Perhaps? a Peony week? or could be Perennials week?

I recall from somewhere here on ATP where Trish and/or Dave mentioned the mounting effort that goes into a theme week: soliciting articles, calling would be sponsors, finding (or at least looking for) an appropriate guest for their podcast, relevant banners, et cetera, et cetera, and all the logistics that go with them. And that this is the reason we don't have a theme week every week. I agree, we have a SuperDave (and a SuperTrish), but he's not Superman (and she's not Superwoman). I hope we realize that it is all in fun that we are getting a little carried away with some of the suggestions.

I will say, though, that if we ever do have a soils week, I would write article(s) for it.

Good points, Leftwood, and perhaps we can all give some advance thought to how we might each contribute to easing the workload for Trish and Dave. Certainly working on appropriate articles and banners would be a good start.

Bonehead said:

Although I do acknowledge that roses and daylilies are certainly popular, sometimes I feel a bit inundated with information about both. No worries, though, easy enough to skip if I'm not in the mood -- and I do understand the correlation between interest and web traffic.

Glad to hear someone else saying what I've been thinking too

I was surprised when daylilies showed up on the schedule a second time, when there are so many other plants to cover. I know they are popular, a big portion of the database, etc... But I am not sure they need to be covered every year. Especially if there is to be a structure to article topics. It could get repetitive having plants repeat each year, and the article topics repeat as well. For instance, there are a few ways to divide a daylily, like, use a knife or use a screwdriver, or cut with shovel, or rip apart with your hands... But it is still the same principal of get the thing out of the ground and into pieces and then replant. Without following a structure for articles, it allows for topics that might not be covered otherwise. This is for plants that would repeat weeks. I don't think I put into words what I meant very well...

I like the idea of hosta having their own week, separate from shade gardening.

I think one thing to consider is how much it takes to put on a "week" and if ATP has enough people to write articles, and enough forum moderators to manage getting the information together for Trish to go for twice a month. I started asking people about articles, etc for daylily week months ago. You need to consider when the type of plant blooms, or gets divided etc, so your writers have a chance to get pictures to go with their articles.

Lots of good ideas. I like the trees idea. Not sure if a "zones" week or "taking pictures of flowers" week would be feasible... Probably going away from the main theme.

I know these special weeks take a lot of behind the scenes work and it is very much appreciated. As much as I would like to have a daylilies week every year, there are so many other possibilities and I think other people's interests should be considered.

What about doing something like Netflix -- repeat the 2013 daylily week (for example) for those who may be new in 2014 with perhaps a short introduction that this has all been previously presented and is a 'last season's' offering. That would easily allow for 2 weeks per month - one for a new topic and one covered previously. Call it a bonus week or something creative. ??

>> the mounting effort that goes into a theme week

Thanks for the reminder. That surely rules out the idea of multiple simultaneous "weeks".

Maybe we can redirect our interest in things like "Soil Week" or "Vegetable of the Week" into writing blog articles and Ideas and threads. If we have enough material, THEN we could lobby to see whether Cantaloupes or Clay were photogenic enough and popular enough to be a draw to the site.

"Of cabbages and kings ..."

For 2014, we will be concentrating on *plants* for our weeks.

However, we don't need a dedicated "week" in order to run good, informative articles regarding anything having to do with gardening. Soil, compost, and the list is miles long. You write them, I'll publish them

For me, the limiting factors are time and good photos. I'm working several ideas up to the point of readability, but writing concisely takes much longer than just blathering away.

And I haven't figured out the difference, yet, between taking pictures and taking GOOD pictures.

I wish we had enough articles on something like vegetable of the week, without the weeks idea. So we could just have something running in garden ideas periodically. But I don't think Trish has enough Articles to make that happen like this. I could be wrong.

It would involve writing about each different veggies, complete with pictures. Say an article on peppers and going into the different types of peppers from bells to sweet to frying to hot. I know I am not capable of writing it.

Or one on heirloom tomatoes. Well, I hardly ever grow heirloom tomatoes. So again, I would not be writing it. I do grow cucumbers but geez, did you ever see how many different varieties of cucumbers are out there? Most of us home gardeners can only grow a few types each year. And so it goes.

Annoyingly, the 'previous site' owns quite a few of my articles on vegetables. Maybe I should just re-write them....

Rita.....why not start a thread discussing which tomatoes etc. you grew this year and what you thought of them. Were they productive, healthy, eating quality, would you recommend them? Were there some you were disappointed in? I'll bet you will get some discussion.

I like the idea of spring bulbs and a different one on summer bulbs...

Hetty, re-writing your articles is a good idea, maybe change a few words here and there so that it isn't exactly the same, that way the other site can't complain.

Paul, start a thread where? Only a very limited number of people that are on ATP even go to the Vegetables and Preserving forum. And I did post my second annual tomato taste test results (I did one last year also) there on that Forum.

I could do an article on some aspect of tomatoes that I personally grow. Goodness knows I have enough pictures to illustrate. In fact since this discussion started, I am throwing ideas around in my head.

Whether it started as a "Vegetable du Jour" Idea or as a Plant Parent Page, there is a cross-over. An Idea or a thread could be expanded, extracted or edited down into a parent Plant entry.

I wrote an attempt to describes Brassicas in general and attached it as a comment to the Brassica Parent Plant Page.
Brassicas (Brassica)

Now I wish I had written more about how-to-grow, but I don't have enough really successful experience to write that. I'm still trying out things that I read, for example about Chinese cabbage.

It would be great if people who find a vegetable so easy to grow that "there's no reason to talk about it" would talk about how THEY do it.

For example, I learned about starting peas in too-early spring, in too-wet clay, here at ATP, ideas I hadn't seen elsewhere. Besides soaking the peas overnight before planting:

1. keep them on damp paper towels or coffee filters until the rootlet emerges, then rush each sprouted pea into the ground within 12 hours of seeing the radicle.

2. actually start them indoors in deep cells and just transplant them gently

3. You can grow peas in pots! A pot sitting on blacktop is warmer than cold, wet clay even if the clay is in a raised bed.

Dutchlady1 said:Annoyingly, the 'previous site' owns quite a few of my articles on vegetables. Maybe I should just re-write them....

Hetty, definitely redo them.

mcash70 said:Hetty, re-writing your articles is a good idea, maybe change a few words here and there so that it isn't exactly the same, that way the other site can't complain.

I agree. Re -do them, tweak them some so that they are not totally the same. Add some pictures.

We can make veggies week happen if we all work at it and get good articles to Trish.

jmorth said:I like the idea of spring bulbs and a different one on summer bulbs...

I like the bulbs idea too but not sure if there is enough interest to split them or not.