From The Old Farmer's Almanac.
I'm an unashamed fan of the Rant and all four ladies who passionately pull the gardening world to bits, spitting out the bones and dissecting the flesh for our consumption. Each of them are admirable in their own right yet there's one woman who should be christened the "Energizer Bunny of Blogging" - Susan Harris.
For those who have been reading GTNI for some time you will remember that Susan headed my post 14 Bloggers to watch, a list of some of the most amazing writers in the gardening blogosphere. After hitting the top of that list, one could be excused for accepting the accolades and stretching back in the Lazy-Boy but for Susan it was just another stepping stone on her journey, pushing the boundaries of achievement in the blogging arena.
Not only is Susan part of the famous four-some known affectionately as the Rant, she also blogs at Sustainable Gardening Blog (a companion weblog for her site Sustainable Gardening) plus joins another group of bloggers - including Ed Bruske - to write for the DC Urban Gardener News. This doesn't include the myriad of other blogs, magazines and journals she contributes to or the Garden Coach Directory and Regional Directory of Gardening Blogs she created in her spare time as well.
She is truly an icon in the gardening blogosphere and as a extra blessing for GTNI readers she agreed to have me interview her. Here are her responses;
What was your first big break into the garden writing arena?
That question's a hoot! But okay, now that I've stopped chuckling I will say that though I immediately loved blogging, the real fun started when Amy and Michele invited me to team up with them at GardenRant.
How has writing for blogs, both your own and others, affected your writing style and is the medium much different from traditional forms from a writer's perspective?
I think the honest answer is that blogging IS my writing style. Before I started what's now SustainableGardeningBlog three years ago I'd only written for a garden club newsletter, for pete's sake. No voice, no opinion, no fun. And blogging did lead to my column in a Maryland newspaper, which at first was very how-to but which has evolved to become more blog-like, interesting, and fun to read. And FAR more people stop me on the street or at parties to talk about the column than when it was standard print-media fare. So yes, I think blog-writing is different from most garden writing in print but not so different from opinion pieces in the traditional gardening media.
Is there a tension between your gardening hobby and professionally writing about gardens? Does it affect the way you spend time in your own garden?
Well, I've been gardening in one spot since 1985 and was frankly getting kinda tired of the old place but now I'm doing all sorts of new stuff with my garden - like removing all the lawn and trying vegetables - because it'll be fun to write about! Now I'm not just gardening for ME but for readers, and that's kinda cool.
You've intimated a few times that you would like to be financially-supported by your gardening efforts (ie. blogging, writing, coaching etc). Where do you think the most lucrative opportunities exist?
I think I could possibly support myself coaching if I were far, far better at the business end. Like doing follow-up e-mails to clients, or even offering a continuing support service for a modest fee - it might include unlimited email answers to questions, offers of free divisions from my garden, etc. I'm not at ALL on the ball as an entrepreneur.
Garden blogging seems far less promising as a source of income, so I don't even try. Garden writing in print pays pitifully, and I'd only do it if I had some reason to do it other than money. I'm reaching out to potential sponsors of my website, however, and am encouraged by the response. That's the approach I'm most comfortable with, by the way - partnering with companies I know and can whole-heartedly endorse.
If a blog owner or magazine editor rang you tomorrow requesting you to join their writing team, who would you wish was making the call?
Treehugger or Huffington Post, for sure, because I think there's a void there that I could help fill. And there must be some good general-interest sites I'd enjoy writing for that I don't know about or can't think of right now, sites like Slate, for example, which DOES have a garden writer, a good one. As for magazines, anything general interest. I see the kind of articles that Michele Owens (another GardenRanter) gets to write for Oprah's magazine (it's big in the U.S.) and would love a gig like that - maybe for a mag targeted to women of a certain age, like More.
Of your existing blogs, if one of them were to make you incredibly famous which one would you like it to be?
Stuart, maybe a gardening blog could make someone "incredibly famous" in Australia but not, I'm afraid, in the U.S. Hey, do you think you can get me a work visa in your part of the world? Maybe in Perth?
But in a pretend America where the population is actually interested in gardening, I think GardenRant could be a big hit. GardenRant TV? I do like the sound of that, though with us spread out across 3,000 miles, it ain't gonna happen.
Finally, which celebrity gardener, if any, would you most want to sit down and sip a chardonnay with?
See, there's that reference again to celebrity in the gardening world - extremely rare and limited in scope in my part of the world. But I confess I've been courting Paul James for years now and would LOVE to hang out with him for an afternoon in his garden, or have him visit me in mine. He's the "Gardener Guy" on Home and Garden Television station, an old rock-n-roller, cute as can be, and funny.
Hold it - I have to clarify "courting". I've been writing about him and hoping he'll Google his name someday, discover what I've written about him, and say hello. But judging from all the comments left on my blog posts about him from fans trying to contact him, there are lots of us trying to correspond with Paul and he isn't having any of it, from what I can tell.
