Garden Tweets
4/01/2008
Colleen at In The Garden Online recently put up a quick post asking if anyone was on Twitter. For those of you who don't know, Twitter is a micro blog where you post short little updates of what your doing or working on. Lots of people also use Twitter as a form of instant messaging. Unfortunately because of this, they have blocked it's use from within the office of my 9-5. But it's a good thing that I have an iPhone. Yes, the man won't be keeping me from my Tweets.
I've added a badge over there on the right that displays my last few Tweets.
Now thanks to Colleen there's an explosion of Garden Bloggers on Twitter. Nice work. I was getting lonely on there by myself.
Posted by Anthony 7:20 AM 4 comments
Blogger Custom Domain
2/06/2008
Welcome to TheCompostBin.com
With very little fanfare, I'd like to announce that I have finally moved this blog to it's own domain. I've been meaning to do it for a long time now but since this is really a hobby blog and not a money maker there really was no big rush. It's just a blog where I talk about compost and gardening and Blogger was just fine for that.
But today, when I was sitting in the dentist's chair getting a root canal, I decided to go for it. I took the whole day off from my 9-5 and the kids were at school and despite dribbling water from my numb mouth all over my keyboard, it went pretty smoothly.
Since I'm using the Custom Domain option for Blogger blogs, Google is automatically redirecting all of my incoming blogspot traffic to the new domain. I didn't have to spend any time setting up 301 redirects or worrying about lost traffic.
The decision really was a no brainer. $10 for the domain, no money spent on hosting, no learning curve for setting up WordPress Blog and really no downsides. Click a few buttons, change a few settings and I'm in business.
Special thanks to Amanda at Blogger Buster for great instructions on How to set up a Blogger Custom Domain with GoDaddy.
Posted by Anthony 6:59 PM 5 comments
Labels: blog
Kitchen Adventures
6/13/2007
Based on some of the comments from yesterday's broccoli rabe post, I'm guessing that not everyone is familiar with this vegetable.
So if you want to read a little more about broccoli rabe or if you're curious about how I cooked it, then be sure to check out my food blog.
Posted by Anthony 12:08 AM 0 comments
Labels: blog
Vegetable Gardening Website
6/11/2007
Marc from GardenDesk has come up with a great idea for a new website. It's sort of the Google News of Vegetable Gardening.
In his own words, this is why he created VeggieGardenInfo.com
Generally in the overall gardening blogosphere, it seems that posts about vegetables are in the minority. It is sometimes hard for me to find them amongst all of the flower entries.
So if you're interested in vegetable gardening or blog about it, then be sure it check it out. Good luck Marc.
Posted by Anthony 6:50 AM 1 comments
Labels: blog, vegetable garden
Mouse And Trowel Awards
3/25/2007
The Bloggies come and go every year and all I have to say is where are the garden blogs? Yes, I know that gardening is a small niche compared to topics like Tech or Entertainment but being completely shut out of the bloggies isn't fair.
Well Colleen at In The Garden Online obviously feels the same way because she is now holding the first ever Mouse And Trowel Awards.
Sorry Boing Boing and Gizmodo but you need to be a Garden Blog to qualify for the Mouse and Trowel Awards.
You can get the details of how to nominate your favorite Garden Blogs in many different categories at the Mouse And Trowel site. Hey Colleen, why not a Best Pictures of Compost category for next year. :)
Posted by Anthony 9:31 AM 1 comments
Custom Domain Possibilities
2/19/2007
I'm thinking about switching to the custom domain setup option for Blogger. That would let me use a real non-blogspot domain but it would still hosted for free by Blogger. All I'd have to do is buy a domain from someone like GoDaddy.com.
Moving to a real domain on a different host would be like starting over again. I'd lose all my backlinks and search engine traffic. But this Blogger Custom Domain automatically redirects your traffic from your blogspot site to your new site.
But the big question is, and I'd appreciated some help in the comments, what would the new site be called? CompostBin.com is taken as is TheCompostBin.com. I guess my only requirement in a new name would be that it has something to do with compost. Any ideas?
Posted by Anthony 10:07 PM 23 comments
Labels: blog
Seedy Blogs
1/07/2007
I've really enjoyed answering the seed questions posted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Even more fun was seeing how many other people answered too. With a blog search of May Dreams Gardens I was able to find some great blogs out there that I would have never come across. Here are some of my new favorites.
I was impressed by Tracy of Outside and her computer aided seed starting setup. :)
Kim of A Study in Contrasts has gotten me curious about something called Winter sowing. She goes into more detail on the topic here - Winter Soltice Winter Sowing
Annie is austin from The Transplantable Rose not only answered the seedy questions but also told an interesting tale of her history with seeds.
Colleen from In The Garden Online is a fellow basement gardener. I look forward to comparing our lighting in future posts.
OldRoses at A Gardening Year had an off year and only planted "68 different kinds of flowers and herbs last year." Seed companies must love her.
Posted by Anthony 10:34 AM 4 comments
Something Different
7/06/2006
Being a garden blogger is definitely a lot of fun. Where else can I use my love of gardening and my computer knowledge to reach out and connect with other like minded people. The only way this hobby would be even more fun is if someone paid me to do it. :)
Sure I have Ads and affiliate links on my blog but they only amount to a few cups of coffee every month. I'm thankful for it but I'm still trying to up the ante and maybe get a monthly cheeseburger out of my blogging.
Squidoo may be my cheeseburger. For those of you who've never heard of Squidoo, here's how they describe themselves:
A LITTLE ABOUT SQUIDOO:
We have built a new online platform and community that makes it easy for anyone to build a single page--called a lens--on a topic, idea, product or cause he is passionate about. These lenses in turn help finders get unique, human perspectives instead of computer-selected and often irrelevant search results. Not only can Lensmasters spread their ideas, get recognized for their knowledge, and send more traffic to their Web sites and blogs—they could also earn royalties.
Here is a Squidoo Lens that I've just created about Compost.
Hey if you're like me and enjoy blogging and want to try something new, why not start your own Squidoo Lens?
Posted by Anthony 12:48 PM 0 comments
Labels: blog
Subscribe To The CompostBin Feed
8/10/2005
Do you want to stay up to date with all the latest posts from CompostBin? You can do that now with a technology called RSS. RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication" and it's a great timesaver.
How many times have you come to my site only to see that I haven't posted in a while. It's sort of like waiting for water to boil. Not the most fun thing in the world. But if you use a Feed Reader and subscribe to my RSS Feed, whenever I update you'll see a new link. Feed Readers make reading blogs almost like reading your email.
How do I set it up?
Step 1 - Choose an RSS reader (see list below).
Step 2 - Subscribe to the feeds by copy and pasting this link into your reader's "add feed" or "subscribe" form:
CompostBin Feed:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/CompostBin/
Step 3 - Enjoy
If you already know what to do, you can also click one of these buttons to subscribe to my feed:
XML
R|Mail
Free Web-Based Feed Readers:
Google Reader
http://reader.google.com
FeedBurner
http://www.feedburner.com
MyYahoo!
http://my.yahoo.com/s/rss-faq.html
Bloglines
http://www.bloglines.com
Posted by Anthony 9:16 AM
Labels: blog
Compost Bin Blog Goes Live
8/09/2005
Welcome to the Compost Bin Blog! Hi, my name is Anthony and I’m a compost addict. As far as addictions go, this one is actually pretty useful. Every year my vegetable garden does great, my trees and shrubs are healthy and strong, I don’t have to worry about the kids playing in the yard because I don’t use any herbicides or pesticides and I’m also reducing the amount of waste that’s being sent to the landfill.
I started composting shortly after I started gardening. Hauling bags and bags of top soil and composted manure from big box stores every weekend wasn’t my idea of a fun hobby so I looked into composting for my organic soil needs. Turns out it was a good move. Now all my yard waste and kitchen waste goes into my compost bins. And the compost that I make is used to keep my plants looking great.
They say that when you start blogging you should pick a topic that you enjoy. Compost was that topic for me and I haven’t looked back.
So if you want to read about one man’s take on composting and gardening, feel free to stop by and see what I’m up to. And let me add that I'm far from being a Compost Expert and I'm always looking for new things to try. If you have any compost or gardening ideas or tips be sure to send them to me at CompostMan [at] gmail [dot] com.
Here’s some of my favorite posts to get you started.
What's Decomposing - 2006
Turkey Visitor
Six Garden Lies
Protecting Berries
And of course my favorite category is Compost Pictures because who doesn't love pictures of compost?
Posted by Anthony 11:49 AM 6 comments
Labels: blog
