Bren, a freelance photographer based in the Midwest. Social media #gardenchat guru who is passionate about growing, maintaining, harvesting and preserving food from a 2400 sq/ft traditional vegetable garden. Bren has various gardens through out her country property that included shade/ woodland gardens and developing herbaceous borders in full sun.
Website: http://www.bggarden.com
Bren has written 358 articles so far, you can find them below.
I’m not sure which is more stunning : the larger bloom of the new Tropical Escape Hibiscus or …..
…. where they come from. This is a photo out in the fields where the Tropical Hibiscus grows on the Miami based farm at Costa Farms.
“Plants are no longer a luxury, but a necessity for our lives,” says Susan McCoy, trendspotter and outdoor living expert from Garden Media Group.
*these photos were taken during my January visit to Costa Farms in Miami for the TPIE12 event.
Suddenly I felt light headed and nausea after doing a HUGE upload on to my 5 year old Flickr account. Confusion and dismay filled my happy garden world as I clicked over to my photostream to find over 1,000 photos GONE - What??? I immediately started clicking around on the Flickr URL to see if a gallery was hidden in a new archive. I Googled ‘Vanishing Photos on Flickr’ to find only google posts from my circle of friends who were using the network but nothing indicating any issues. It’s been 3 days and 500 new photos later and I have yet to find what the issue may have been to cause over 1,000 photos on my free Flickr account to vanish.
My experience from this mystery mishap has inspired me to share with my network some basic tips and new features that I have found on the Flickr network. As I mentioned above I have found no articles about missing images on the Flickr site that references the issues I had this past week. From the research and experimenting on my own trying to recreate what may have happen I would like to share some uploading tips.
One of my sets to disappear was my #fallfest11 image collection. I had slideshows and links leading to all these images on the web. This collection had over 4,000 views from October 2011 event at GreensGrow Farm in the Philly area. Thankfully, I had a back up of these images and was able to upload them to the site again. However, the broken links on additional websites and twitter shares I can not fix.
#1 thing to remember is to ALWAYS backup your photos. DO NOT rely on photo sharing sites to be your library. The only thing that saved me from what could have been a disaster is that I have a DVD copy of my images as well as an external hard drive filled with all images.
Uploading to Sets on Flickr.com
I’m crazy about trying to keep organized especially when it comes to my images. I like to create sets on the Flickr site to keep different gardens I’ve visited or events all in one collection. Flickr allows you many options to stay organized but today I’m going to share the ‘set’ organizing option.
To create a set you will go to your photo stream. You will find a link to that at the top of your Flickr homepage once you are signed in to your account. Once you are on your page click on the Organize & Create link at the top. Once you are in your organize & create page you will see an option for Sets. If you click on that tab it will give you many options so be sure to pick ‘create a set’. You will have to pick at least 1 image from the photo scroll bar at the bottom of the page to place in this set before you can complete this process.
Above is what my Organize & Create Flickr page. I found that if I create a set in using this option and then upload my photos on the URL main page images did not disappear.
Uploading Images
Once I’ve created a set in the Organize & Create page I can return to my photostream and upload images placing them in the set with tags and descriptions with ease.
Iphone Flickr App
Another option of sharing that is new with Flickr is the Free iPhone App. You can download this at the itunes store at this link: App Store / Flickr . This newly updated app allows you to upload multiple images at one time and has an improved video upload option. I have not used the video options yet but I love the new multiply image upload option allowing me to share all those fun photos I’ve captured with my iphone.
I’m all about sharing images during the day and ending my day with a few shares on my #instagram account. With the new features on Flickr mobile I may just have to have a night cap with them as well.
I hope these quick tips help you have an enjoyable experience sharing images using the Flickr network. I’ll keep you posted if I have any additional missing sets but for now these are the options that are keeping me sharing and connecting on the largest photo sharing network on the web.
Last week I had the privilege of spending the day in Miami, Florida at the Costa Farms amazing trial garden. This year they have expanded to 2 acres of stunning blooms that will be coming to a garden center near you in 2012. In the slide show below I share some of my favorite captures from my visit.
Slide Show from my Picasa Collection. If you can’t View Click Here.
This Collection is one of my favorites: It is part of the Long Life Annuals Collection. Watch for them in your garden center 2012. I’ve got dibs on the Lantana and zinnia combos!
It’s hard to believe it is time to start gathering the seeds we will be sowing for our garden 2012. The weather in our Ohio garden has been crazy and the ground has yet to freeze completely allowing me to turn the soil in the raised beds where I add my rabbit compost. I can’t help but think our spring will be delayed so winter can run its course. This unseasonable weather only adds to my excitement to start thinking seeds for my spring / summer garden.
The webpage is up for #supersowsunday which will take place on February 5th this year. I can’t wait to share all the seed giveaways as well as growing tips from friends who use social media.
Check out the latest on the official Super Sow Sunday page as well as follow @TheGardenChat for the latest information concerning this event. I hope you will join in the fun and be sure to comment on this blog if you have any questions.
This is the Ball : Durango Flame French Marigold
I think my favorite Fertilize Friday / Flaunt Your Blooms shares that I participate in on my garden friend Glenda’s site take place in the winter. In the summer it is hard to decide which bloom I’ll pick from the garden to talk about. In the winter when the garden is covered with snow it is fun to think Fertilize Friday and share the first blooms that come to mind from summer past.
Gaillardia ‘Mesa Yellow’ F1 : 2010 AAS Flower Award Winner
This Gaillardia was a AAS Award Winning Seed in 2010 and a winner in my garden and greenhouse in 2011. I grew this bloom featured in the image above from seed. You can imaging my excitement to see this beauty in many of the gardens I visited this past summer.
Gamolepis chrysanthemoides / African Bush Daisy, Daisy Bush, Paris Daisy
This African Bush Daisy dances with the shrubs in my new landscape around the greenhouse. I’m hoping the six plants I moved into the greenhouse make it so they can do the garden dance in 2012. This beauty is from Costa Farms.
This is my Friday Flaunt for Friday 13. Friday was ‘bad luck’ because I was too busy to post and this is going live on early Monday. I hope you will take the time to visit my dear friend Glenda and her amazing growing year-round , interior and garden shares.
While much of the country has white mulch covering their gardens, Janet Endsley and her crew work hard moving the soil indoors to inspire the Northwest with A Floral Symphony. The Northwest Flower and Garden Show is a five day spectacular event filled with one of a kind garden art, music and of course garden displays designed by award winning artist.
I had the privileged of speaking with Janet the other day on the phone and I”m thrilled to share our conversation about the show via a podcast attached to this blog post. In this presentation you will get a better understanding of what it takes to put together an amazing show like this Seattle event as well as find out some fun gardening facts about Janet.
One click over to The Northwest Flower and Garden Show website and you will quickly see that talented writer Janet truly loves her job. The website is a ‘cyber flower event’ itself, filled with show facts as well as valuable gardening information.
Click Image Above To Visit NWFGS Site
Mark your calendar for Monday, January 16 for when Janet Endsley @NWFGS will be our guest host on #gardenchat . She will be sharing current show information as well answering any questions you may have about this garden show. Even if you can’t make it all the way to Seattle for this event in February it is inspiring to follow along using social media. The designs, speakers, market place and other garden related events being shared Feb. 8-12 from the show will get you in the garden.
