I thought of sending in my post about Magicicada, but since I haven’t actually encountered any, it seemed premature.
The next edition, COTS #34, will be posted at Gossamer Tapestry. Send your submissions to Doug: dtaron(at)gmail.com before June, 29.
Colletes thoracicus (Colletidae), Cellophane Bees, May
Coleomegilla usurps Coccinella as New York State Insect, June 23, 2006
Circus of the Spineless #33, Seeds Aside
Circus of the Spineless