First registered on October 19, 1997, SimpleGiftsFarm.com began as the Internet home of my nursery business. The nursery was named Simple Gifts Farm after the Shaker hymn Simple Gifts. The nursery itself was shut down in 1998 when I became a full-time writer. The site became the repository of many of my newspaper columns. […]
Dragon Naturally Speaking: A Practical Review
A few weeks ago, I added a Dragon to my working repertoire. Before you raise your eyebrow at me, let me be clear I’m talking about Dragon Naturally Speaking the voice software recognition system. This software allows me to dictate words to a text editor rather than type them using my hands. UPDATE: Oct 31/18 […]
There Is No Room For Fear
Some days being a writer can be downright terrifying. There are days I stare at an empty screen or page and wonder what on earth I was thinking about when I decided to become a writer. And in this fractious time, it is so tempting to walk away from a new idea because it may […]
My Last Day As A Full Time Garden Writer Was Yesterday
Well, that was an interesting weekend. There’s nothing like sitting over a glass of wine with fellow creatives to focus your attention on the important things in life. Nothing. So… As of today – Saturday, August 11/2018, I’m officially retiring as a full-time garden writer. What About The Premium Members? The Premium members at DougGreensGarden […]
Rebuilding A Website: Step One
Over the next few posts in this series, I’ll describe my plans for rebuilding a website (SimpleGiftsFarm.com) and I’ll report on the outcomes of what I’m doing. The website started as my nursery site back in the dark ages (1997) of the Internet. Over the years, it has morphed to reflect whatever I was doing […]
Just Because You Can Do Something, Doesn’t Mean You Should
Every morning I begin my day by writing notes to myself and trying to sort out my head towards the creative process. It’s like cleaning out the cobwebs and every morning, coffee pot in hand (most of you use mugs, I skip that step.) I spend time sorting out my world. The graphics below are […]
Adding Questions To A Gardening Website
Over the years, I have experimented with different question and answer systems on my various gardening websites. The one that is working the best is the premium site at DougGreensGarden.com. At that site, gardeners pay a small monthly subscription fee for full access to the over 1000 how-to articles as well as a question and […]
Why How-To Books Are An Endangered Species
I was browsing the Net in response to a query from a friend and ran across some of the goals for members of the Garden Writers Association. One of those goals was how to make money from their blogs and I suppressed a chuckle. In order to shorten their search, here’s what’s happening in the […]
Fart In A Windstorm Indeed
I had a reader email the other day to describe me as a “fart in a windstorm”. (free dictionary definition) or of no consequence. I thought about that for a second or three. Went through a range of emotions and then decided what she thought wasn’t my problem. My problems are my own. Check out this […]
You Can Download My Free To Do List Master Here
Over the years, I’ve tried different productivity or to-do list systems and have settled on this personalized version. I created the first version using Evernote and then have made changes in that master file as my needs and objectives changed. The Basic Sections I’ve settled on five different sections for my day and I describe them […]