Introducing Garden Showcase!

Welcome, everyone! We’re excited to introduce you to our new project – Garden Showcase.

Our goal for Garden Showcase is to make an easier way for DG users to share pictures and info about their gardens and browse through other gardens that interest them.

To access this section, go to: www.davesgarden.com/showcase/

The Garden Showcase is in beta - so we are open to any suggestions for improving this product!

This message was edited Dec 19, 2012 6:26 PM

This message was edited Jan 19, 2013 5:23 PM

One more tip about testing: we are optimizing the website for all major browsers, but we recommend testing in Firefox while we finish tweaking it for the others.

loved the showcase. what first comes to mind is a family of blogs. Rather than click on each one, I just go to this forum and make appropriate selections. which is great b/c I'm not particularly interested in Minnesota gardens (no offense people) but FL , CA, etc. yes. Love it! rather than searching all over the web, I just go here. Also, from the little I can see, it not too wordy. On some blogs, some people LOVE to write endlessly, aimlessly, and I have no patience for that. little snippets is good. If I want more, I guess I contact garden owner ?

I couldn't get to the questionnaire as every time I click on "get started" it redirects me to easyonline school or something. I have to be on IE.

Im impressed and thankful, this has taken an inmense amout of work, all for our enjoyment. I already picked up two ideas I'm going to copy and this is just the test!

Some comments as I start to create an album for the first time...
1) Climate Type - it is not possible to pick multiple categories. I realize this is not the intent but the categories seem a bit limited and mutually-exclusive with respect to the following case: My area is both "Temperate and Continental" and also "Arid/semi-arid" but I can only pick one of these.
2) Soil Type - why are neutral and alkaline lumped together ("Neutral/Alkaline") when "Acid" is a separate category?
3) Photo loading - the "drag and drop" feature is terrific!
4) "Say something about this picture" - in this section, the html codes for italics, etc. don't seem to work properly, or at least not the same way as they do in the rest of the site. For example, I attempted to put a latin plant name in italics but the entire text shows up in italics instead of just the binomial. On another photo, I did the same and instead of the binomial showing up in italics, the html codes still show (< i >...) so either I am doing something wrong or it seems to work erratically. It would be nice if this feature (or better yet, the entire site) was updated to include buttons for italics, bold, underline, etc. rather than requiring use of the html codes in order to be able to use proper grammar.
5) It doesn't seem possible to enlarge a picture while creating an album except for the purpose of "tagging". It would be nice if the enlargement was greater when tagging, e.g. an option for the photo to fill the screen perhaps?
6) "Tagging" - It won't accept my species names, e.g. Rheum rhizostachyum and Scutellaria hypericifolia and says "Can't save note". It seems to want to pull from a rather limited, pre-loaded list of species which are (unfortunately) ordered by common name, rather than alphabetically by latin names. The plant name box is too narrow to see the full plant name (common name plus latin name).

That's all for now. I'll try doing some other things later.
This will be a lot of fun for people to use after the little bugs have been worked out - great effort, everyone and thanks!!

This message was edited Dec 30, 2012 1:01 PM

This message was edited Dec 30, 2012 1:43 PM

Love the whole concept of this but not really happy with the photo upload...drop and drag doesn't work for me in FF and choosing one pic at a time is a pain. After each upload I have to go back and reopen the folder my pics are in, taking way to much time.

I think it will be fun to look through everyone's gardens...I'll have to play with it when I have more time.

This is just the beginning...when the entries start pouring in, it should be a huge resource and we hope an inspiration for gardeners around the world.

Great idea! I love it!

Nice!! I get so many ideas looking at other people's gardens, thanks!

I just dropped a mess from 2012 onto the showcase. Somehow they loaded in reverse order, but think that might have been me. Not sure how to change it. I wanted to do them by earliest date to latest. It will be easier to start a new one for 2013 and add photo's as I take them. Patti

Thank you Alison Rose.

How do I remove a photo from my album? Patti

This is fantastic!
For now i will browse but soon i will attempt to set up my showcase.

Thank you so much for providing such a wonderful service!

How is "drop and drag" supposed to work? Seems self explanatory I know but it's not working for me. Do my pics have to be in an online account such as Picasa or photo bucket?

Love this idea! Thank you. I could spend all day looking at pictures like this.

Figured out how to delete after one is posted so ignore my ?. Having fun, but people may get bored of me. Patti

Patti - sorry your question got buried, but I"m glad you figured it out :-)

Thanks. Wish I could get my photo's to load with my already entered captions so I don't have to reload them. Probably me. I use Picasa 3. Patti

It seems like you are re-promoting an area of DG that has been there and is being refurbished. You guys have done a great job rebuilding it!


respectfully.

David

This message was edited Jan 23, 2013 6:48 AM

This message was edited Jan 24, 2013 8:32 AM

I like this idea. I have seen some views of others gardens and would love to be able to see them more fully and ask what certain plantsare that I see and will they grow here. Although most of western NC is in Zone 7, our area is in zone 6. I'd like to see some gardens for the Southern Appalachians including western VA, NC and Northwest GA.

This message was edited Jan 30, 2013 10:25 AM

DavidofDeLand, Our garden was part of the Garden Conservancy Tour last summer. The day before the event, I was invited to a luncheon to meet the other people whose gardens were on the tour. At first, I couldn't figure out who all the people were at this gathering as I knew that there were only 7 gardens on the tour. Then one lady introduced me to her Landscape Architect and to her Head gardener and 2 of her staff and so it went with them all the people there. I was the only one with dirty finger nails, as I was the only one there who came alone with no help in tow.

My only help is my DH who was at home finishing up some last minute weeding and didn't have time to take a break before the hordes arrived the next morning. We ended up having nearly 300 paying visitors, all with questions. The only help we have are the guys who mow the lawn when needed and the 3 guys who we hire to help us spread the mulch for 2 days each spring. I do have a friend from Brooklyn who comes to visit on occasion who loves to prune and cut down dead trees, but I pay him with room and board. I wish I had more friends like him. I also included lots of pictures of our two other helpers, Nell and Winnie, 9 year old sister border collies who dig way too many holes in all the wrong places, but are greatly adored.

Back to downloading more photo's and enjoying everyone's gardens. I have already found some nice ideas to copy. This is kind of like that great site Houzz for interior design and decorating ideas which I use often. Patti

This message was edited Jan 22, 2013 11:17 PM

I am having trouble editing a new album.

It would be far better to be able to download an album that could be edited totally before it was listed for the other DG users. I have to go through and add information about each photo and I would like to do that before it is seen by the community at large.

Tonight I am having trouble as it seems to not be working. I can't edit my latest one. The save and exit doesn't seem to be working either. Patti

Let me reiterate and suggest everyone who posts on the Showcase identify what their plants are. I saw a beautiful picture of some morning glories with something else blooming with them but don't know what the other vining orangey flowers were.

Well I left some comments a few days ago on individual photos and they don't show up. Seems only if I make a comment on the whole album they show up.
Anyway have enjoyed the photos, and agree wish I knew what some were.

Woodspirit is exactly right: tagging your plants is CRUCIAL - please be sure to go back through your albums and tag the ones you know the names of. Pretty please???

Yes, the search depends on at least adding details such as zone and type of garden. Your albums won't show up in a search if you don't add some details. And of course folks searching for specific plants depend on you tagging your plants.

A few qestions about this beta site.

I have been entering the information about plants as for example

Tulip Division 3 - Triumph Tequila Sunrise
but it shows up on the screen as this (all small letters)
tulip division 3 - triumph tequila sunrise
or

Narcissus Division 10 - Bulbocodium Hybrids cantabricus
but shows up as (all small letters)
narcissus division 10 bulbocodium hybids cantabricus

Not sure why my entry is changed but this might want to be fixed as Genus should start with a cap while species in small and cultivar with a cap etc.

Please explain how to use "tag" feature.

Also who has access to these shots?

Can there be a way to sort the shots once they are already in an album? That would be nice.

My biggest request is to be able to download a working album to edit and tweak before it goes onto the DG site. Back to playing with it some more. Patti

We're aware of the capitalization issue and that is being addressed.

To tag an image, open the Edit Album option.
You'll see the 'Tag' icon at the bottom of each image in your album.
Click that.

The image will open up on the page.
Right click your mouse over the plant you want to tag. (like you'd tag an image on Facebook)
A window will pop up and you can start typing either the botanical or common name of the plant.

A scroll slide will appear and the system suggests possible options.
Select the proper name for your plant and click on it.
That name will appear in the top section.

If your plant has a cultivar name, you can then drill down on the cultivar section and select the plant's cultivar name.
Once that is done, you can click on another plant in that image and repeat the tagging process.

When you're done, click the Done Tagging button at the bottom of the page and save your work.
You can go back in at any point and continue to add tags.

I'm copying this to its own post for others to see too.

Thanks. Patti