Want to Meet New Bloggers?

Last week, Angie from Children in the Corn tipped us off to The Growing Challenge, which we promptly signed up for. The Growing Challenge is a contest of sorts being hosted by Melinda of Elements in Time, though this isn't the kind of a challenge where someone gets picked as a winner at the end, and there's not even a very specific goal that can qualify you as "finished."

Basically, the challenge is to grow a fruit or vegetable variety that's new to you and blog about it. Easy! I think most of us are already doing that anyway. Many people who've posted their seed orders mentioned some new stuff that they're trying out, and with the glamourization of heirloom varieties around the blogosphere this time of year, it's hard not to be tempted to try something new. So, since we're already blogging, and we're already planning to grow some new varieties, this is a good incentive to blog about the new stuff we're growing. Part of the reason Kelly and I started this blog was to have sort of a record of our garden, and while it's always amusing to look back and see what stupid thing our chickens did at this time three months ago, that's not going to be entirely helpful when we're planning next year's garden.

But really, I think the best part about Melinda's challenge is the ongoing series of incredibly detalied weekly roundup posts that she's doing, which give a full summary of what all the challenge participants have been up to in the past week. This is the closest thing I've seen to a garden bloggers' carnival, and I like it. It's a great way to find new bloggers; I hardly recognize anyone at Melinda's site, yet they all seem to know each other. And of course, their blogs are all lovely. Even if you don't want to officially join the challenge, this one might be good to follow along with just see what everyone else is growing.