Slackin' on my posts

Hey, gang of probably dwindling loyal readers. I'm been a baaaaaaaad boy at keeping this blog fed. It's a good news/bad news story but I'll lay it out for you.

After humble beginnings a few years ago, my Garden Wise Guy blog has become the seed for what's turning into a real writing career. I retire from my 22 year gig as landscape architect for Santa Barbara and will be spending a lot more time at the keyboard.

From little blogs, big writing trees have grown--a veritable copse, no, more like a grove, NO, make that a forest! Aside from a bi-weekly blog at Santa Barbara-centric Edhat.com, I had, until recently, been freelance writing for two magazines in the Santa Barbara area. That's been good for building my writing chops, and just as I found out I was being laid off (I'm choosing to call it "retire" since I qualify for a pension) doors have sprung open and the welcome mat is saying "hello."

Long story short. I've been hired by Fine Gardening Magazine to contribute to their web site under the "brand" of Cool Green Gardens. It's a column about sustainable landscaping from a Left Coast perspective and I get to rant just like I rant here. Not to brag too much, but a recent design article on curing "one-of-each-itis" got 10,000 hits in two weeks. "Speechless" is all I can say.

So, as you can see, with two "real" writing jobs, a consulting practice to ramp up, drumming with King Bee and a new teaching position at the local community college (I get to teach landscape design!), it's hard to keep this blog well fed.

This blog has become a repository for click-throughs to my other writing. Hopefully, you'll still find it convenient to stop by here first, then venture out along the cyber-tendrils. If not, find me directly through these links below...

Time to pimp my new articles.


One at Fine Gardening is about a laid-off economist who's going back to school to study garden design. Very inspirational. If you come by, I'll love to read your comments.


And the most recent Edhat, Miracle on San Andres St., is near and dear to me, celebrating the greatest project I've had the good fortune to manage in my career. It's the story of an art-filled oasis in one of Santa Barbara's less-seen neighborhoods. There's also a link to a photo-essay at Flickr.

Later, skaters.

Twittering My Way To A National Audience

"What a freakin' waste of time! Why don't you do something with your life, you Twidiot?" Don't think I haven't run that internal dialog a few times in the last couple of months. A few of my writing buddies introduced me to Twitter when I was at the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show recently, so I checked it out.

If you're not in the know, Twitter is a cross between text messaging (maximum of 140 characters and spaces) and Facebook. You build a community, stick your nose in other people's business and figure out how to write War and Peace in pithy little abbreviations and unintelligible bits and pieces. If you have the Twitter app on your iPhone, like I do, you also walk into the occasional tree while walking Biff the Wonder Spaniel.

Long story short: Kate Frank, web editor for Fine Gardening Magazine, hangs out at Twitter with the same horticulture and garden crowd me and our paths crossed. After a few e-mails and conversations, I was asked to become a regular contributor to Fine Gardening's blog. I'll be writing about garden design and sustainability with a Left Coast perspective. She says Taunton gave her the job of loosening things up a bit. I'll be helping her accomplish her mission. I can make the stretch.

Little did I know that when I started this blog about 125 postings ago, I'd get to a national audience. I just thought I'd pontificate from time to time and rant about some of the ugly crap that passes for landscapes in my community.

So please pop over to Fine Gardening, click on Blogs (or that link) and read me! My column is called: Sustainable Landscaping: Cool Green Gardens by Billy Goodnick. What would be super-groovy is if you leave a comment. You'll need to register, but it's easy-peasy and non-invasive).

I'm hoping to start with a bang and need my peeps to show their love.

AllTop - The One-Stop Blog Shop

I'm not sure how my blog was found, but I was thrilled to get an e-mail from none other than Guy Kawasaki last week (that link to the left takes you to some fun facts at Wiki). If you're an Apple user and have followed the world of Mac computers from the early days, you'll know that Guy was "the guy" charged with developing and marketing these amazing, transformational machines. He's known as the Mac Evangelist for good reason and has a fascinating life story.

Guy was writing to announce that this blog (along with a whole bunch of others) was going to be displayed at a new website called Alltop.com (short for All Topics). I clicked over to the site and realized I had to spread the word to any and all on-line readers and my fellow bloggers.

As their Purpose Statement says...

"We help you explore your passions by collecting stories from “all the top” sites on the web. We’ve grouped these collections — “aggregations” — into individual Alltop sites based on topics such as environment, photography, science, Muslim, celebrity gossip, military, fashion, gaming, sports, politics, automobiles, and Macintosh. At each Alltop site, we display the headlines of the latest stories from dozens of sites and blogs."

The site is broken into a mind-boggling cornucopia of topics (including gardens) which then link to a directory of all the blogs on that topic. It took me about an hour to find my way out, as one rabbit hole seems to seamlessly connect to the next.

I have three connections to Guy, and each speaks volumes about a truly amazing man: (1) He's a close friend of a dear friend who used to baby-sit his kids. Her stories about her early days with Guy are always shared with a blend of excitement about the heady days of Silicon Valley and the reverence for a kind and wise soul; (2) He wrote a fabulous book called "The Art of the Start" that I read to bolster my knowledge about starting a new business and exploring the world of venture capital. Even if you have no interest in starting a business or non-profit, Guy's approach to how to deal with and respect people is worth the read (and it's drop-dead funny, too). (3) I'm a fully-immersed Mac user and can't imagine a life that tethered me to a Gates-World PC.

So please click over for a visit. Alltop.com

My 45 Minutes of Fame – From a Humble Blog

If Andy Warhol was correct - that "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes" – I’m multiplying by three this week. Though this posting won’t be about my typical subjects, I know that a lot of my readers are fellow garden bloggers. It’s looking like writing is starting to expand my landscape architectural business considerably, so perhaps this bit of recent history will encourage some of you to expand your blogging talents in the pursuit of a higher profile writing endeavor.

I just got my third writing gig, this time for an eclectic on-line publication that caters to our little paradise of Santa Barbara. Edhat.com is a collection of local news stories, goofy contests, pet of the week stories, photo galleries, and special events coverage for my home town. Just who Ed is remains a mystery, but the misty legend continues to be a source of mystery for well-funded researchers.

I started this Garden Wise Guy blog just over a year ago, in May, 2007. Part of my motivation was to increase my consulting work and thanks to blogger Susan Harris at GardenRant, I realized that I was actually a garden coach. I was pretty much done with full-service landscape architectural services and needed to cultivate a more light-footed approach. Blogging seemed like a great was to do some guerilla marketing with zero dollar outlay.

About the same time, my Garden Wise Guys TV-show partner, Owen Dell, and I became the subject of Coastal Woman magazine, a regional publication geared toward entrepreneurial women. Owen and I were featured as “The Men We Love” (strictly platonic). We had an absolute blast during the interview with writer Nancy Shobe. After getting a few blog posts under my belt, I asked Nancy for a critique of my blog.

Lo and behold, she told me that the publisher of Coastal Woman had been considering a garden column and suggested I get in touch with her. Two e-mails later, I was writing “The Garden Coach” in exchange for advertising. 800 words of clever landscaping advice in exchange for thousands of eyeballs viewing my ad seemed like a no-brainer. The phone started ringing and jobs were coming my way.

Meanwhile, Owen, who’s even busier than I am, referred another local magazine publisher to me. Santa Barbara Homeowner is a mostly-advertising mag that’s direct-mailed to select zip codes in our area, offering materials and services for (you’ll never guess) homeowners. “Could you give me 1000 words every two months? Something that help people tackle their own landscape projects? And have fun with it.” said James Kappen, publisher. So far, I’ve tackled the topic of the role of color in the landscape, how to figure out the best landscape style for your home, and a few other subjects. I get a half-page ad and, again, the phone’s been ringing. Great, adventurous clients, too!

Yesterday, Edhat launched my first article. It’s just a quick “hello, this is who I am, here’s what I’ll be writing about.” But Ed has quite a tolerance for tall tales, bizarre facts and tongue-in-cheek satire. I think I’m up to it. My reward? A banner ad and links to my blog and business web site.

The challenge is finding three “voices” for three very different audiences. Needless to day, I’ve been spending some time at the local independent bookstore browsing and buying books about writing. We’ll see if it rubs off on my blogging.

So pop by a few of the sites and think about how blogging can not only link you to a world of amazing people, but put a few bucks in your bank account without having to sell vitamin supplement ads at your site.