Wanted to talk about the comment made by Victor Flaherty at my post titled, There is no nursery industry. He has found out it's hard to get people to pool together for advertising. Out of 10 independent garden centers in the Huston area only one, besides his own has committed. Everyone wants to wait and see what happens. This is why it's even harder to get a national campaign together.

He is what I am doing. Writing this blog and getting involved with other bloggers. I have met and talked to people who I would have never conversed with before. This is good as it has opened up worlds of possibilities. Bloggers are a small proportion of the population. Never the less they are some of the most intellectually curious people around. That's why they blog. Same goes for gardening professionals who blog. They are the people I most want to connect with. They will be the ones that have the new ideas that will reinvent what we do for the better.

Because of that I feel that we will connect without much effort. That's what I love about this medium. The unexpected consequences that occur when you just get out and participate. Rather than trying to get a group that will commit on some plan of action, let's organize a group that will allow the free exchange of ideas among like minded individual's.

How to start?

1. Start a blog separate from your customer oriented website or blog. Start one where you can talk about the things that interest or worry you in our businesses. It can be separate from you company website if so inclined. Posting doesn't have to be frequent.

2. Start reading blogs.

3. Link to the blogs you like.

4. Visit blogs that you like. Become involved in the discussions going on and comment when so moved. After a while they may link to your site because you showed an interest, communicate honestly, and they like what you have to say. Sometimes blog owners just forget to tend to the blog roll. If not at that point it's o.k. to ask. There is a new category at my blogroll, "garden center or nursery related websites."

5. Now we are linked together. By visiting Technorati or subscribing to the blogs feed you will be able to keep up on what's going on and who's saying what.

6. Visit the Golden Gecko Garden Forum. Register and use the “Business of Gardening Section” We created it for those of us in the garden businesses.

7. Now let simmer.

I am filled with ideas and hope from the commenter's at this blog. Everyone wants to do something. We are just not necessarily in agreement on what needs to be done. That's fine. The first step has begun, we are beginning to find one another because of our mutual interests. I think the key is just putting ideas out there and seeing what transpires. Everyone wants to speed things up, since we are all getting a little spoiled by the immediacy of the web. This is just the beginning.