Garden Bloggers Fling
I've attended the Fling every year since the third one in Buffalo.
It's a wonderful gathering of garden bloggers who spend three days looking at gardens carefully selected by the host committee, whereever the Fling is. I love going -- it's so much fun to be visiting gardens in the company of other gardening enthusiasts, whatever their particular interests are, or the style of the gardens that we visit. They run the gamut! I've been a regular garden blogger since 2007, so I'm naturally inclined to participate.
I was part of the host committee in Asheville, at one of the earlier Flings, I realize now. Ours was a simple fling, but enjoyable.
In big cities, they're a bit more complicated, often with far-flung bus travels to nearby communities. But the pattern is now standard: three days of touring gardens, with a day-before kick-off reception/event of some sort.
It works for me. I used to go to Botanical Garden meetings and Garden Writers, too, in my paid-work life, but the Fling is a LOT more fun than either!
Hey, there are no promoting membership sessions, raising money sessions, or expanding your education program sessions. Nor any talk about boosting your social media presence, developing your brand, etc. These are all good things, but I'm glad to shed them for the simple joy of visiting gardens with other garden bloggers.
This piece on Cultivating Place, a favorite podcast about gardening, features Pam Penick as one of the founders of the Fling, and Judy Seaborn, as a lead organizer of the next Fling in Denver. I enjoyed listening to it.
Here's a link to the podcast.
Perhaps you would, too. It exudes the joy of gardening and visiting gardens, as well as the fun of writing about gardens, too, on our blogs.
Nearby our house, someone had planted this lovely cluster of tulips in a sidewalk median. Perhaps I'd missed it in recent years; it was preceded by giant blue crocuses (you can see the fading flowers behind the tulips.)
It's a wonderful gathering of garden bloggers who spend three days looking at gardens carefully selected by the host committee, whereever the Fling is. I love going -- it's so much fun to be visiting gardens in the company of other gardening enthusiasts, whatever their particular interests are, or the style of the gardens that we visit. They run the gamut! I've been a regular garden blogger since 2007, so I'm naturally inclined to participate.
I was part of the host committee in Asheville, at one of the earlier Flings, I realize now. Ours was a simple fling, but enjoyable.
In big cities, they're a bit more complicated, often with far-flung bus travels to nearby communities. But the pattern is now standard: three days of touring gardens, with a day-before kick-off reception/event of some sort.
It works for me. I used to go to Botanical Garden meetings and Garden Writers, too, in my paid-work life, but the Fling is a LOT more fun than either!
Hey, there are no promoting membership sessions, raising money sessions, or expanding your education program sessions. Nor any talk about boosting your social media presence, developing your brand, etc. These are all good things, but I'm glad to shed them for the simple joy of visiting gardens with other garden bloggers.
This piece on Cultivating Place, a favorite podcast about gardening, features Pam Penick as one of the founders of the Fling, and Judy Seaborn, as a lead organizer of the next Fling in Denver. I enjoyed listening to it.
Here's a link to the podcast.
Perhaps you would, too. It exudes the joy of gardening and visiting gardens, as well as the fun of writing about gardens, too, on our blogs.
Nearby our house, someone had planted this lovely cluster of tulips in a sidewalk median. Perhaps I'd missed it in recent years; it was preceded by giant blue crocuses (you can see the fading flowers behind the tulips.)
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| tulips in a sidewalk median |
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