For that matter, Cinda, we could all just randomly start threads about herbs we are interested in - it doesn't have to be limited to one/week. In that case, it might be good to devote each week to a specific alphabet letter. So many to talk about!

I agree -- and it probably isn't necessary to stick to one letter of the alphabet per week or whatever, either; for one thing, you KNOW that there will be people who don't realize that's the plan and all of the carefully thought-out organization will go right out the window

How right you are, and what does it matter? Maybe we just start throwing threads out there and see how it goes... Sometimes less organization is better than more.

I'll go start one as an experiment. Here it is: The thread "Artemisia abrotanum - Southernwood" in Herbs forum

The idea of Herb of the week was not to stifle any other threads from anyone who wants to start one . It was to have an ongoing topic for an extended time and maybe covering some lesser known herbs.
I have been to forums that seem to die out because of everyone gets ''talked out '' in the first couple months and the place seems abandoned.

gardengus said:The idea of Herb of the week was not to stifle any other threads from anyone who wants to start one . It was to have an ongoing topic for an extended time and maybe covering some lesser known herbs.
I have been to forums that seem to die out because of everyone gets ''talked out '' in the first couple months and the place seems abandoned.

Very true about how forums can just kind of fizzle out... in fact, I believe that's what happened with the original herb forum, so it would be a really good thing to have a plan that would keep people interested. It does seem to me as though that would be the job of the forum moderator; maybe Cinda could be a co-moderator to help out with that? And, of course, anyone else could (and presumably would) also start threads. Might not need to actually be an "herb of the week" sort of thing in that case... just to make sure that a thread about a new herb gets started at least once a week.

I'm all for co-moderators but I'm not sure I like the idea of one or two people being responsible for keeping people interested in the forum. It should be something we all want and strive to achieve together. Maybe we could have a sign up thread and people could volunteer for a week and state the herb they would like to share and receive information about. We could also have a thread that has a list of what herbs have been done and a link to that thread and it could be a sticky or not depending on what you all think.

I think the sticky sounds great
Maybe something on the line of the first post you could edit to be something like this
Sign UP to SPOTLIGHT A
Herb of the week

10- 29- 15 SAGE - gardengus

11-8 -15 FENNEL - bonehead

and the following posts would be people picking and signing up for an herb??

Hmmm, kinda hard to assign an herb to a specific person for a thread. Might get confusing and then go off in every direction.
We could go forever on the topic of herbs.There are a lot!
I'm not a great moderator, but I think there are so many herbs, why not just let everyone chime in with their own topic of the day and go from there?

I rather just did that. Hoping others will post their favs and we can just start conversations as they will. Less organization is always better for me.

Yes, much easier.
I do Like herbs, but I would like to know more about some plants like cinnamon, allspice, clove and others.
Maybe a spice bush forum......(.I know, I'm trouble)

Maybe this forum could include both herbs and spices ? I'm sure Dave would change the name if we requested that.

Wow, we sure would learn a lot!
I can't wait to start up a small herbal/spice garden.
Ooops, did I say small?

Bring on the spice! Fits well in this forum I'd say. I don't grow any, but would certainly be interested in learning about them. Cinnamon in particular.

Cinnamon - Yes! Basil, for the winter stews and soups, also just for the aroma near a window. Allspice is easy to grow. Neighbors of mine had an Allspice bush that I researched for them. They didn't know what it was. That was upstate, N.Y.
There are so many. I wonder if we can grow nutmeg in the states. Aside from the hothouse, I mean. I guess I could "Google" these things, but then we wouldn't have a chat group. Lol.

I thought we could do a whole thread on spices, so started one here: The thread "Spice it up..." in Herbs forum Come join the discussion!