Digging is 18 years old, and other news
Last week I celebrated two milestones. Digging turned 18 years old on Valentine’s Day, which means the blog is a full-fledged adult now. Still can’t drink though.
I’m amazed by how long blogging has continued to interest me, even as so many other blogs that started around the same time — in February 2006 — petered out or morphed into Instagram. Is anyone still reading? I like to think so.
Hello to you! And thank you.
The day after Valentine’s Day, I celebrated an even bigger milestone: I turned in the manuscript and photographs for my next book! It was the culmination of a 13-month, nonstop project that took me back-and-forth across the state of Texas, to the tune of 6,742 miles driven by me, 27 garden shoots (each one taking a day, working with a professional photographer), a bazillion photos sifted through to choose the best ones, and hours and hours of interviews with gardeners, garden owners, and designers, translating to 27 uniquely Texan garden stories.
I can’t wait for you to see the finished book, coming in 2025. That’s right, a year away. Books are a slow-motion process. But I promise it will be worth the wait! I don’t have an official title yet, but I’ll share it as soon as I do.
So that’s my news, and it’s why things have been a bit quiet on the blog this month. Pictured here is a garden in the Tarrytown neighborhood of Austin that I spotted one day in January. That colorfully painted palmetto trunk, decked out with hearts for Valentine’s Day, had me yanking the car to the curb to get a photo. How charming, both the palmetto and the house!
Yesterday I emerged from my own house like a blinking mole and celebrated my freedom from the keyboard with a shopping trip at Barton Springs Nursery with a friend. I might not have thought to pop into the tropical house, but my friend did, and that’s where I spotted this planted-up settee.
There’s a matching coffee table, naturally, complete with brick-sized remote control for an imaginary TV. Fun! I came home with a trunkful of plants, which was also fun. Today I’ll be out in the garden, getting them all planted in anticipation of spring, which is almost here.
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Digging Deeper
March 16: Attend the third annual Budding Out Plant Sale & Festival on 3/16 at the John Fairey Garden in Hempstead. Rare and distinctive plants from the garden’s nursery and from select plant vendors will be for sale. Additional offerings include art, ceramics, jewelry, food, music, and presentations. Admission: $5 for members, $10 for non-members, children under 12 free. Hours: 10 am to 4 pm; members get early admission at 9 am (memberships available on day of event).
April 6: Come out to Austin’s Mayfield Park on 4/6 for the Mayfield Park Gardening Symposium & Fundraiser, 8:30 to 11 am. This annual benefit for the park includes a raffle, plant sale, and garden speakers.
Come learn about gardening and design at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, authors, and gardeners a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. Season 8 kicks off in fall 2024. Stay tuned for more info!
All material © 2024 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
That colorful palm is awesome! congrats on the new books! And I’m glad you are still blogging after all of these years. I’ve been an on/off reader over the years and back ‘On’ now! Trying to get away from so much social media and blogs are where its at.
I’m glad you think blogs still have it, Misti! And thanks so much for reading mine. You’re right — reading a blog is a good way to escape the constant ads and negativity on so many other social media these days.
Amen to your reply, Pam! My sister in Bastrop turned me on to your blog years ago. We both still follow you. Keep up your good blog and congrats on your new book.
Thanks for reading, Nan! 🙂
18! That’s a huge accomplishment. Congratulations!
I can’t wait for the book to come out. A year is a long time, but I’m sure it’s worth the wait.
Gerhard, I am so ready for it to be out RIGHT NOW. It’s hard to wait another year for publication, after working hard on it for an entire year. But I just keep telling myself the editing and layout process will result in a beautiful book and will be worth it. Thanks for sharing my enthusiasm!
Welcome back to the light!!! Congratulations on both the book and the blog, and thanks for both – those of us who remain stubbornly in the slow lane of life appreciate the amplified version of your observations and commentaries, which, it need not be said, are oh-so-perceptive…wait-I said it anyway! 😉
Anyway, will be thinking of you as I dig/putter/curse deer in my own garden on this gorgeous day: ENJOY!!!!!
Linda, the light feels good after many months behind the computer. Thanks for the good wishes AND your generous participation in my book. Your chapter is one of my favorites. 🙂
Congratulations, Pam, on both your achievements this month! You make me tired just thinking about all the travel, organization, thought, and effort that goes into all that you do to produce such an outstanding blog, host GardenSparks, tend to your own gardens, and produce books to boot. Maybe you could market some of your tips on productivity and organization–because it seems like you do it all in a whirlwind of activity! But I enjoy being able to travel along as you tour gardens all over the state and in foreign lands. Keep on blogging!
Aw, thank you, Beverly! I’m a little tired right now, but I’m happy my big deadline was before spring and not in the middle of it. I’m going to fully enjoy this beautiful season.
Congratulations on all counts, Pam! Although I now post on Instagram, I still vastly prefer blogging and mourn each and every blog that drops out. Blogging admittedly takes more time and greater focus but I’d argue that blog posts have a longer and more meaningful lifetime. May your blog posts continue for another 18 years!
I look forward to your new book. Thanks for sharing that plant-y settee and coffee table – I love it!
Thanks, Kris! I’m glad to have met you through blogging, and I enjoy all your Instagram posts, even though I’m not a very good commenter.
Congratulations on 18 years of blogging! Yes, I’m still reading and still preferring the format of blogs. Congrats on completion of your book (at least the manuscript part).
Thank you so much, Nikki!
Congratulation on being done with major milestones of your book! I can’t wait to read it!
Thanks, Noelle! Any new books in your future? I so enjoyed your first one! I’m glad to have met you through blogging. 🙂
Congrats! You keep posting, we’ll keep reading! Thanks for all the great content.
Deal! Thanks, Tim!
Congratulations! So glad you’re still doing this “blogging thing.”
Steve B.
Thanks for reading, Steve!
So happy to have been following you for about 10 years. Yours is always the best thing in my email. Thanks for the many beautiful photos, ideas and funny comments.
Aw, thanks so much, Paula! I’m glad the blog enabled us to meet.
Congratulations, Pam, on the book and the 18 years blogging. Absolutely love the planted couch.
Thank you, Gail! You were one of the earliest bloggers I met — an original Flinger. I’m so glad for that.
Way to go Pam. Can’t wait to see your new book. You always find interesting places and things to write about. Congratulations. Eighteen years blogging and another book- woowhooo
Thanks so much, Janet! I’m glad to know you through blogging.
Congrats on both!
Many thanks, Kirk!
Congratulations on the blogiversary and the new book!
Thank you, Kathy! You continue to inspire with your very long-running blog.
Congratulations on the book and the blogoversary, Pam! It’s been a pleasure to read both over the years, and even more fun to get to know you. Here’s to more garden adventures, blog stories, and writing/reading to come!
Thanks, Beth — and likewise! I’m so glad to know you through blogging and the Fling.
Congrats Pam! Eighteen years is a true milestone! I so enjoy your blog and will always remember going back to the start of your blog when I first met you and reading all of the ones I’d missed. Your trip to Africa with your dad was quite an adventure!
Looking forward to your new book next year too! I bet you are ready for a rest after what it’s taken to get it launched.
Oh wow, yes, that trip to Africa was amazing! It was fun to share about it at Digging — along with so many adventures in gardening land. 🙂 I’m glad the blog enabled me to meet you all those years ago.
Yes still reading! I think my blog started in 2008 I need to check that. Congratulations on your blog and your new book!
Thank you, Cindee! And congrats on your own significant blogging time frame. We’re old-timers! 😉
Congrats and kudos for your “stick-to-it-ive-ness”!! I think as many folks are stepping away from social media, they are returning to blog posts. (I’ve never done any social media, ever, and am healthier for it). And, god forbid that physical books ever go out of style!
Love that paint pallet of color on the palmeto trunk, and isn’t that garden settee a delight?? Hoping your next post will be all those new plants at home in your garden!
Thanks so much! And good point about social media. I know so many people who’ve gotten off Facebook and Instagram. I hope blogs will still be enjoyed by people who believe more is more. 🙂
Congratulations on 18 years AND turning in the manuscript! I am most definitely still reading each and every post on your blog, and appreciate them very much. I’ve only gardened in Texas, and find most of the published gardening articles just don’t apply to our conditions. Your blog is a treasure of applicable information and inspiring photos, and I love how interested you are in design. I can’t wait to see your new book! Thank you for sharing all these years.
Thank you, Maggie! I totally agree that most national gardening articles don’t apply to us here in Texas. It’s partly why I started this blog so many years ago, and it’s why I embarked on the newest book. Anyway, thank you for reading and commenting!
Congratulations on your upcoming book. Keep on blogging! I live in Southern California and find your posts informative for my garden concerns. And I love seeing the garden art by creatives.
That’s great to hear, Esther. Thanks for reading my blog from CA! I love those California gardens. 🙂
Congratulations – on 18 years of sharing garden goodness and on the new book! Can’t wait to get a copy!
Yep, I’m still sharing the goodness! 😉 Thanks for reading and the good wishes, Shelley.
Congratulations on both! Eighteen years is rather impressive, and I am so glad you’re still at it (and I’m still reading!). This year brings my 15th, hard to believe. Like you it still interests me, even while so many others have stopped, or as you say, gone to Instagram. As for the book, I cannot wait to read it. I may not live in Texas, but I love learning about other regions and their gardening styles–which is why the Fling (another of your creations!) is so near and dear to me.
The blogging fire burns steadily for us, doesn’t it, Loree? And 15 years is a long time to be at it too — congrats! I’m so glad to have met you through blogging and the Fling, and I hope to read Danger Garden for many more years.
I may not have been there from the beginning, but I’ve enjoyed reading your blog for a while now: contemplations on gardens you visit and trips you take. Happy 18th anniversary and congratulations on the upcoming book!
Aw, thank you, Chavli!
Congratulations. 18 years and we are still going with our blogs. Well done! I look forward to hearing more about your next book.
And congrats to you on so many years of steady blogging too, Carol! What a journey it’s been. I hope to see you again at the Fling this summer.
Congratulations, Pam! Love your blog and look forward to the book. Let us know when it comes out so I can rush out and buy it.
Thank you, Peter! And oh yes, you (and everyone) will be hearing much more about the book as it gets closer to publication. 🙂
Good work to keep coming up with interesting things to learn about. And that marathon of book research. You have stick to it tiveness up the wazoo. Funny word, that.
Hah! It sure is a funny word. 😉 Thanks for the comment, Jill. I’m glad we finally met in person last year at the Fling.
Pam, yours is one of the few blogs I still read, and I love every word and photo in it. I’ve been with you nearly from the beginning, when I began my own blog in January 2007. As you know, I’ve not written it since 2019, something I regret. I’m glad you are still keeping up.
Congratulations on both your blogiversary and the new book!
Aw, that is so nice to know. Thank you, Kylee! I’m so glad we met through blogging. And I loved your monarch book that (I think) came about through blogging.
Congrats on your Blogaversary and even more important your new book. I can’t wait to read it.
Thank you, Lisa! 🙂
Congratulations on both achievements!
Blogs back to Blotanical days – and a cohort of familiar names from then in your comments.
Your book will be amazing, while I shall enjoy your own garden updates.
Thank you, Diana! I’m glad you’re still blogging too.
Pam, reading your articles since I moved to Texas five years ago. We moved into a new house. The back fence is wrought iron I saw the picture of your tangerine cross vine and I really wanted that for the backyard. have bought four of them and planted them against the wrought iron. Have tied a few vines up. Don’t know if they will cling to the wrought iron or if I need to put some small wire up.Thank you! Diane Black
Thanks for reading my blog, Diane. 🙂 I think loosely tying the vines to the fence will do the trick. Once they reach the top, they’ll be able to ramble on their own.