My wife and I recently planted a rose garden out in front of our house.  Yes, it is true, I am not the vampire that my wife has accused me of, as sometimes I do get out into the sunlight to do something other than blogging and working on the computer.  We built the flower bed using man made stones purchased at the local building supply store, and sooner or later we were able to make it all straight and level, and the box was done.  I can handle these types of projects.  I’m handy enough to run a power tool or such and not end up looking like “Three Fingers Willy.”  What I don’t have is a green thumb.  In fact, I am certain that given a chance I could kill most silk flowers or plastic plants.  Like many of the do-it-yourselfers I decided I would check out how to plant a rose garden from the Internet.  Afterall, I’m sure most surgeries could be learned from research on the Internet, not that I will be performing any organ transplants in the near future, but for home projects it is a great resource.

Off to Google I went with plenty of time and lots of questions.  My first search was a jackpot on “How to Plant Roses.”  Then I needed to search out what type of roses to plant, and finally I found a little site talking about “Extreme Rose Garden.”  That is the rose garden for me, so I decided to click through to see what this was and how I could get me one of them extreme rose gardens.  As it turns out, the site is on the DIY network website.

I’m sure by this time you are asking yourself, “Jim is there a point to this post?”  Yes, I was not geared up to teach about the proper planting of rose bushes, but I wanted to point to a great example of a company using blogs to their advantage.  The DIY Network has a place specifically used for their “Blogs.”  Joe Lamp’l the DIY gardening expert has a blog and his first entry is very inviting:

Welcome everyone! Finally, an opportunity to fill you in on all kinds of information that I don’t have the time or opportunity to share each week on Fresh From the Garden. It’s always encouraging to hear from you also. I’m so glad to know that so many have benefited from the information I’ve been able to provide on the show. Along the way, I hope I’ve played a role in making you a new or better gardener. So as I keep you in the know between shows, feel free to ask questions or share you comments too. I’ll check in and contribute as often as possible. I’m looking forward to this new way of connecting with you and hope you enjoy it as well. Check back soon and check back often!
JL

Let the conversation begin!  Many more variety shows would do well to keep an eye out for the DIY group as they continue to blog.  I’m wondering when the likes of the Food Network and others will sign on for this type of communication with their followers, audience and customers.

They just recently began the blogging project it appears, so there is not much of a long tail to search for the archives about planting my roses, but I bet since they allow comments and such, I could just ask right on the blog.  I’ll let you know how it turns out.

Sphere It