How To Nature

Category: social media

  • What I Googled This Week To Become A Better Gardener

    are my potatoes ready to harvest…and the takeaways I’ve gleaned from the internet.

    Can you eat pickling cucumbers? Yes.

    Conventional vs. organic fertilizer. I’m still confused. What is the difference?

    How do I know if my potatoes are ready to harvest? When flowers and stems are starting to die back. But I got this answer on Twitter from Longfield Gardens. Thank you again.

    Hip Hops beer plant. Saw a picture of this hops plant from the Cultivate show coverage. I didn’t find too much information about it online, but it’s from AgriStarts.

    Ron Finley Can You Dig This. RonFinley.com. Gangster gardener. Documentary is out. Limited screenings. Not available on Netflix yet.

    Green mold on tops of plants. Remove it and your plants will be ok?

    Part sun perennials. Astilbe is my favorite, I think. Monarda, hosta, heuchera, butterfly bush, coreopsis, yarrow, peonies (I think) are others.

    Harvesting basil. Prune at the stem, don’t pick off leaves. I love articles that have the sentence, “Turns out, I did everything wrong.” Been there. Thanks, Food Renegade.

  • Twitter Chats: 5 Basic Steps

    TwitterSo you’ve been invited to a Twitter chat. Ugh! Another social media thing to keep up with? What’s this all about? How do you participate? What should you expect?

    If you’ve never been in one, a Twitter chat can seem like a bunch of random and unrelated Tweets, but here’s how to decode it. A Twitter chat is a moderated online meetup — people logging onto Twitter at a designated time to discuss a topic. They’re a great way to discover people with the same interests.

    1. Go to Twitter at the scheduled time. You’ll need to have a Twitter account to participate.

    2. Find the chat. In the search bar, search for the hashtag for the chat. In this case, it’s #HowToNature. You’ll see all the messages that have already been posted using this hashtag. Once the chat starts, refresh your web browser to see new Tweets.

    3. Add the hashtag in every post during the chat. This is the only way other people in the chat will see your Tweets.

    4. Q1, A1. You can talk to anyone during the chat, but a moderator will usually ask questions to keep the conversation going. You can expect a Q1, Q2, Q3 format. For example:

    Q1 What’s your favorite flower? #HowToNature

    Responses are in an A1, A2 format. So your answer would be:

    A1 That’s a tough one. But orchids are great. #HowToNature

    It can help to follow the moderator’s Twitter account to make sure you see all the chat questions.

    5. Interact. If you include the hashtag, everyone else following the Twitter chat will see your tweets. Reply to what others say. Retweet and Favorite others’ tweets.

    You’ll find people who have the same thoughts as you and people who inspire you to think differently.

    If you enjoy your first Twitter chat, you might want to check out Twitter chats around your other interests and hobbies. And then you’ll think Twitter chats are the greatest thing ever and wonder why you’d waited so long to jump into one!