Red State Green

The stats program for this blog is different from most, in that it doesn’t seem to let you know what people were searching for to find this place. But it does have the top most read (meaning you clicked on that link to read/comment/send the link to someone else) pages, which I find very interesting.

These are the top pages for 2008:

• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/(2158) — the main page, no surprise there.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/2007/07/13/a-matter-of-national-secu…(1024) — this little rant back last year still consistently gets top billing. It’s amazing to me.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen(696) — another variation on the main page.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/2007/07/24/feeding-yourself-think-ab…(497) — lots of people thinking about meat.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/about/(276) — and wanting to know who I am.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/2007/07/18/feeding-yourself-stocking…(270) — interested in stocking up, or at least what I think about it.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/2007/07/20/feeding-yourself-find-loc…(256) — and local food!
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/2008/02/12/grow-your-own/(233) — growing your own food.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/seed-swap-2008/(210) — lots wanted to swap seeds. I took this page down, as it needs revamping and I might not do this again in 2009. It just got to be too much for me.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/2007/07/23/feeding-yourself-learn-to…(200) — People were interested in cooking.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/2008/03/11/garden-plot-in-less-than-…(195) — and my quick ‘n’ dirty garden plot!
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/2007/07/16/feeding-yourself/(137) — This is the start of my ‘Feeding Yourself’ series. A year and a half later, still in the top 20: amazing.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/2007/09/07/the-worlds-biggest-pyrami…(129) — another rant, this time on Social Security.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/2007/07/17/feeding-yourself-learn-to…(127) — gardening 101 (and 102!)
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/2008/02/18/local-local-local/(116) — local again.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/2008/04/13/finished-the-plot/(112) — the update on my garden plot.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/2007/07/19/feeding-yourself-knowing-…(111) — another in the ‘Feeding Yourself’ series.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/for-further-reading/(107) — one of my pages. This is my favorite one; there’s some great stuff there.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/what-i-do/(101) — my least favorite page (it feels weird writing down the stuff I do in my daily life), but apparently a lot of people like it.
• http://thesietch.org/mysietch/redstategreen/category/self-sufficiency/(96) — Self-sufficiency! Ah, now this tells me something about what you might want to know. Not that I’m an expert on it or anything, but that is one of my goals.

The reason I’m looking at this is that I’d like to write a book. Well, more than one; the first one will be a sort of gardening-starting-from-nothing book, a “quick’n'dirty” way to get started for someone just coming into it not knowing anything. Because I think this is something a lot of people need, desperately, right now.

But sometimes I don’t know what’s really interesting to people. I did notice that there’s not anything from 2008 up on that list besides the posts on the garden plot and growing stuff. Which tells me that setting a garden up quickly is on a lot of people’s minds, which goes along with what I sense in the world.

It’s a good thing, though. Gardening, to me, is one of the more beautiful and rewarding ways you can spend your time, and if you get some good food from it, even better.

So tell me: what would you like to know about gardening? What would have helped you when you were first starting out?