A Tour Around My Blog

If you're already familiar with blogs, and how to subscribe to them, this post will not be of interest to you - my apologies! On the other hand, if you’ve found your way here, but don’t know much about blogs, here’s a quick description of mine own humble offering – including how to get more, if you should like it!

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The intention of my blog is to write short articles which are related to garden design – could be design ideas, gardens to visit, book reviews, gardening topics, ecological aspects, and so on. The material is written by me, usually related to something I’ve recently experienced or thought about, but could also be prompted by something in the news media or “blogosphere”. I try to write at least one post (a short article) per week. I also try to include links to other related sources on the web so that you can get further information, as well as my personal opinions, about the post topic.

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The format of the blog screen

There is a central, scrollable, panel – the grey sidebars to the left and right are blank space which could be used for advertising, but I don’t currently do that. Within the scrollable panel, beneath the main heading, the wider left side is the series of posts, whilst the narrow right side has various “widgets” that add function to the blog – for example, the “follow”, “subscribe” and “search” facilities – more about these below.
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The post itself is text, pictures and/or video clips, which you can scroll through. I try to structure it with paragraph blocks and sub-headings to make it more readable, and to allow you to more easily scan through for a sub-topic of interest. Within the text, certain words or phrases may be underlined and in a different colour - if you hover your cursor over them it changes to a hand symbol – these are links to other places either within my blog or another source on the web. Just click to go there – you can use the back arrow on your browser to return to the blog post.

At the bottom of the post

are the labels (keywords) which I’ve tagged the topic with – click on any of these to show other posts in my blog which include the same label. The labels are followed by any comments left by other people (if it just shows a value, e.g. “3 comments” click on the word comments to see them) and a box where you are welcome to add your own comments & opinions and so take part in the discussions. Beneath the comments section there will either be the heading for the next post or, if you came into the blog via a specific article link, the words “newer post” (which is the next post in time sequence), “home” (which takes you to the top of the blog – i.e. the latest post) and “older post” (which is the previous post in time sequence) – just click on any of these words to take the indicated action.

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Just before the labels is a small envelope icon with an arrow pointing from it. If you found the post interesting and have a friend or contact who might be interested, you can notify them of it by email. Click on the envelope symbol to bring up a window to enter your friend(s) email address(es), together with any message you’d like to include, then hit the send email button. They will get your note and a link to take them directly to the blog post; they can read it and, if they like it, follow, subscribe or email to their friends.

The widgets ...

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As I said at the beginning, the right hand side has a series of action “widgets”. Starting from the top these are:

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Followers – if you like my blog and would like to automatically receive new posts, one way is to become a follower. Click on the follow button which is just above the symbols (avatars) of my current followers. If you’re not signed-in to a Google account, you’ll get a window asking you to sign in using an existing Google, Twitter or Yahoo account – if you haven’t got one, there’s an option to easily set one up – it’s free!

Once you’ve signed in, you’ll be asked whether you want to follow the blog publicly or privately, as explained on the screen. Click the button to select your choice, then click Follow this blog – my blog will be added to your reading list and show new posts as I publish them.

Subscribe to is an alternative way to automatically receive new posts and/or comments which is useful if you already receive other internet news feeds via an RSS facility such as Google Reader. Click the down arrow alongside posts or comments to show the list of subscription services and just click on the one you use.

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Search this blog allows you to search my entire blog archive for words or phrases of interest.

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My website gives you a direct link to my main website http://www.blooming-good-gardens.co.uk/ if you’re interested in finding out more about my garden design services.
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Blog archive shows the posts, by title, for the current month, and the number of posts for previous time periods. You can click any title to go to that post, or click the arrow alongside a previous time period to show the post titles for that period, or click the time period name (e.g. September) to go to the series of posts for that period.

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Twitter updates shows the most recent tweets from my Twitter timeline – click on any of the names to go to that person’s timeline, or the referenced web page link. If you’d like to follow my tweets just click on the words follow me on Twitter.
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About me lets you see a bit more information about me – for example any blogs which I’m following via Google Friend Connect – just click on view my complete profile.

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So there you have it – my tour’s complete – now why not follow or subscribe – costs you nothing!