Garden Fancy: A Year Old Today!

Garden Fancy is one year old today!
(Bev Sykes)

Yay! I'm celebrating my garden blog's first birthday today, having written my first post on November 24, 2013. (It was a pretty lame post: "Hello, this is my inaugural post at Garden Fancy. I know no one will read this for quite some time, but I have to start somewhere," and wrote a few words about what I hoped to cover in this blog, which I hoped would be of interest to a few readers.)

Since then, I have written 79 blog posts including this one, an average of one about every four and a half days. I had hoped to post about twice a week so I didn't quite make that, but it's still a respectable effort, I think.

And a few people have started to read my blog fairly regularly; I now have 18 followers, 11 Feedburner email subscribers and 11 Google+ followers -- every one of which I'm so happy and honored that they actually are interested in reading about my gardens and my thoughts about gardening. Thanks so much for continuing to read!

And I have made a number of online garden blogging friends over the past year as well: I was able to visit Larry's magnificent gardens in Wisconsin this past July, after following his posts at Conrad Art Glass and Gardens; Beth at Beyond the Garden Gate, Pam at Pam's English Cottage Garden, Janneke at The Flowering Country Life, Kimberley at Cosmos and Cleome and Linda at A Rich Tapestry have all been steadfast readers, leaving many kind comments; Casa Mariposa generously featured a prominent link to my blog on her own well-read blog. I greatly look forward to reading what's going on in these bloggers' gardens each week, and feel that I have come to know them through their writing and photos -- what a wonderful thing garden blogging is; that I can visit such lovely gardens and chat with the gardeners, all around the world while living in rural Iowa!

My own blog has improved over the past year, and while many of my posts were probably not the most exciting thing to read, there were a few that were more interesting to readers. A list of the most-visited posts is found on the right sidebar, which you might find of interest if you haven't seen them already (most of them being older posts). And these are a few of my own favorite posts:

10 Reasons why Iowa is
a great place to garden

The Most Beautiful Time of Year

Tulip Time!

Are Gardens Art?

Garden Visit: MOBOT Spring 2014

Amish Flower Auction

Anyway, I want to thank everyone who has so kindly read my posts over the past year. I hope I'll be able to continue to improve my blogging skills during the second year of Garden Fancy, and I look forward to reading your own blogs and keeping up with what is happening in your gardens next year.

I might not post as frequently during the upcoming busy holiday season and during the winter months when absolutely nothing is happening in my gardens, but I will post occasionally with recaps of this year's garden improvements, my plans for next year, updates on Master Gardener activities that I participate in, and my continuing research for my planned book about Iowa garden history, which is my big project for this winter. And when spring arrives, I will again be eager to share many photos and progress reports about my gardens as they awake from their winter slumber and flower in the moments of glory that keep me out there digging in the dirt.

Many thanks again for reading! I hope your holidays will be enjoyable and safe, and that spring will come quickly everywhere. Best wishes!  -Beth