When you don't feel good, it is hard to push yourself to do things that are not absolutely necessary for the family. Ask me how I know. Just knowing that y'all have battled "the bug" is reason enough for you to have pulled back on your ATP work. I do agree with those that say the fall/winter months are absolutely the best months to catch up on reading your published articles. And those articles will always be there to reference if/when necessary.

Thank you all for your concern We've been a few weeks bug free, so I'm hopeful that we're in the clear for the year.

Thank you all for speaking up about the need for things in the winter.
While I (obviously) am more like Sandy (I tend to go "dormant" gardening-wise during the cold months), I also fully understand the additional free time to read articles. The numbers agree with me A spring article will be read by 5x or more people than one published in Dec or Jan. As an article writer, I wouldn't want the publisher just to throw up my article just because there is time on the calendar knowing it won't be read. On the other hand, it did make the whole site look a little dormant- obviously not my intention...but like I said....best laid plans and all of that.

I loved the voting this year, and plan to continue that! Also, the seedling challenge is a great idea (along with the seeds). Rerunning some of the oldest articles that new members haven't seen, and any other idea I and/or we come up with will certainly fill up the winter next year!

Personally, though I have been a subscriber to ATP for four years, I probably have not read the majority of articles published during those years. Re-running those that y'all deem worthy (in the fall/winter months) is a good idea. There are probably many dozen articles that would fall into that category. And, for you and Dave, it would be an easy "do". No proof-reading and no editing.

Heck, I occasionally have a new subscriber T-Mail me to tell me that they had just read such and such article that I wrote two or more years ago and how much they enjoyed it. How many new subscribers have there been over the last two years who don't have a clue how to find these past-published articles?

What I really need are motivational articles to inspire me to clean my house and get my other indoor projects done before gardening starts up again!

I'd love motivational articles for the same reason as Sandy! Yesterday I washed some outdoor windows just to see how well Rain X worked at repelling rain and snow. It worked perfectly on the car, probably because it's in the garage!

That I can't help you with.

Trish, When you start the articles again my suggestion would be do what tv does. From mid-Dec maybe even mid-Nov do reruns through the new year. That may relieve some work to you and allow newbies the chance to see the older articles.

Late to the conversation but I've also missed seeing the daily articles and tips. Been sitting on a couple of ideas, wondering what's up and recently went to look on the "Calendar of Events" to find it empty.

I wasn't too worried though, since Dave and Trish are always working on something new and exciting around here!

Okay, off to do some article writing.

P.S. That bug showed up here too! And it was a Bad one!!

Have I missed the results of the favorite shade garden plant?

I agree with Ken in that there are a lot of new members who haven't had a chance to read all the wonderful articles from the past. Reruns are perfect for that!

No, Paul- I haven't done that one yet.

For the future, some of the downside might be taken off the "re-runs" if they are flagged with some icon or tag line like "Oldie but Goldie" or "Perennial Favorite".

Maybe re-runs could be given less real estate on the home page than new articles.

Even "First published in 2012" on the home page would tell old-timers they might be re-reading.

Heck, with my memory, that would be the only way to be SURE I had read it once before.

It's all good, Rick -- we can re-read the articles and learn new things (again)

It's putting the good advice into USE that is the slowest step for me.

Amen to that. But I will remember reruns, if not by title, by the first paragraph.

The old articles are already displayed less prominently as "Randon Ideas" so maybe when no recent articles are being promoted, the older "Randon Ideas" could be more prominently displayed.

That sound like a good idea, is there any way to search it?

I can't find the "right" way to get to it, but here is a link to "Random Stuff".

Each time you go there, you see a different random photo or two and a random idea.

http://garden.org/rand.php

Here's a tip if you're as lazy as I am: once you get there, you can just hit "Refresh" and you get anothert set of random stuff. In my browser, "Shift F5" is "Refresh".

The second item on the left-hand side of any page on the site says "Ideas and Articles." Click on that link. You'll see pages and pages of ideas and articles, and on the left-hand side at the top, you'll see a box saying "Search Ideas." Enter whatever topic interests you. Or just pick a page at random and look through the articles on that page. I'm sure you'll find something you want to read.

Or... you can just scroll down the home page a little ways and look at the left-hand side, where you can see "random plant," "random multi-plant," and "random idea" (complete with a photo for each one).