Have you ever taken part in a meme? Unless you’re brand-new to blogging, I’ll bet you have, even if you didn’t realize it. In the blog world, a meme is basically an idea that carries from person to person: one writes a post that addresses a particular topic or poses one or more questions, then others get inspired to write on the same theme or to answer the questions.
Memes with Themes
Weekly, monthly, and yearly activities offer plenty of opportunities for getting involved in the garden-blogging world.
Mish-Mash Monday. Monica at Garden Faerie’s Musings came up with this idea; just post a collection of random thoughts on your own blog each Monday. Her first post is here; other posts are here.
Bloomin’ Tuesday. Initiated by Jean at MsGreen”thumb” Jean, this weekly meme asks you to share pictures of whatever’s in bloom for you each Tuesday. Instructions are in the kick-off post (It’s Bloomin’ Tuesday!); to participate, visit MsGreen”thumb” Jean each Tuesday through the growing season.
Wordless Wednesday. The title says it all: choose and post an image only (no text). This meme isn’t specific to the garden-blogging world, but it’s a popular one here. If you want to participate in the “official” meme, visit the Wordless Wednesday site. (Despite the name of the meme, it runs every day of the week there.)
Wildflower Wednesday. Visit Gail at Clay and Limestone on the fourth Wednesday of every month to celebrate native wildflowers.
ABC Wednesday. This is a general blogosphere meme, but VP at Veg Plotting is one garden blogger who gives it a gardening twist. The main page is here; you can see Veep’s ABC posts here.
Fertilizer Friday. Started by Tootsie at Tootsie Time, this weekly meme asks you to post pictures of your garden successes and reminds you to fertilize your plants regularly, too. Instructions are here; to participate, visit Tootsie Time every Friday and leave a link to your post.
Blooming Friday. Post a photo of whatever’s in bloom for you on any Friday, either following the weekly theme or simply choosing whatever you like. This was started by Swedish blogger Katarina at Roses and Stuff. (Don’t worry, she includes English translations in her posts.) The very first post is here; to participate, visit Roses and Stuff each Friday.
Skywatch Friday. Sunrises, sunsets, full moons, rainbows, puffy clouds, and wicked lightning: if you enjoy skygazing and capturing interesting events with your camera, you’ll love Skywatch Friday. Find out all of the details here.
Green Thumb Sunday. Started by Tricia at As the Garden Grows; simply post a garden- or nature-related image following the guidelines given here.
Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. Undoubtedly the biggest meme in the garden-blogging world, this monthly event was started by Carol of May Dreams Gardens. Participants from all around the world post pictures of whatever looks good in their gardens on the 15th of every month, then leave a link at May Dreams on Carol’s GBBD post. Instructions are in the Inaugural Bloom Day post; Bloom Day posts are here.
Foliage Follow-Up. Pam of Digging started this leaf-focused meme to complement Bloom Day. Visit her blog on the 16th of each month to leave a link to your own foliage-related post.
Garden Bloggers’ Muse Day. GBMD was initiated by Carolyn at Sweet Home and Garden Chicago and inspired by Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. On the first of each month, participants post a garden-related poem or prose, then leave a link at Carolyn’s GBMD post. The kick-off post is here; you can find past posts here, here, and here.
GOOPs Day. Short for “Gardening Oops!”, GOOPs Day is a monthly event started by Joene of Joene’s Garden. On the first of each month, she confesses one of her gardening errors, then invites others to do the same. The original post is here. Visit Joene’s Garden on the first day of each month to see her topic and share your story or post a link to your own GOOPs.
GGW Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop. Another monthly event modeled after Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, the GBDW was started by Nan at Gardening Gone Wild. At or near the beginning of the month, she announces a topic related to garden design; participants post their thoughts and photos on their own blogs and then leave a link on the month’s kick-off post. Around the end of each month, Nan posts a summary of all of the links. The very first post is here; you can find all of the GBDW posts at GGW here.
Garden Bloggers Death Day. Started by Kate at Gardening without Skills, this monthly meme is the place to go to share your gardening failures and disappointments. Instructions are here; visit Gardening without Skills on the last day of each month to add a link to your post.
Garden Bloggers’ Book Club. Before Carol at May Dreams Gardens created Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day, she started the Garden Bloggers’ Book Club. Every other month, she chose a garden-related book (and sometimes a few alternates, too), then participants read the book and shared their thoughts. It’s been inactive for a while now, but maybe Carol would get it going again if asked nicely? You can find links to all May Dreams posts that are directly related to the GBBC on this page.
The Fall Color Project. Each autumn, Dave at The Home Garden runs this meme, in which he asks participants to post photos of the peak fall foliage color in their area and then leave a link at his blog. Dave then posts summaries of the links through the season. The 2009 FCP kick-off post is here; the follow-up posts are here.
The First Snowfall Project. Nancy at Soliloquy started this seasonal meme to track the arrival of winter. Post pictures of your first snow, then leave a link here. You can see the details and submitted links for the 2009 FSP here.
Garden Bloggers’ Hoe Down. In this one-time event, Carol of May Dreams Gardens asked participants to post pictures of their garden hoes. Read the invitation here and then see who attended the party here.
Worst Weed Wednesday. This one-time event hosted by Dave of The Home Garden gave garden bloggers an opportunity to vent about their most challenging weed problems. The rules were posted here; you can find links to the participants here.
Desert Island Plant Challenge. Shirl of Shirls Gardenwatch asked which three (non-food) plants you’d want with you if you were stranded on a desert island in this one-time event. You can find Shirl’s choices and links to other bloggers’ posts here.
Bloggers’ Celebration of National Parks. Pam of Digging collected links of posts about bloggers’ visits to national parks both inside and outside of the U.S. Visit the list here and take a tour of some national treasures!
Out on the Streets. Veep at Veg Plotting wrote about some of her favorite examples of public plantings in 2009, and it grew into the OOTS project, where she’s been collecting links to others’ posts on the topic. She’s gotten such a great response that she’s continuing the project in 2010. You can find the kick-off post here and all the OOTS-related posts here.
The Great Houseplant Census of 2010. MMD at Mr. McGregor’s Daughter started this meme; the post is here. Leave a link simply with the number of houseplants you share living space with, or join with others in doing a visual survey of your houseplant collection.
Personal Memes
Want to get to know your fellow bloggers better? Here are some memes that explore more personal stuff about us.
Garden Bloggers Geography Project. Jodi at Bloomingwriter asked participants to write a post about their hometown or region; the wrap-up posts are here: Part 1 and Part 2.
Where Are YOU Planted? Janie at An Obsessive/Compulsive Plant Collector posed the same question more recently; her posts and the responses to date are here.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? For this event, VP at Veg Plotting asked participants to write about 3 to 5 people they’d like to invite to a dinner party. The invitation is here.
Lame Gardening Meme. Started by James at Double Danger, this meme includes seven gardening-related questions.
A Meme of Gardening Books. Judy at BelleWood Gardens poses several questions about favorite gardening books here.
Garden Book Meme. Kathy at Cold Climate Gardening took an existing book-related meme and gave it a gardening angle; her post is here.
The Blog Meme. Ten questions about your blog-related thoughts and experiences. I couldn’t track down the origins of this one, but you can find the questions and Pam’s answers in this post at Digging.
Seven Things Meme. This is a generic blogosphere meme in which you tell seven random things about yourself and then tag seven other bloggers to do the same; I’m not sure where this one started. Carol at May Dreams Gardens did a post on this (Meme about Me), as did Lisa at Greenbow (Seven Things Meme), among others.
How Do You Take Your Coffee? That’s the question posed a while back by Stuart of Gardening Tips ‘n’ Ideas; the post is here.
Garden Blog Contests and Projects
At this time, there are a few repeating contests in the garden-blogging community.
GGW Picture This Photo Contest. Sponsored by Gardening Gone Wild, this contest has a theme that changes from month to month. Participants post one photo relating to that theme on their blog, then leave a link on the month’s kick-off post at GGW. At the end of the month, the judge (a professional from the garden photography or publishing world) chooses the winners. Some themes to date include Native Plants, Container Plantings, Roses, Flowering Trees, Down on Your Knees, Ornamental Grasses, Abundant Harvest, and End of the Line. You can find links to all of the Picture This posts at GGW here.
Earth Day/Sustainable Living Giveaway! Jan at Thanks for Today started The Garden Bloggers Sustainable Living Project to celebrate Earth Day. She’s asking other bloggers to write a post about the ways they’re contributing to a greener world and leave a link on her site. Entries received no later than 11:59 p.m. on April 15, 2010 will be entered in her Garden Product Give-Away.
Other contests run for just a short time. Most ask participants to leave a comment, and the winner is chosen randomly from the commentors. I’ve listed a few other kinds of contests below in case you’re looking for ideas on how to run one of your own. If you’ve started or read about a new contest, please leave a link in a comment below.
Why I Garden Essay Contest. Mary Ann of Gardens of the Wild Wild West asks participants to write a short essay (under 500 words) on the topic of “Why I Garden.” This contest closed on December 21, 2009. For details, see Why I Garden – A Contest.
Garden Bloggers’ Advent Calendar. Each day during the month of December, The Constant Gardener opens a door on her advent calendar to reveal a photo from another blog and asks you to guess the source. This contest runs through December 24, 2009. For details, see The 2009 Garden Bloggers Advent Calendar.
Short Fiction Contest. Garden Rant asked participants to submit 99 words or less in various categories. This contest is now closed. You can see the rules and entries here and the winners here.
Scavenger Hunt. Cameron of Defining Your Home came up with a clever idea to find a winner for her book giveaway; she came up with questions relating to previous posts on her blog and had readers submit their answers. This contest is now closed. You can see the wrap-up post at Scavenger Hunt Winner.
The Gardening by Letter Project. Anna at Flowergardengirl came up with the idea of garden bloggers exchanging handwritten letters or cards and small gifts by snail-mail. It’s closed now, but you can read about the details here.
