Tag Archives: Meta

2010 Wrap-Up

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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.
Chard and Carrot

Here’s my review and recap of 2010.

Stats

Highlights

  • July 2010: I attend the Garden Bloggers Buffa10 meetup of garden bloggers.
  • Fall 2010: I received my Citizen Tree Pruner’s certification.

Most Viewed

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.

  1. Native Plant Profile: Asimina triloba, PawPaw, 2010-02-07, 756 visits
  2. Native Plant Profile: Amelanchier x grandiflora, 2010-05-08, 432 visits, in which I describe both the tree and document how to plant one.
  3. Proposed NYC Rules Threaten Community Gardens, 2010-07-27, 408 visits
  4. Will the Flatbush Loew’s Kings Theatre finally be saved?, 2010-02-02, 384 visits
  5. Brooklyn Botanic Garden: Peak Everything, 2010-04-17, 325 visits

I’m nearing the fifth anniversary of the blog. Several posts from past years remain popular, more popular than more current content.

  1. “The Mystery of the Maple Syrup Mist”, 2009-02-05, 2,873 visits. The popularity of this post baffles me. All I can tell from the traffic sources is that they come from Google searches for fenugreek, the seed of which provides the raw material for artificial maple flavoring. Many, if not most, of the searches originate in India. Go figure.
  2. 90 Years Ago: The Malbone Street Wreck, 2008-11-01, 821 visits
  3. The National September 11 Memorial at the World Trade Center, 2007-09-11, 510 visits
  4. Woodland Garden Design Plant List, 2009-02-18, 508 visits
  5. 1911 New York Dock Company Lithograph, 2007-04-31, 484 visits

    Guest Rant

    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.

    In case you missed it

    Here are some other 2010 posts that remain relevant, interesting, or which I’m otherwise proud of.

    [http://goo.gl/fb/GBfVm]

      2009 Wrap-Up

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      Agapostemon sp., Metallic Green Bee, Jade Bee, illustrated my guest rant on Garden Rant in 2009.
      Agapostemon sp., Metallic Green Bee, Jade Bee

      Here’s my review and recap of 2009.

      Highlights

      • January 27: I attend my first – maybe my only – Plant-O-Rama at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
      • March 4: Robert Guskind, founder of Gowanus Lounge, dies.
      • May 2009: I attend the Chicago Spring Fling meetup of garden bloggers.
      • July 29: The City Council approves the Flatbush Rezoning Plan, a story I’ve been tracking for years on this blog.

      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.

      Twitter

      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. 

      Overall stats

      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.

      Most Viewed

      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.

      1. Robert Guskind, founder of Gowanus Lounge, 1958-2009, 2009-03-05, 1,990 visits
      2. Sphecius speciosus: Eastern Cicada Killer, 2009-08-18, 375 visits
      3. First Cherry in bloom at BBG, 2009-03-18, 367 visits
      4. Flatbush Rezoning Proposal certified, enters public review process, 2009-03-02, 331 visits
      5. And too close to call:

      Most commented

      1. Native Plant Garden, Brooklyn Botanic Garden, 2009-06-09, 12 comments
      2. Robert Guskind, founder of Gowanus Lounge, 1958-2009, 2009-03-05, 11 comments
      3. Blessing of the Animals, Chelsea Community Church, 2009-10-11, 8 comments
      4. Multi-way tie with 7 comments each:

      Guest Rant

      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.

      In case you missed it

      Here are some other 2009 posts that remain relevant, interesting, or which I’m otherwise proud of.

      The End of “Gowanus Lounge”

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      This morning I discovered that the domain for Gowanus Lounge had been appropriated by a commercial site. I learned this afternoon that the domain had been sold.

      Gowanus Lounge had been the project of founder Robert Guskind, who died (too soon) in March of 2009. Archived content from Gowanus Lounge is now available at a new, “memorial” domain, bobguskind.com.

      I’ll be updating my links to the old Gowanus Lounge site to the new domain in his name. It saddens me to have to do this, but I must, since Bob’s work is no longer available at the original domain. It’s clear to me that the new proprietor of the domain expects to garner hits through links to Bob’s old work. I refuse to support that.

      How to find links

      Two Google keywords let you find links from a specific domain to another:

      link:
      finds links to the specified domain
      site:
      limits the search to links from the specified domain

      So, to find links from my blog to the old Gowanus Lounge domain, I searched this in Google:

      link:gowanuslounge.com site:flatbushgardener.blogspot.com

      [bit.ly]

      Links

      Robert “Bob” Guskind Memorial Site
      Much Ado About the Gowanus Lounge, That Greenpoint Blog, 2010-01-03

      Tracking to 100,000 and counting

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      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]

      Related Content

      The Brownstoner Effect, 2007-11-10
      Rabies More Popular Than Sex, 2007-03-02

      Meta: Feed Glitch

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      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

      2008 Wrap-up

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      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.
      Flatbush Raccoon

      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.

      Overall stats

      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.

      Greatest Hits of 2008

      The most popular content on the blog.

      By visits

      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.

      1. (Magi)Cicada Watch, about the Brood XIV Magicicadas, which unfortunately have been extirpated in Brooklyn, 2008-05-21, 763 visits
      2. Flatbush Rezoning Proposal will define the future of Victorian Flatbush, my report on a public hearing and analysis of the proposal, 2008-06-13, 483 visits
      3. Summer Nights, my photographic report on raccoons in my backyard, 2008-06-26, 405 visits
      4. Sources of Plants for Brooklyn Gardeners, 2008-04-29, 367 visits
      5. These two posts, both of them memorials, are close enough to call it a tie:

      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”.

      By comments

      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.

      1. Spot, 2008-02-23, 14 comments
      2. Gerard Kreussling, 1931-2008, 2008-12-01, 12 comments
      3. Summer Nights, my photographic report on raccoons in my backyard, 2008-06-26, 11 comments
      4. Snake in the Garden, Prospect Park, about a guy ripping branches off a cherry tree, 2008-04-26, 10 comments
      5. Three-way tie, with 9 comments each:

      In case you missed it

      Here are some other posts that remain relevant, interesting, or which I’m otherwise proud of.

      Meta: Blogspot “embedded” comments do not work

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      This evening I found myself unable to sign in to and leave a comment on my own blog. After struggling with it for over a half-hour, I switched this blog’s “Comment Form Placement” to “Full Page” from “Embedded.” That seems to have circumvented the commenting problem, but I still can’t edit my own blog.

      If you’ve tried to leave a comment recently – the past two or three weeks – and were unable to do so, please try again.

      Others have reported the same problem in the Blogger Help forums, but no one has gotten any relief.

      Please stand by …

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      … we are experiencing technical difficulties.
      Trash 80

      Specifically, the graphics card on my Dell laptop is shot. And, with their stellar support, which I already paid for, I get to wait 3-5 BUSINESS days for a replacement part.

      So posting from the FG is going to be slim for the next two weeks.

      Some recent and current blooms in my garden

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      Hemerocallis, Daylily, June 21, 2008
      Hemerocallis, Daylily

      Just some quick photos of plants recently or currently blooming in my garden. The first few were taken two weeks aga.

      Meta

      I’ve changed my feedburner feed to remove the merged feed of photos from my Flickr site. I sometimes upload scores or hundreds of photos at a time. Also, often those photos are of events that are of more local community and less general gardening interest. For both these reasons, I think that including my photos interferes with the main use of the feed: subscribing to updates to this blog.

      Those of you who want to keep tabs on my updated photos can still do so. My Flickr photostream has its own feed, available in either RSS or Atom format. You can subscribe to my photos directly from there.

      Daylilies

      I don’t “collect” daylilies, at least not the way I try to collect Hosta or native plants. We inherited a few with the gardens when we bought the house. For that reason, I consider them to be “passalong” plants: dependable, sturdy, hardy, tolerant of neglect, vigorous, and so on. I gave away several clumps this Spring. I’ll have more to give away over time.

      Hemerocallis, Daylily, June 21, 2008
      Hemerocallis, Daylily

      Native Plants

      Ascelpias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed, June 21, 2008
      Ascelpias incarnata, Swamp Milkweed

      Echinacea pallida, Pale Coneflower, June 21, 2008. This photo was used to illustrate “Coneflowers: America’s Prairie Treasures”, by Barbara Perry Lawton, in the Summer 2009 edition of the Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s “Plants & Gardens News.”
      Echinacea pallida, Pale Coneflower

      The Shady Path

      In this short section of the shady path on the north side of the house, I have my two big-leaved monsters: Rodgersia pinnata, on the right, and Kirengeshoma palmata, on the left. The Rodgersia has a lot of drought damage from our heat wave a few weeks ago, but it’s off-frame of this photo. I’m keeping a close watch on the Kirengeshoma, as it also crisps up at the slightest hint of drought. There are buds on it now, which mature very slowly into waxy yellow bells. It benefits here from its location next to my neighbor’s mixed border, which gets watered by soaker hose.

      Part of the Shady Path

      Both of these plants are several years old, possibly even a decade. I’ve lost track of when I purchased them. They’re slow-growing, but continue to increase in size every year, despite never being divided in all that time. They are well worth the wait.

      I used to keep the Kirengeshoma in a large container, which I could never water enough. It’s much happier in the ground. Both of these plants would prefer constant moisture. I have long-term plans to build a rain garden in the shady part of the front yard. When the time comes, both of these plants will be very happy there.

      Nestled between them in the foreground is a small, yellow-leaved, purple-flowering Hosta. I’ve lost the id for this. I think it might be ‘Little Aurora.’ Any Hosta aficionados out there who can weigh in on what this might be?

      Hosta 'Little Aurora'?

      Hosta 'Little Aurora'?

      Heirloom Canna

      Last to share with you today is the Heirloom Canna ‘Mme. Paul Caseneuve’ blooming in a large, glazed container in the front yard. This is the same specimen that I grew for the first time last year. I overwintered it in the same container in an unheated, but enclosed, section of the front porch. I’m surprised it came back.

      Heirloom Canna 'Mme. Paul Caseneuve'

      It doesn’t look as pink as I remember it from last year. The color is more apricot/salmony this year. At least it’s got the same bronze foliage.

      Heirloom Canna 'Mme. Paul Caseneuve'

      Related Content

      Heirloom Canna “Mme. Paul Caseneuve”, August 17, 2007
      The Shady Path (Flickr photo set)

      Meta: Google Calendar

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      I finally figured out how to aggregate multiple Google Calendars into a single view. I knew it was possible, because others have done it with my Flatbush Gardener calendar. My calendar has been in the sidebar for some time now, but I have to squish and stretch it so it will fit comfortably. Here’s a big version.



      I found the trick to aggregation in the Google Calendar Help Center:

      If you’d like to customize your embedded calendar, click the link above the iframe field to access the Google Embeddable Calendar Helper. …
      To display events from multiple calendars in the same embedded calendar, simply follow the instructions above to access the Google Embeddable Calendar Helper. Then, check the box next to each calendar you wish to display, listed under “Calendars to Display.”
      – How do I embed Google Calendar on my website?

      The “link” mentioned reads “Customize the color, size, and other options.” “Other options” is a rather obscure reference to “oh, and by the way, you can aggregate multiple calendars.”

      Of more importance is the HTML that gets rendered, in particular, the parameters to the URL which is the src of the iframe which renders the calendar. Here’s a partial list of what my calendar widget now contains:

      1. %lt;iframe src=””>
      2. showTitle=0
      3. mode=AGENDA
      4. height=300
      5. wkst=2
      6. bgcolor=#FFFFFF
      7. src=xrisfg@gmail.com
      8. color=#0D7813
      9. …>

      And here’s a translation:

      1. “iframe” is the “container” for the calendar. “src” identifies the contents. Here, we’re asking Google Calendar to generate the contents for use, based on the other parameters we provide.
      2. “0” (zero) is programmer for “No” or “Off”. In other words: don’t display the title of the calendar, “Xris (Flatbush Gardener)”.
      3. The default layout for the calendar. On wide displays, tabs at the top of the calendar allow you to choose different layouts. I chose “Agenda” as the default because it shows the most information about each event.
      4. The height, in pixels (dots on your display) for the contents.
      5. “wkst=2” means “Make Monday the start of the week.” Doesn’t make any difference for the Agenda layout.
      6. “bgcolor” = “background color.” “FFFFFF” means “white.”
      7. Which calendar to display (mine, in this case).
      8. With which color to display the preceding identified calendar.
      9. Repeat 7&8 for each calendar you want to aggregate.