What Have Blogging And Gardening Got In Common?

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Here in the UK, we’re just passing the longest day of the year already, and it seems like only a few weeks since the winter passed and spring arrived.

One of the best parts of the warmer weather is that you can get out in the garden and see to all of the jobs that you wouldn’t do in winter, like planting up pots and baskets, clearing the flowerbeds and mowing the lawn.

I was out in the garden the other day having a tidy up, and it struck me just how similar gardening and blogging actually are.

Run with me on this one – I will manage to persuade you that these two seemingly incompatible activities are actually much more close in characteristics than an initial glance may suggest!

A little investment goes a long way

When we undertake a good stint of gardening, one of the best things about the task is that we get immediate, visible results from just a little investment of our time. We can look out of the window and see a vast space which needs clearing out, building up, and populating with plants and shrubs before it can be everything we want from an outdoors space.

Blogging is exactly the same – when we start out, the prospect of developing a site and filling it with content can seem daunting, but, like with gardening, a few good hours of work can reap massive visible dividends in a short space of time.

They both need regular maintenance

Anyone who gardens regularly knows that it is a never-ending task. Even with the best infrastructure in place, we still need to head outside for a few hours a week to tidy up. Plants need to be pruned back, sweeping needs doing, and we need to pull up weeds and keep things clear.

Our blogs are the same – unless we pop in for a small amount of time each week we’ll end up with an overgrown space which quickly becomes unmanageable. By clearing spam, responding to comments quickly and making sure we have the best software and good content, our blogs will continue to serve us well long in to the future.

You can outsource

There are two aspects to gardening – the heavy landscaping tasks, and the smaller more manageable activities such as pruning and cutting back. Gardening and blogging both share a similar benefit – if we are faced with something too complex or technical which is difficult to achieve, we can call on an expert to do it on our behalf.

With blogs, we can maintain them to a great standard with articles, but when it comes to the more technical aspects such as graphic design, site builds or upgrades, it makes sense to outsource to people who can do things a little quicker and more effectively than we can ourselves.

From little acorns, big oak trees grow…

Planting a seed, a small shrub or a bulb may seem like a very insignificant thing, but a few months or years later our garden will be a mature, well-populated and majestic place.

Our blog is the same – plant the seeds for great customer service, online brand reinforcement and product sales now, and your blog will flourish and grow over time.

Neglect them, and they wither up and die

Sadly, people often neglect their gardens even if they put time and energy in to them at the beginning. Blogs and gardens both need a lot of ongoing love and support to flourish and thrive. Both pastimes are sometimes labour intensive, but without this regular maintenance and attention, we’ll lose both our beautiful garden, and our fabulous blog.

Did I convince you?

Please share your views in the comments below.

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31 Responses to What Have Blogging And Gardening Got In Common?

  1. Charlotte June 30, 2011 at 7:49 am #

    Nice analogy Andrew. You’re especialyy right about a neglected blog withering and dying. It’s just a shame summer is so short in the UK!

    • Andrew June 30, 2011 at 1:37 pm #

      Charlotte

      Yes…I wish the summer were longer!

      Andrew

  2. Delena Silverfox June 30, 2011 at 8:50 am #

    The best gardeners have been known to say, “The best time to pant a tree is fifty years ago. The next best time is today.” Even the smallest progress is a good step in the right direction in a garden. But also, the smallest neglect can grow exponentially until the whole garden dies.

    Acting today, building and planting today, and those seeds will grow.

    Delena

    • Andrew June 30, 2011 at 1:38 pm #

      Delena

      Exactly…totally agree.

      Andrew

  3. Diane June 30, 2011 at 6:47 pm #

    I never thought about connecting gardening with blogging. You’re right! I guess gardening can also relate to life. We plant the seed in our kids and we need to care for them so they can grow healthy and strong. Planting the seed in our blogs and taking the same care to make it grow. Nice topic.

    • Andrew July 5, 2011 at 11:21 am #

      Diane

      …and I like you link to our kids.

      I’m sure there are many more links we could find.

      Andrew

  4. danika June 30, 2011 at 7:43 pm #

    Would I get away with saying:

    They are also both quite nerdy hobbies!

    • Andrew July 5, 2011 at 11:21 am #

      danika

      I wouldn’t say gardening is a nerdy hobby.

      Andrew

  5. Corinne Edwards June 30, 2011 at 8:30 pm #

    Dear Andrew –

    You are lucky being in the UK where it does not get as hot as Chicago.

    I have a small garden but it has to be watched like a hawk.

    It was 68 degrees F yesterday and tomorrow it is supposed to be over 100 degrees. For two days.

    WATER – WATER – WATER –

    is like watching your comments like a hawk also.

    Not only to answer them promptly but for SPAM.

    They sneak in – like overwhelming heat – and can destroy your blog.

    Many of them look legitimate at first glance. But when they are not referring to what you have posted and only complimenting you…..

    That can kill your precious blog garden as they pile up.

    • Andrew July 5, 2011 at 11:24 am #

      Corinne,

      I would prefer more sun than what we get here in the UK.

      The last few days have been great though…nice and warm.

      Yes…spam! It can destroy your blog. We all get it and can only do so much to reduce it.

      Andrew

  6. Jane July 1, 2011 at 6:48 am #

    From little to big is always about gardening and blogging. And both of them need lot of your work and time in the beginning, you can then loose off a little bit more.

    • Andrew July 5, 2011 at 11:26 am #

      Jane,

      I think with blogging…if its your business…it will depend upon how much you want it to grow…before you ‘loose off’ a little.

      Andrew

  7. Gary Ashton July 1, 2011 at 5:03 pm #

    Perfect example! A gardener and a blogger does the same thing but differently. Just as a garden needs to be nurtured, a blogger too has to nurture the blog and often pull out the weeds away. Also, just as every season blooms special flowers, every now and then blogs also updates us with the latest topics. Good comparison, Andrew.

    • Andrew July 5, 2011 at 11:26 am #

      Gary

      Good thought…a new type of rose… a new plugin!

      A new type of weed…another way to send out spam emails!

      Andrew

  8. Ana July 1, 2011 at 8:23 pm #

    This is a great analogy and some great comments too. It is amazing how these life lessons come about just when we need it most.

    • Andrew July 5, 2011 at 11:27 am #

      Ana,

      True! I’m sure we could connect blogging to many of our normal activities…shopping?

      Andrew

  9. Gail Gardner July 2, 2011 at 1:39 am #

    I’ve used this analogy myself and they are very similar. Social media is too. I tell people to just keep planting seeds and not expect them to produce overnight, but over time you’ll reap a bountiful harvest.

    • Andrew July 5, 2011 at 11:28 am #

      Gail,

      Very true. Problem is people are far too impatient…for the acorn to be a huge tree.

      Andrew

  10. Glenn July 2, 2011 at 4:25 am #

    Hi Andrew.

    Before I started as a blogger, I used to do some gardening. My fruit trees needed a little maintenance but as you have said it has a lot of pay-off. Gardening and blogging have a lot of similarities but gardening is a lot more relaxing.

    • Andrew July 5, 2011 at 11:29 am #

      Glenn,

      Weird but I find running my on-line business more relaxing. I find gardening a chore!

      Andrew

  11. Matt July 2, 2011 at 3:03 pm #

    Gardening is a good analogy. I also like the idea that blogging is a bit like making wine, since blogs do tend to get a lot better with age! (And that’s not just in the sense that the blogger knows more and more and therefore writes better posts. It’s also because Google seems to give you some credence just for having stuck around for a while.)

    • Andrew July 5, 2011 at 11:30 am #

      Matt,

      Unless you are making Beaujolais!

      Andrew

  12. raverture July 3, 2011 at 10:02 am #

    I agree with you Andrew. Why I never thought about that blogging and gardening have something in common. And in order for us to have a good garden, we need to watch over it every day to make sure that there are no insects or weeds that will ruin our plants. Same with blogging, to make sure that we can post of an ideal article, we made sure that it has an excellent quality and worth of the reader’s time. Thanks Andrew.;)

    • Andrew July 5, 2011 at 11:31 am #

      raverture

      And we want our visitors to admire our hard work…whether it’s gardening or our blog!

      Andrew

  13. sanji July 3, 2011 at 11:20 am #

    You are absolutely right! especially the SEO part which requires a lot of work. I usually spend three days to SEO my articles and the rest is blogging.

    • Andrew July 5, 2011 at 11:32 am #

      sanji

      3 days! What for each article?

      What do you do?

      Andrew

  14. jibran July 6, 2011 at 6:38 pm #

    that is really cool post
    but i am worried that my gardern is not growing as i expected 🙁 even though i am caring my blog but it is not growing

    • Andrew July 7, 2011 at 2:58 pm #

      jibran

      Perhaps what you are doing to your blog is not the right things!

      Andrew

  15. Andrew July 10, 2011 at 4:30 pm #

    You definitely convinced me, you have to think about your blog like a garden. You have to keep it clean, keep it growing and make it look great 🙂

  16. Andrew July 10, 2011 at 4:33 pm #

    This movie is one of the top 3 movies I rate the highest in the cinematography. I also like Inception and Lord of The Rings 🙂 I know, I am geek 🙂

  17. Sara November 8, 2011 at 9:01 pm #

    Never thought about outsourcing blogging. I guess that is what guest blogging is all about.

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